La Tragédie de Carmen
A.J.FLETCHER OPERA INSTITUTE, UNCSA (2016)
National Opera Association Award (2017): 1st Place in Category 5
photos courtesy of Peter Mueller
LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN by Georges Bizet/Marius Constant/Peter Brook
based on the novella by Prosper Merimée
Conductor: Neal Goren
Cast: M. Arnold, L. Mecher, Schuler/Cleaveland, C. Montá, S. Peterson, P. Scully, C. Jackson, A. Reid
Production: La Meira (choreography), D. Girard (Stage Combat), D. Vandenberg (scenery), D. Austin (clothes), P. Angle (lighting) W. Drescher (hair/make-up), J. Raynor (sound)
In his directing debut for the Fletcher Opera Institute, Muni, the company’s new artistic director, has unleashed a “Carmen” that is ferocious and full-blooded. Using Spain in the aftermath of Franco’s victory in 1940 as the opera’s setting puts the gypsy Carmen’s reckless behavior into sharp relief. Contrasting Carmen’s and Don Jose’s irrational passion with a repressive regime supports the intensity of this stripped-down version of the story of doomed love. All of the action takes place in an abandoned bullfighting ring, and the ruins appear substantial: there is a well where Carmen bathes and thick walls and pillars, and the “ground” extends nearly to the front row of the audience. No scene changes disrupt the flow of action and the lovers’ inexorable progress to destruction.
– Lynn Felder, Winston Salem Journal (April, 2016)