Bizet's Carmen at the Proms yields two names to watch
PROM 52 Bizet Carmen from Glyndebourne. Cast; Glyndebourne Festival Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra / Anja Bihlmaier (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London, 29.08.2024
Production:
Director – Diane Paulusi
RAH semi-staging – Adam Torrence
Cast:
Carmen – Rihan Chaieb
Don José – Evan LeRoy Johnson
Micaëla – Janai Brugger
Escamillo – Łukasz Goliński
My last two Carmens occurred in the space of a month, in April 2023, the Royal Opera’s fully staged production directed by Damiano Michieletto, and, the finest of all, Aziz Shokhakhimov’s stunning concert performance in Strasbourg with a cast including Michael Spyres, Elsa Dreisig and Florie Valiquette.
Fast forward a year and a bit to the Royal Albert Hall, and the annual Glyndebourne night: Carmen, an opera that has bookended the 2024 Glyndebourne season, initially from May 16 – June 17, then August 1-24. Conductor Anja Bihlmaier, dressed in something like a circus master’s costume, conducted, with Rihab Chaieb as the titular (anti-)heroine; she shared the role in Glyndebourne with the global Carmen-du-jour, Aigul Akhmentshina.
Carmen is a truly great opera, its eternal status misaligned into a potboiler through a plethora of opera excerpt discs and broadcast snippets. As Shokhakhimov’s Strasbourg performance resolutely proved, though, there is not a weak moment in the entire score. The conception is almost symphonic, the tragic close both logical and soul-shredding in its inevitability. There was little of that feeling of the vast and he significant in Bihlmaier’s reading, however; he long-range vision was missing. Overall, the ochestral playing was generally accurate, but lacked Shokakhimov’s laser attack
The semi-staging at the Proms of Diane Paulus’ production was managed by Adam Terrance. The stage space was used effectively, with much use of front and back, and dialogue between the two. One assumes the costumes, as at Glyndebourne, were by Evie Gurney, but the Proms booklet did not state that explicitly. The setting was necessarily vague, and much of the full staging was lost (I believe the factory ladies have their break in what looks like a prison courtyard, of which there was no hint). Military attire for the men implies a regime where suppression and brutality is rife (exemplified by the testosterone-driven, cardboard cut-out Escamillo). This appears to be modern wartime, with a decidedly revolutionary slant (a repeated gesture of a fist high in the air at every mention of ‘Liberté' seemed symptomatic of this). The idea of the bullfight watched by a chorus with back to the audience works; Carmen’s visceral demise by strangulation by a necktie is similaly effective.
Singing was decidedly variable. The Chorus first, usually excellent in my experience but here lacking that stunning attack heard via the Strasbourg forces. The solo star of the evening was the Carmen, Tunisian-born Canadian mezzo Rihab Chaieb, who is clearly maximising her exposure to the part (she sings Carmen and Carnival with Dudamel in Los Angeles in September, separated by a run as Fenena Nabucco for Canadian Opera Company). No Akhmetshina-lite, this was a fully-lived performance. Her mezzo is deliciously ripe in its lower register, something Bizet relishes exploring. She is agile enough for the ‘Danse bohème,' for sure, but it was her ‘Séguidille’ that was so caressing, so convincing – and it all came from the voice. Hers is a three-dimentional Carmen, a lived Carmen.
As her lover Don José, American tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson, was hardly her match. His repertoire takes in the big tenor roles (Rodolfo for San Francisco, Pinkerton for the Royal Danish Opera and Lensky Onegin for Canadian Opera Company, all recent). All the more surprising then that his voice seemed on the light side until the Flower Song, as if he were saving himself. but such an approach sits in direct opposition to Bizet’s large-range processes.
This Glyndebourne production deliberately aims for a one-dimensional Escamillo, fully delivered by Łukasz Goliński Ironically, in a different production from Zürich reviewed on Seen and Heard International by my colleague Michael Fisher, Golínski was criticised for not quite discharging ‘the full load of testosterone the role has to offer’; he gave it a good go here, his Toreador Song solid, his voice always powerful throughout, his posturing as bullfighter dramatically convincing.
The Micaëla, Janai Brugger, had a strong start in the early scenes of the opera, but lost some focus later on. Of the lesser roles, two stand out: the superb Frasquita of Elisabeth Boudreault (named by CBC as one of that organisation’s '30 hot classical musicians’ in 2021 - I am sure they mean ‘hot’ in the sense of full of talent). She has already sung Frasquita elsewhere (Kingdom Lyric Art Society), and here, her voice positively shone. She was well matched by the Mércèdes of mezzo Kezia Bienek, but there remains something extra-special about Boudreault. The other name to watch, also making his Proms debut, is Loïc Félix offering a Le Dancaïre that positively dominated the stage.
I have to mention also the spectacular dancers, the epitome of energy and yet so anonymous in the programme.
Microphones were used to amplify dialogue, which is fine, but on the subject of audibility the off-stage trumpets seemed far too distant, almost inaudible, in the hall (they come off better in the broadcast). Ensemble moments were generally well managed, if not 100% consistently.
For all of the power of Chaleb’s title role, this was a mixed Carmen. I should be pleased to hear Chaieb again, though; ditto for Boudreault (very much so) and Félix.