Opera review: Worth waiting for, as long-delayed Carmen debuts in Dublin
Paula Murrihy (Carmen) in Carmen at Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin. Picture: Ruth Medjber
★★★★☆
Irish National Opera haven’t had a bad pandemic, delivering a host of projects online and in various formats in keeping with the restrictions we’ve been dealing with the last two years. But there was a celebratory mood at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre as full-scale opera returned and the curtain went up on a production of Carmen that was cancelled in March 2020 in what turned out to be the long shadow of Covid.
And you could hardly ask for a more fitting return. As Carmen has it, “Le ciel ouvert, la vie errante, la liberté! la liberté!" – this slice of escapism is exactly what we’ve all been missing. It’s impossible not to imagine oneself drinking those manzanillas by the ramparts of Seville.
With all those Spanish touchstones, not to mention the gypsies and bullfights, Carmen, as familiar as it is, risks drowning in cliche. Paul Curran maintains the local flavour; after all, Bizet’s sound world is so evocative, it’s hard not to visualise the thing being evoked. But he moves the action to the 1950s, allowing Gary McCann’s design and costumes to add rich texture and detail – swing dresses for the women, pomade, motorbikes and leather for the bullfighter Escamillo and co. Good fun. One can almost feel the dust and sunshine in his Act I town square, while the smugglers’ hideout of Act III is a particularly striking piece of 20th-century urban gothic.
In Curran’s hands the ensemble scenes are particularly enjoyable, full of wit, movement and ideas. There’s a touch of the madcap at times, but the full breadth of Bizet’s music comes through, with pin-drop stillness when Celine Byrne’s Michaela sings the moving Je dis, que rien ne m'épouvante, the highlight of the evening.
The title role is played by mezzo Paula Murrihy. You need more than just voice to deliver a fully formed Carmencita, of course, and Murrihy has all the presence and rhythm needed in her playful, irrepressible, spirited, and irreverent incarnation. Don Jose is played by tenor Dinyar Vania with an almost pitiable simplicity. Here’s a man on the road to tragedy, unmoored from the dull and dutiful life he’s suited for by the seductive Carmen. However, his sheer ordinariness deprives him of agency and, thus, his interactions with Carmen of much drama. Laughter at his frequent concerns for his mother often undercuts his scenes.
The National Opera Orchestra are in fine form under conductor Kenneth Montgomery, with a rounded, warm sound in the strings delivering the constant stream of foot-tappers in Bizet’s superhumanly catchy score. The chorus, meanwhile, is full of the necessary oomph.
The wanton violence of the finale is more problematic than ever, and stands in stark contrast to the rest of this production. Some recent interpretations have flipped the femicidal script, but not here; however, that downbeat note cannot subdue a hugely enjoyable production.
- Ends Saturday
