 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Asmik Grigorian – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Virginia Rota) |
Bizet: Carmen; Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Davide Luciano, director: Gabriela Carrizo, Utopia Orchestra, conductor: Teodor Currentzis; Salzburg Competition on the Grosses Festspielhaus
Reviewed 8 August 2026
Shorn of dialogue & with an added dance aspect, this experimental manufacturing created a remarkably dark-toned Carmen with fierce undertones resulting in an astonishing ultimate scene.
With Carmen, Bizet left us with one thing of a conundrum. Not that the opera is incomplete, however first off what does Bizet’s ultimate model of the opera include? A brand new version by Paul Prevost for Bärenreiter publishes all surviving variations of fabric thus permitting firms to decide on. Although it needs to be identified that Bizet revealed his personal ultimate vocal rating of the piece.
Then there’s the spoken dialogue. Earlier than his dying, Bizet had signed a contract with the Court docket Opera in Vienna, so he clearly meant to supply sung recitatives. Ernest Guiraud’s recitatives are a workman-like answer to the issue and positively in character, however what would Bizet have carried out? The query tantalises. The Opera Comique model of Carmen has a remarkably sympathetic method of modulating between dialogue, melodrama and absolutely sung, so you may’t assist really feel Bizet would have had a equally imaginative answer to creating grand opera Carmen.
Modern-day opera firms are likely to prioritise Bizet’s personal model of the opera with dialogue but stretches of spoken French stay a problem.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen (Act Two) – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Virginia Rota) |
On the Salzburg Competition, a brand new manufacturing of Carmen was entrusted to director and choreographer Gabriela Carrizo, founding father of Peeping Tom dance firm, and conductor Teodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra. The efficiency included Currentzis’s Utopia Choir and Bachchor Salzburg with eight members of Carrizo’s Peeping Tom firm. Design was by Christof Hetzer, lighting by Tom Visser and sound design by Raphaelle Latini.
Asmik Grigorian was Carmen with Jonathan Tetelman as Don Jose, Kristina Mkhitaryan as Micaela, Davide Luciano as Escamillo, Iveta Simonyan as Frasquita, Anita Monserrat as Mercedes, Matthias Winckhler as Zuniga, Liviu Holender as Morales, Michael Arivony as Le Dancaire, Mingjie Lei as Le Remendado and Amparo Cortés as Lillas Pastia.
With Brussels-based Peeping Tom, Gabriela Carrizo’s creative apply entails dance and theatre, utilizing hyperrealism and surrealism to disclose characters’ hidden wishes and impulses. Carmen appears to have been her first opera and for all of the good moments within the staging, you felt she struggled considerably with the relatively fastened nature of the operatic kind – that is the rating, carry out it!
Probably the most controversial resolution was to take away the spoken dialogue (one thing Sally Potter did in her ill-fated Carmen for ENO in 2007), although with such a world forged (Lithuanian, Chilean/American, Armenian, Italian, Russian, British, German, Austrian…) that is comprehensible in a method. Changing the dialogue with dance/drama passages utilizing Latini’s sound designs – disturbing tonally – was not altogether profitable in filling within the gaps. Within the first two acts, you relatively needed to know the story. Fairly what a primary time attender fabricated from it, I do not know. The primary time we hear Don Jose, he’s singing to Micaela and we by no means hear Carmen chuckle, nor does she taunt Don Jose.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Thomas Aurin) |
A big results of these modifications was to minimise the smaller characters. It was much less clear who Frasquite (Iveta Simonyan), Mercedes (Anita Monserrat), Zuniga (Matthias Winckhler), Morales (Liviuo Holender), Le Dancaire (Michael Arivony) and Le Remendado (Mingjie Lei) have been. And the extra operetta-like components within the first two acts distinctly receded from view, leaving the work darker and extra intense.
On the opening of Act Two, Amparo Cortés (a cante jondo performer from Seville) sang a conventional track as Lilas Pastia, doing so once more in Act Three: hanging second however considerably tonally disturbing when it comes to Bizet’s rating. In Act Three there was an extended sequence for a spiritual procession to one in all Latini’s sound designs (functionally the procession appeared a method for Kristina Mkhitaryan’s Micaela to get on stage). The very best aspect of the change was the house it gave Jonathan Tetelman and Asmik Grigorian to develop their characters in different methods, in order that they successfully redefined their relationship utilizing mime in Act Three. By the top of this act, Tetelman’s Don Jose was close to feral while Grigorian’s Carmen positively couldn’t care much less.
Carrizo’s dance language was gestural, typically dance complemented the music and operatic drama. Typically these gestures have been advanced and generally not apparent. A pool of water was a robust function of all three acts. Eurodike De Beul, as Don Jose’s mom, was a close to fixed presence, although in Act Three why did she strip bare and finally drown in stated water. The opening of that act featured two males with antlers as deer preventing, one in all which was chased by the smugglers. After which there was the dancing Christ-like determine throughout Mkhitaryan’s bit solo as Micaela.
On the opening of Act Two, nevertheless, the dance was merely astonishing with no trace of stage Spain. That may be a drawback with Carmen. Although Bizet’s characters are outstanding, the opera itself is construct from gestures which have their origins within the nineteenth century French picture of Spain, not the truth. Right here, Carrizo did success in creating one thing different, and because the opera proceeded her imaginative and prescient developed one thing very darkish certainly.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Amparo Cortés – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Virginia Rota) |
Asmik Grigorian was a soprano Carmen, her center and decrease registers no fairly having sufficient weight within the ensembles on this massive theatre with a big orchestra. However this needs to be balanced in opposition to a remarkably free, unhackneyed musical efficiency. This was a critical Carmen, we by no means heard her chuckle nor did she rail in opposition to males. Her Carmen attracted males however didn’t use her sexuality as a weapon, there was a freedom and independence to her. The Habanera was superbly sung, almost mesmerising. However it was in her interactions with others that the drama actually crackled.
Jonathan Tetelman made a close to splendid Don Jose. Tall and slim with distinct, if seemingly unconscious, sexual magnetism, his dark-toned tenor discovered its method round Don Jose’s music with ease and while possessed of a ringing high, he additionally might fantastic his tone down. In Act One, we missed the dialogue, Don Jose and Carmen’s interactions have been restricted to gesture and didn’t fairly inform in opposition to the busy staging. Nevertheless, in Act Two, Grigorian’s Carmen developed actual bitterness and fierceness. Her Seguidille included plate smashing in lieu of castanets, and for all Tetelman’s refined and shifting efficiency of the Flower Track, it was Grigorian’s fierceness that carried him over.
In Act Three, the cardboard scene seemed outstanding with its group of dancing spectres, and Grigorian’s efficiency mesmerised although we have been conscious her decrease register didn’t do what Carmen usually does. Iveta Simonyan and Anita Monserrat additionally gave fantastic performances although with out dialogue we had little context. However then the scene ended with a close to struggle between Tetelman’s Don Jose and Grigorian’s Carmen, taking Bizet’s music to a special place.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Liviu Holender, Kristina Mkhitaryan – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Virginia Rota) |
All this set the scene for the ultimate confrontation. Act 4 was shorn of its opening refrain and for Don Jose and Carmen’s ultimate encounter there was no dance both. Merely a blood-red set and a roof progressively decreasing to seemingly crush them. The encounter was astonishing in its energy and freedom, and fact to Bizet’s music. It lifted the entire opera to a outstanding diploma.
Davide Luciano made a close to splendid Escamillo. In Acts Two and Three he had a dancer double who seemed far nearer to Toreador physique. However Luciano’s voice did all the things wanted, a beautiful freedom on the high together with sufficient energy within the decrease register that the low notes did not threaten to vanish. Kristina Mkhitaryan made a contained but centered Micaela. Her Act One duet with Tetelman was shifting but critical. Then in Act Three, as an extended determine with no dialogue context, she held the stage in her aria to a outstanding diploma. This was a Micaela who dared, while by no means seeming to lose her good woman manner.
The opposite characters shaped a strong backdrop. Amparo Cortés’s contributions made a strong impression although not musically apposite. Iveta Simonyan and Anita Monserrate created background characters for Frasquita and Mercedes, taking advantage of each the opening to Act Two and the cardboard scene in Act Three. The lads fared much less properly. Their two bandit compatriots have been diminished to bit components and didn’t register correctly. Although Mathias Winckhler because the Lieutenant made essentially the most of his second in Act Two, within the first act neither he nor Liviu Holender’s Morales registered correctly.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Iveta Simonyan, Anita Monserrat, Asmik Grigorian, Michael Arivony – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Thomas Aurin) |
The massive refrain was a vivid presence all through. Carrizo tended to make use of them in blocks in order that their easy actions have been amplified to a outstanding diploma. Vocally they have been thrilling too, while their bodily exuberance in Act 4 supplied a robust distinction to the emotional depth to return.
The strategy of Carrizo’s dancers was astonishing. At occasions this served to amplify the drama, however at different occasions it distracted. Positively a piece in progress. General, nevertheless, there was a darkness to Carrizo’s imaginative and prescient that cohered, operating in an arc from the troopers vicious mistreatment of a person in Act One to the confrontation between a feral Don Jose and a care much less Carmen in Act 4.
As for the version use, sure there have been moments that have been completely different although I believe few within the viewers have been inclined to the subtleties of modifications to orchestration and such. Currentzis and his orchestra, nevertheless, did create a vivid account of Bizet’s rating. From the very upfront sound of the opening notes of the overture, this orchestra was a really demonstrative companion within the combine. And it wasn’t all sound and fury. Regardless of the fierceness of Currentzis’s method, there have been moments of tenderness and ease too.
Tom Visser’s lighting and Christof Hetzer’s units created some remarkably pictorial stage photos, notably in tandem with the best way Carrizo manipulated peripheral characters in silhouette. Hetzer’s summary set was flexibly but got here into its personal in Act 4 because it threatened to crush Don Jose and Carmen. Visser’s lighting was extremely atmospheric however he and Carrizo appear to have forgotten that opera is a performative artwork and we like to have the ability to see a singer’s mouth clearly.
 |
| Bizet: Carmen – Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman – Salzburg Competition (Picture: Virginia Rota) |
The staging was a outstanding experiment. You believe you studied that Carrizo may need most popular to create a smaller scale work ‘after Bizet’s Carmen‘. However right here, her strikingly darkish imaginative and prescient of the opera carried weight and complemented Bizet’s music to a outstanding diploma, setting the stage for the astonishing ultimate scene from Jonathan Tetelman and Asmik Grigorian.
The weblog is free, however I would be delighted in the event you have been to indicate your appreciation by shopping for me a espresso.
Elsewhere on this weblog
- Salzburg Competition
- Life on Mars: Ersan Mondtag’s futuristic imaginative and prescient of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos – opera assessment
- Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte: director Christof Loy & a robust forged reveal that much less is extra – opera assessment
- Virtuoso tour de pressure of triviality: Barrie Kosky’s manufacturing of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims – opera assessment
- Vivid Younger Issues to the fore: Liam Metal’s manufacturing of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at Opera Holland Park revels in Twenties London setting – assessment
- BBC Proms: A meaty, to not say robust programme, Sakari Oramo, Man Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten’s Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius – live performance assessment
- Past the Gothic melodrama: Opera Holland Park revives Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera with Elin Pritchard, Matteo Desole, Dario Solari – opera assessment
- BBC Proms: Virtuosity & self-discipline from John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi’s Roman trilogy & Walton’s Cello Concerto – live performance assessment
- Buxton Competition
- Francesca Caccini’s rating, & Vache Baroque’s efficiency, shocked & captivated: La liberazione di Ruggiero – opera assessment
- Musically, a night of full enjoyment: Olivia Fuchs’s playful ‘Love Island’ setting for Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula – opera assessment
- Greater than a live performance: Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito brings out the work’s actual drama – opera assessment
- Dwelling
