Carmen

As a last minute gift, if you will, I was invited to see the opera, Carmen, at the Lyric Opera House with some students and faculty from my school.  When offered the option of going I immediately jumped at it.  I've seen two operas before: L'Elixir d'Amour and Don Giovani, and have to admit neither made me want to jump out of my seat and see another.  However, I concluded that I would probably never find anyone to go see Carmen with me for a very long time, and to get to go for free to one of the most popular operas ever was definitely worth doing, despite any past experiences.


WoW! Amazing isn't even close to explaining it.  The performance blew me away.  The sets were incredible and some of the cast beyond reproach.  And, as an added bonus, to keep the interest of 7th and 8th graders for nearly 4 hours means you're doing something right.  


The story, for those of you who are unaware, is about a Spanish gypsy woman, Carmen, who has two lovers at different points during the story:  Don José, a soldado (soldier) and Escamillo, a torero (bullfighter).  It deals with love and jealousy and the gypsy life.  Written by a french composer, Georges Bizet, it's performed in French and has the exotic and fantastical representation of Seville, Spain as Georges imagined Spain to be at the time.  Ergo, it's not the most perfect nor accurate historical representation of the time period, but being that it is part fantasy makes the costuming A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  The music had fun upbeat moments and then slower and more heartfelt ones, and the lead female was incredible.  Apparently, Katharine Goeldner is a well-known Carmen performer, as her website shows it is one of her most common roles, and WOW she does an amazing job of it!  I loved her SO much I would honestly follow her around and just go see every opera or musical she's in.  


My funny "Oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-that-just-happened" moment came at the onset of the play.  One of my students asked if I had seen it before, to which I replied that I had not only not seen it before but that I didn't even know much about it.  She quickly said that I would, at the very least, recognize some of the music.  And recognize it I did.  During the overture I sadly and laughingly leaned over to another chaperone and said, "is it sad that I only know this music because of Bugs Bunny?".  It's a generational thing.  :-)


So, yes, if you ever want to see if you like opera, this is a MUST see.  It helps when they have translation boxes to help you understand the music, but it is an amazing opera.  Sad to know the composer never knew it to be a success during his lifetime...although that seems to be the way of things.  "Olé!"