Noli Irritare Leones

Joel took me to Carmen for my birthday; it was part of the Metropolitan Opera simulcast to movie theaters (I think in this case not actually simulcast – some of the simulcasts they save for one replay a few weeks later). Unlike Tales from Hoffman, I’d already seen this one (with different performers, of course) as a Netflix rental, so rather than finding out the plot for the first time while watching it, I was more focused on other things.

Escamillo, in this case, was an understudy who’d been informed three hours before the performance that the original performer was ill; he played the part as if he’d been the first choice all along. I guess the Met rehearses its understudies well.

Since I’d seen the opera before, this time I was drawn to how certain parallels played out.

Micaela vs. Carmen, both introduced in their first scenes as the object of attentions from a group of soldiers, but Micaela frightened and warding the soldiers off, and Carmen absolutely in control as she slides her flower down an officer’s crotch. The difference in their approaches to sexuality, with Micaela, good girl style, keeping her arms between her and Don Jose, not fully letting go (before marriage, anyway) even with the man she loves. In that beginning part, brazen Carmen seems the one I’d want to be; after all, not only does she get more sex, she’s also more successful at getting men to stop when she doesn’t, for the moment, want them. On the other hand, in the mountains, when Micaela’s singing the aria about overcoming her fear and Carmen the one where she fatalistically accepts the prediction of doom in the cards, Micaela’s the stronger one.

The similar parallel between Carmen’s introduction as the object of all the men’s desire and rock star toreador Escamillo’s introduction as the object of all the women’s desire.

Anyway, well done version all around, and great birthday present from Joel.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 8:06 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.