Review: San Diego Opera Performs Bizet's CARMEN at San Diego Civic Center

Score by Georges Bizet, Libretto by Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac

Carmen is the world’s third most performed opera. Its tale of the doomed love affair between an innocent young soldier and a beguiling young woman, one unconstrained by conventional beliefs, was seen in more than 6,000 productions on five continents last year. This performance was in the opera’s original French with Spanish and English translations displayed above the stage.

The two singers originally cast to play the leads Carmen and Don José on Friday and Sunday were replaced just days before the performance by Mezzo-Soprano Lisa Marie Rogali and Tenor Matthew White. No reason was given, but late casting changes usually happen for personal reasons or because of illness. Perhaps the person hacking away in the row behind me throughout the performance was the missing tenor?

Fortunately, the replacements were clearly familiar with the roles, have attractive youthful appearances and pleasing voices that carried easily to the back of the hall.

Rogali was a convincing amoral seductress as she sang the well-known arias, “Habanera” and "Seguidilla.” White’s melodious voice was equally well suited to Don José’s aria, “the Flower Song” -- smoothly melodious, but with strength as needed.

Perhaps because of limited rehearsal time, Don José’s rapid transformation from innocent brigadier to Carmen’s lover, criminal bootlegger and murderer required a substantial suspension of disbelief. The spark between the two was never realistically established, and the clumsy unconvincing action of the closing death scene provoked a few chuckles rather than the desired collective gasp.

The “Toreador Song” was sung with power and a display of colossal masculine vanity by Baritone Aleksey Bogdanov as the Toreador Escamillo, a rival for Carmen’s often wandering attentions.

Soprano Lydia Gridatto’s strong voice made Micaëla, Don José’s abandoned childhood sweetheart, less vulnerable and more believable than usual as she doggedly follows Don José to a dangerous part of Seville and then a smuggler’s camp in the mountains.

Bass DeAndre Simmons, as army captain Zuniga, displayed a full warm sound and provided some of the performance’s lighter moments.

Director Keturah Stickan’s staging moved the story roughly 200 years forward to the middle of the 20th century, and the mood is darker and grittier than that of most other productions. Her Carmen is a cruder, less playfully coy seducer, and the soldiers are more likely to be added to a #MeToo roll of dishonor. Scenery adds to the darker mood. Act I is set in front of a plain massive factory wall and appropriate period costuming is often relatively drab.

All of this makes for a different, more modern performance, probably closer to Bizet’s intended challenge of social conventions and defiance of his era's submissive roles for women, but it removes some of the color and fun that helped turn a terrible tragedy into the world’s third most performed opera.

My reactions to Bizet’s appealing melodies and orchestration were much the same as I described in my review of the company’s 2019 production. Yves Abel was the conductor then and Louis Lohraseb conducted the San Diego Symphony this time.

In program notes Lohraseb says, “Carmen begins as an explosion of color.” He and the orchestra lived up to the phrase in a spirited and exciting overture, and orchestral color was an enjoyable feature throughout the three-hour performance.

Lohraseb was equally effective in his skilled support of the production’s capable singers -- flamboyant in orchestral passages while throttling back just the right amount to support vocal lines.

Chorus Master Bruce Stasyna's San Diego Opera chorus helped fill the stage with activity while singing with strength and conviction. An excellent children’s choir augmented the chorus in period costumes as they added a touch of enjoyable humor and motion to the production.

In the end, the company’s continuing emphasis on fine singing made this an enjoyable production, though falling short of its outstanding 2019 production.

Historical note -- Carmen’s first performance was panned by the critics, and Parisian opera goers were outraged by the immorality of the main characters and plot. Bizet died of a heart attack three months after the premiere, never to know the success it would soon enjoy.

This review was of the last of three performances, and Carmen was the last production of the season. Visit San Diego Opera for an early view of the ’26-’27 schedule.

Photos by J. Katarzyna Woronowicz.