Opening of the Season in Marseille: Carmen!

Now it is time to admire the clean bright façade of the refurbished opera house in Marseille!

The square is cleared and on the bright bkue sky the sculptures seem to dance and invite us to some ancient rites.

Time to feel proud of such a place where so many great singers performed very often at the beginning of their art. My parents admired the beauty of the voice of young Régine Crespin for instance.

There was quite a queue at the entrance due to the popularity of Carmen, and not to the presence of a 'star' on the billboard because there were several well-known singers but no real stars like the ones who make people book in advance all over the planet. So I guess the queue was for the music and the story! Indeed it is a very good story well organised which starts like a comedy and builds up to a tragedy with the eternal love -hate- jealousy dilemmas which make it dramatic and moving. Bizet managed to add music which from the start has the terrible death tone, more invading later on. Of course I had to see what Vesselina Kasarova did in this role and this afternoon I was somehow seeing her while watching the rather lighthearted Carmen offered by Giuseppina Piunti. Her voice has splendid curves and rich harmonics. She has the dream look and seduction of Carmen but not the spicy touch which makes her irresistible. On the whole she seemed too easy going, not rebellious, not haunted in this impersonification, although at one point I felt she was getting into it but then went back to a softer Carmen, it was what the directing required a less tormented Carmen than the ones we have seen lately. (Vesselina was very psychic and I will not forget her utterly moving "air des cartes". Today, when she sang 'la mort toujours la mort' she was almost smiling, although the singing was effective. I would have been conquered by her if I had not seen other types of Carmen, including Vesselina, and then it is possible to say she had no 'biting effect' in her way of singing Carmen. Don José, sung by Luca Lombardo we see quite often here was fairly good, very conventional, with nice tops but a rather graceless vibrato in his medium range. I did not feel any emotion though at the very end only the music was at the rendez-vous. What is my huge discovery is Micaëla with the gifted Anne Catherine Gillet.

I had seen her twice in Lyon as Sophie in Rolando Villazon's Werther where she was so good too. But here, although she had the required look 'jupe bleue et nattes tombantes' (blue skirt and braids falling at the back), she was stunning in a fairly flat role. That is the miracle of a distinctive high pitched soprano voice which has great musicality and charms plus a real sweet look of the artist for this role and its understanding. She was the only one who made me believe in the story because she really added sense and feelings to her singing. She received tremendous applause at each aria even before its end. She deserved this great ovation. Escamillo, Jean François Lapointe, was smashing, with panache and great baritone voice, easy and bright, but this role is hardly moving, is it. The duo between him and Don José was quite good, as the conductor Nader Abbassi chose the opera version and I was pleased because it makes more sense in the drama. The whole cast was good. I noticed the young singer Christophe Gay (Morales) who made a nice opening and I liked his voice straight away. The ensemble were good, matched to the efficient setting and costumes, conventional, indeed, but without overdoing it.(Nicolas Joël's production quite old now,but with some nice settings like the wall and columns, referring to the Seville Wall I suppose, looking like a roman Wall with sculptures) As nearly always the costumes were very adorned with beautiful colours and lightings. On the whole it was a very enjoyable afternoon. The only drawbacks came from a noisy and undisciplined audience (clapping between arias and having to be somehow told off by the conductor to make silence after a short interval...and also because of the heat inside up in the tiers, someone banged a door... when the music had already started... it shows what the audience can be around here at times). The orchestra kept a firm rhythm and had beautiful tones.( before The mountains act). Here are some shots of the singers after the show.

Anne catherine Gillet was also so generous and welcoming with us all.

I had a chat with her and had to tell her how much I admire Belgian singers, Rita Gorr, José van Dam, Sophie Karthaüser and her! (Not to be forgotten too is Julien Haas, baritone, and his wife André Esposito, who sang here quite a lot).

CARMEN OPERA DE MARSEILLE 7-10-2012 Matinée .