Opera
Opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet.
The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée.
The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875,
where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalized its first audiences.
Performances
Metropolitan Opera New York
January 09th 2019
January 12th 2019
January 17th 2019
January 21th 2019
January 26th 2019
January 29th 2019
February 02th 2019
February 05th 2019
February 08th 2019
Casting
Metropolitan Opera New York
Clémentine Margaine - Carmen
Aleksandra kurzak - Micaela
Suzan Phillips - Micaela (January 17th)
Roberto Alagna - Don José
Alexander Vinogradov - Escamillo
Michael Todd Simpson - Esccamillo (January 17th)
Richard Eyre - Production
Rob Howell - Sets and costumes
Peter Mumford - Lights
Christopher Wheeldone - Choreograph
Orchestra and Choors of Metropolitan Opera
Louis Langrée - conductor
Review
Forumopera.com - Chritian Peter - Feb.3, 2019
❝An amazing mind-blowing final scene, an ever-solid, high caliber singer/actor, a youthfully inflamed, strong, and chilling rendition, a physical and vocal embodiment and beautiful singing which elicits sympathy for José, a role he fits as though it was his own skin❞
"Roberto Alagna’s Don José won over the performance in dramatic intensity and volume to culminate in an amazing mind-blowing final scene that augurs the best for his next Otello at the Opera Bastille. During the intermission’s interview, the tenor announced that he would finally perform Lohengrin in concert version alongside his wife next season without specifying in which theater the event will take place. [...] [The staging allows] to captivate the audience when we have singers / actors of the caliber of those proposed to us, especially when the cameras scrutinize their faces as in the first act, during the Habanera, where a succession of shots & reverse shots reveals the respective feelings of Carmen and José long before their words express them.”
Seen and Heard International - Jim Pritchard - Feb.3, 2019
❝Roberto alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak Lift Richard Eyre’s Met Opera Carmen Revival to Another Level❞
EXCERPT : “On this form Roberto Alagna must be peerless as Don José and he sounded totally at ease with the role. His acting and singing were at its best from later in Act II through to the end of the opera with all his – more volcanic than smouldering – passion, lust, rage and murderous jealousy. There was a beautifully floated high B flat to finish ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’ (‘The Flower Song’), a robustly added top C at the end of Act II and he had plenty of stamina left for the angst and anger of the final scene.”
Magazin Aktualne.cz - Jiri Cerny - Feb.4, 2019
❝ Roberto alagna enhances every Carmen❞
EXCERPT (fom Czech) : "No doubt that Roberto Alagna feels at home on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Everything held in his hands, not only the vocal solidness, wide-breath melodic arches, the rich dynamics and still excellent pitch, but also the spoken voice and even the expressions of his face. He was a sovereign performer. There may be other brilliant tenors, but hardly any of them are so powerful or so fervent. Alagna interprets his Don José generously, not only in the famous aria "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" The Flower Song" and in the duet with Micaëla, but this generosity is found in each of his sentences."
E-teatr.pl - Anna Czajkowska - Feb. 7, 2019
❝A powerful, colorful and dramatic tenor, able to convey all his passion in his singing. He manages emotions with a perfect vocal mastery❞.
EXCERPT (from Polish): "From the start, the beautiful duo 'Parle moi de ma mère' by Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna fascinates. A beautiful and harmonious pianissimo in 'O Souvenirs du Pays' is a wonderful illustration of the soprano's fine voice and of her partner's talents. Roberto Alagna is undoubtedly a powerful, colorful and dramatic tenor. He is able to convey all his passion, his lust, his rage and his murderous jealousy in his singing, especially in Acts III and IV, when he feels the tragic end approaching and tries to convince Carmen to come back and abandon bullfighter Escamillo. Emotions rise, but the tenor manages them with a perfect vocal form and mastery."
Ôlyrix - Jeanne Auffret - Feb. 5, 2019
❝A final scene of tremendous intensity, a well audible voice in all ranges, a perfect French, a solid and fiery rendition❞
EXCERPT: “ Roberto Alagna offers a solid and fiery rendition, appearing to be in Don José’s character almost as if it was for the first time. He nuances his voice to support the dramatic intent and makes his character evolve all along the evening into a final scene of tremendous intensity. His voice is well audible in all ranges, his French is perfectly intelligible, and his great knowledge of the role earns him an ovation from the New-Yorker audience.
And...
◙ “The ever-solid Roberto Alagna fits the role of Don José as though it were his own skin.” (John Deaderick, The Union, 31 Jan 2019)
◙ "Roberto Alagna's brigadier, perfectly in voice, accumulates, as for him, the strong points: a French diction that would be the envy of the best actors of the French language, a seduction and a freshness of tone of a youngster, a sense of the sentence and nuances which could found a school and finally an outstanding actor instinct that brings the madness of the last act to its highest degree. " (Yannick Boussaert, Forumopera.com, 12/01/19)
◙ “As Don José, Roberto Alagna sounded secure […] For the most part, he was able to command the rich, burnished tone that made him famous. José is a role Alagna knows intimately by now, and his portrayal is bracing: a passionate soldier who becomes an unhinged wreck, his fascination with Carmen turning into a violent obsession.” (Eric C. Simpson, http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/, 10 Jan 2019)
◙ “Roberto Alagna was in great form, and very touching in "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée.”A++ ” (Luiz Gazzola, Opera Lively, 22 Jan 2019)
◙ “Don José has been one of the tenor Roberto Alagna’s best Met roles, and he sounded youthfully inflamed and [strong] on Wednesday. […] By the end of “Carmen,” his quiet ferocity — a homicidal explosion of what we’d now call toxic masculinity — was chilling.” (Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times, 11 Jan 2019)
◙ “Alagna’s physical and vocal embodiment of the character lent his particular narrative a complication I hadn’t anticipated. His beautiful singing elicited sympathy. Instead of being merely dangerous, Don José was also pathetic; and yes, I’ll say it again, if begrudgingly: I found myself feeling sorry for him.” (Patrick Clement James, Parterre box presents La Cieca, 10 Jan 2019)
Gallery
