South Florida Classical Review

Ginger Costa-Jackson sings the title role in Bizet’s Carmen at Florida Grand Opera.

Georges Bizet’s Carmen is one of opera’s timeless masterpieces. Long a great introduction to the art form for neophytes, the work tends to transcend and survive the most varied directional concepts.

The opera made it through Florida Grand Opera’s new production, which opened on Saturday night at the Arsht Center—but barely.

The staging, by FGO general director Maria Todaro, is set in the period of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s. The gypsy Carmen is portrayed as a freedom fighter against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. That is a valid concept but hardly a new one. In the 1980’s, the brilliant Actors Studio-trained director Frank Corsaro helmed a powerful production at New York City Opera that transferred the opera’s story to that period.

But, unlike Todaro’s version, that production was devoid of excessive and gratuitous violence. Todaro’s iteration opens with Franco’s forces executing a prisoner over the orchestral fate motif. In Act II, when Carmen and her friends capture the officer of the guard Zuniga, he is shot. The story of the troubled love of Carmen and the officer Don José is told straightforwardly but, at the opera’s conclusion, instead of stabbing her, José kills Carmen by drowning her in a water tub outside of the bullfighting arena. What does that add to the opera’s tale?

Likewise, there are several questionable musical decisions. At the onset of Act II, flamenco singer Mariela Mejia and guitarist Jorge Perez appear on stage and perform while a female dancer offers some choreographic heat. While the audience seemed to greatly enjoy it, such an interlude is totally out of place in Bizet’s score.

That’s all of a piece with the total omission of the opening chorus of the final act and a heavy cut in the smuggler’s ensemble in Act III. Only about ten per cent of that wonderful number was sung. Bizet’s original opera comique version with spoken dialogue would have worked better for Todaro’s concept. The Bizet music that Ernest Guiraud (who wrote the recitatives) omitted from the grand opera version gives the opera a more somber and tragic cast.

On the positive side, Todaro’s array of colorful costumes and Rosa Mercedes’ athletic, dazzling choreography are eye-filling. Todaro has skillfully utilized the late Allen Charles Klein’s sets from a previous FGO production, lit in striking hues by Robert Wierzel.

Ginger Costa-Jackson is a sexy, imperious Carmen who knows how to dominate the stage and the action, though medium-sized mezzo can turn raw at the top. Costa-Jackson’s “Seguidilla” was playful, enticing the audience as well as Don José. She was at her best in  interactions with the Don José of Rafael Davila. Whether professing love, anger or scorn for José, Costa-Jackson could land some vocal wattage and she had real chemistry with Davila.

The tenor’s dark, high-powered voice was in top form. He cut a haunted, troubled figure, caught between Carmen’s allure and his background and family. Davila’s subtle and nuanced rendition of “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” was the vocal highlight of the night. His final confrontation with Carmen radiated dramatic heat.

Marina Costa-Jackson (one of Ginger’s two singing sisters) was an outstanding Micaëla. She cut a striking figure as she attempted to save José from his doom. Her attractive soprano soared in the first act duet with Davila, with the two voices perfectly matched. Micaëla’s aria in the third act was given emotive power and rapturous lyricism.

Alexander Birch Elliott played the matador Escamillo as a dandy with a booming baritone that made the “Toreador Song” an appropriate rock-star moment. He could turn soft and supple in the Act IV duet with Costa-Jackson’s Carmen.

The supporting roles were all well sung. Carmen’s colleagues Frasquita and Mercedes were voiced with vibrance by Sydney Dardis and Mary Burke Barber who brought lively, animated characterizations. Phillip Lopez as Zuniga and Joseph Canuto Leon as Moralés brought firm low voices to the top officers. As the smugglers (or resistance leaders or whatever) Dancaïro and Remendado, Alexander Payne and Joseph A. Mancuso deftly articulated their commands.

Former FGO music director Ramón Tebar drew outstanding playing from the orchestra with a particularly excellent flute solo in the pastoral Prelude to Act III. His mostly moderate tempos maintained coherence and worked well with Todaro’s production. As soldiers, cigarette workers and the crowd at the tavern and the bullring, the chorus (under Jared Peroune) was consistently strong and the children from the Florida Singing Sons (under Daniel Bates and Malcolm Rogers) performed with vigor and unity.

Many elements of the production proved enjoyable but despite some fine singing and much visual pageantry, this Carmen was ultimately let down by an overly sensationalist production and cavalier cuts to the score.

Florida Grand Opera repeats Carmen 2 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Arsht Center in Miami and 7:30 p.m. April 24 and 26 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. Miriam Costa-Jackson sings Micaëla on April 13 and 24. fgo.org

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