Nashville’s Carmen
The first production of Nashville Opera’s delightful 2024-25 season, The Ties that Bind, is Georges Bizet’s wonderfully Romantic Carmen, a brutal tale of love, freedom and exoticism–a work that is considered by many to be the most popular opera ever written. Set in 29th century Spain, this French opera depicts the rural exoticism of Spain and its ruthless world (this is a forerunner to verismo) in a rich orchestral fabric that is often considered to be Bizet and France’s answer to Richard Wagner and his German Dramas. More recent productions have taken some liberties with this setting, the most recent Met production featured, according to the New York Times, “cutoff jeans and trucker hats instead of flamenco skirts and castanets.” In 2021 Atlanta set the opera in a dive bar, The Threepenny Carmen, to critical acclaim. Wherever Director Hoomes places the production, it’s success will likely live or die on the cast’s voices, and in that department, things are looking wonderful!
The title role for Carmen is typically set for a lyric mezzo-soprano (a middle or half soprano) whose vocal range is slightly lower than a coloratura’s and what is lacking in agility is made up with a smooth and richly colored voice that can actually be more powerful than other soprano types. This role was created by Célestine Galli-Marié at the premiere in 1875 and was highly controversial for its time. Indeed, Carmen represented a new type of heroine–not pure, innocent or overly virtuous but instead a dangerous femme fatale whose pursuit of freedom takes priority over the lives of the men she uses to achieve it. The stability of her character, her sheer consistency of her intentions, at the height of the drama she exclaims “I never lied!” is given as the cause and source of the tragedy.
Some of the greatest sopranos have portrayed Carmen over the last century, Maria Callas, Teresa Berganza, Leontyne Price or my personal favorite Agnes Baltsa. More recently Elīna Garanča has won acclaim for her portrayal that emphasizes the character’s fiery independence and sensuality, but in a warm, humanizing way that heightens the tragedy. Nashville’s Carmen, Marina Costa-Jackson, hails from a musical family, and she trained at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. While Nashville will be her debut of the title role, she has performed as Floria Tosca in Kansas City (where critics raved about her “…polished, well-articulated voice,” and her acting as “flighty, volatile, self-indulgent, jealous and obsessive…”) and she has played Mimi in La Bohème (Los Angeles). She is quite well prepared for the power and the tragedy of Carmen and I am quite excited to see and hear her sing the famous Habanera.
If Carmen is a character lacking a narrative arc, Don Jose’s character features a spiral into moral bankruptcy, from an honest, if ambitious, soldier, to a cold-blooded murderer. He is the powerless spinto tenor whose part demands a brassy instrument that is just a little heavier than a typical tenor. Similarly, some of the greatest tenors have portrayed Don Jose, including Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and more recently Jonas Kaufmann. The great Zach Borichevsky returns to the Nashville stage to portray Don Jose, and many of us will remember his wonderful Rodolfo from Nashville’s 2022 La Bohème when he “brought goosebumps.” While Don José’s Flower Song from act two is quite famous and worth watching for, the key to this and any production’s success will be the tension between the two characters. Whether it is the opening seduction of the Habanera, the “sealing the deal” of the Act 2 Seguidilla, or the cold tragedy of the grand finale, it is the tension between the two characters that will define the night—and is the thing to listen/watch for.
Finally, the supporting cast is quite excellent and full of some of Nashville’s favorites, including —Kathryn Lewek (the famous Queen of the Night) as Micaëla, and Sarah Crigger as Mercedes among others. In all, one can expect beautiful music, an engaging staging and a tragic romance from Nashville’s Carmen, what else should one expect? Carmen will be performed on September 26th and 28th at TPAC’s Jackson Hall. Tickets are available here.
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Joseph E. Morgan is a father of two, husband, teacher and recovering guitarist in Middle Tennessee.
