By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Indianapolis Opera (IO) returned to the Tarkington Theatre at the Center for the Performing Arts, 3 Carter Green, Carmel, for a three-night run of Bizet’s Carmen over the weekend, bringing an international cast to this classic tale. The Reporter spoke with IO General Director David Starkey about Carmen, the IO, and this productions’ cast.
Carmen is an enduring story of passion, lust, jealousy, obsession, and revenge. With fortune telling, bull fighting, and flamenco dancing, this timeless masterpiece is filled with Spanish flavor and unforgettable moments, all of which present an abundance of challenges.
“The first thing I always tell people is Carmen is a very eclectic opera,” Starkey told The Reporter. “It’s very well known. It has so many recognizable tunes and scenes, so it brings that kind of attraction and interest from the public and from the artist community, but it is not simple as a show.”
Starkey compared the month of preparation for this production to building a rocket ship, which metaphorically launched the night before he spoke to this newspaper.
“We’ve got to bring in a first-class fight choreographer for multiple scenes of physical combat and aggression, dancing and choreography with the flamenco environment and the Spanish, you know, flair, which is in the in the story of being set in Seville,” Starkey said. “Then on top of that, one of the rare things about Carmen is it’s a Spanish story set in Seville, but it’s sung in French. I tell people opera is the most intrinsic cultural art form in the world. Every culture has had a story composed and written about it. Carmen is a very eclectic mix of things.”
Then there are the international singers that IO brought in from all over the world.
“One of the most fascinating things for this audience is I don’t know that they have ever seen a show with so many different cultural influences of the Asian culture, Black culture, Middle Eastern culture, Central American culture and Spanish culture,” Starkey said. “It’s just littered with so many elements. Sort of why I call it the rocket ship. It’s extremely rewarding when it takes off. It’s exhilarating.”
Among the various cultures represented in this show, this could be the first time a Japanese mezzo-soprano has been cast to sing the lead in Carmen. Starkey told The Reporter he is pleased to be working in an era and a community a show can be cast by looking for the best talent rather than filling a role with a particular ethnicity.
The title role of Carmen was played by Japanese-American Mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen. Carmen’s lover, Don José was be played by acclaimed Korean-American Metropolitan Opera Tenor Adam Diegel. Also appearing was world-renowned Soprano Kearstin Piper Brown as Micaëla and South Korean Bartione Young Kwang Yoo as the famous bull fighter Escamillo. Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mercédès were portrayed by Jamaican-American Soprano Victoria Korovljev and Mezzo-soprano Liz Culpepper, respectively. Bass Andrew Boisvert filled the role of Captain Zuniga, Tenor David Silvano portrayed the smuggler Le Remendado, and Corporal Moralès was played by Baritone Colin Anderson.
“I’ve not found this kind of inclusion in a show of Carmen,” Starkey said. “Usually, you are really trying to find an expert in French. Usually, you’re trying to find somebody that is of a culture that is very central to the Carmen character. Usually, you’re trying to find sort of a more Italianate, Mediterranean kind of tenor. So there are things that this show has defaulted in the past to try and emphasize. But I think we’re in I think we’re in an era now where having a Korean baritone represent a toreador of the Spanish culture is very palpable. I think audiences have been just thrilled with the different nuances that these different cast members bring. That’s really the heart and the DNA of opera is that it can do that on any on any show at any given night.”
Starkey said he and others in the art world are being careful to make sure inclusion is a consequence of good casting, rather than a goal unto itself.
“I have these discussions with my colleagues nationally where we say, ‘Let’s be careful that we do not try and prescribe a formula of these kind of influences and changes.’ We need to have a heart of the inclusion as component in our art form. But at the same time, we need to understand that the artists mostly care that you’re hiring them on their talents and their gifts. When you do that genuinely, you are going to get a better show. You’re going to get a better chemistry.”
Starkey’s rocket ship launched quite well. Last weekend may have set a record for IO attendance at the Tarkington.
You can learn more about IO and their upcoming shows online at IndyOpera.org.
Read Wednesday’s edition of The Reporter for a very early preview of Indianapolis Opera’s next big show, Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, staging in March 2024.