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Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour – Carmen

Sassy sexy Carmen brightens up these damp Autumn nights, vocally spectacular and with dance numbers to rival a golden Hollywood.
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Most would argue that it is hard to get Carmen wrong. Featuring Bizet’s celebrated music, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy – which gave us the all-time hits Habanera from Act 1 and the Toreador Song from Act 2 – mixed with a fiery love story and tragic death that lingers like an ear-worm, Carmen is the definitive win-win-win opera.

Add to that the spectacular backdrop of Sydney Harbour and you have the formula that has made Handa Opera on the Harbour a perennial success.

Carmen is the sixth edition of the spectacular series, and the first revived production for the popular event. And from that perspective its programming was perhaps a little risky, given it was so recently performed at the Opera House in 2016 as a new production by John Bell, setting in contrast the two productions.

But it was not Bell’s but Gale Edwards’ 2013 production that has hit the Harbour. Edwards spoke out in the week before its opening, along with set designer Brian Thomson AM and costume designer Julie Lynch, saying that the Handa revival had been remounted – and adapted – without their involvement, and that they feared for the production’s integrity. 

Read: Creatives slam Opera Australia

It’s the sort of diva antics that gives opera its name. Was it a case of copyright, salaries, sour grapes or creative integrity? It didn’t appear to matter on opening night, nor will it I expect throughout the season of the Handa production, given that most people attending are there for one thing – opera set on Sydney Harbour.

The only dampener on Carmen was the weather report, and a bit of mizzle (misty drizzle) on opening night.

Photo: Prudence Upton

The spectacular

After the near disaster of Turandot’s rickety pagoda at last year’s Handa – which froze breaths rather than delivering the ice queen Turandot to the heavens – there was little surprise that technology was ditched for a more analogue version of “the spectacular”.

Read: Turandot: Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour

The real energy and pizazz were delivered primarily through costumes, colour and choreography. Even the fireworks this year – which have become a mandatory pre-interval closer – were kept to a more digestible scale.

Some have criticised the production for lacking the signature Handa-style spectacular that we have been nurtured to expect; rather I would argue that the constant stream of activity along the foreshore, up through the wings and onto the stage – the sheer volume of people in constant movement pulling the audience’s eye across the production – was every bit as spectacular as last year’s giant fire breathing dragon.

The opera opens with a truck and a tank being lowered to a raked stage by crane – which was not as successfully repeated in Act II with a shipping container. Brian Thomson’s set was relatively minimal, conceived around a circular stage mimicking a giant bullring and a kind of behind-the-scenes story, as audiences face the scaffold of signage.

Of note, giant letters spell out ‘CARMEN’ but are viewed in reverse from the bleachers, turned to the city’s skyline – effectively an advertising banner on steroids.

There are no secrets with the agenda of Handa.

There were a lot more dance numbers inserted into the opera – spectacular punctuations to string the audiences along and deliver that expected bling and excitement.

Choreographer Kelley Abbey’s flamenco-inspired dance sequences proved captivating, especially that “billowing red frock” – which has quickly become its own signature – in the second Act, with little function other than to awe.

Dancer Kate Wormald; photo by James-Morgan

Julie Lynch’s costumes make this production; they keep the eye fixed on the stage in this harbour venue. They update Spain’s post- Civil War Franco era with an almost Broadway-style panache, featuring lashings of polka-dots, dark sunglasses and billowing hats, in sassy dance numbers utilising a big chorus.

There is a brashness to the staging of this production that sits in sync with the spirited Carmen, a gypsy girl who likes to break the rules.

The voices

Vocally, Carmen is a goldmine of arias, and without their delivery this opera can fall short of expectations.

In the lead role, the Italian mezzo soprano Jose Maria Lo Monaco comfortably nails Carmen – I might even argue a little too well. She was so caught up being Carmen that she forgot to sing in the first Act; her timing feeling a little off at time. But that was short lived.

She was a veritable spitfire, swishing her hips and stomping barefooted; strong-willed, she seduced not only the men on stage but audience with her both her vocal delivery and free-spirited portrayal. She nailed Carmen’s big vocal number L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Love is a rebellious bird) without a hitch.

As Don Jose, Spanish tenor Andeka Gorrotxategi opened up that wardrobe of a voice with huge dimensions – intense and clear. However, his character portrayal did not have the same strength, at time lacking the assertion it required and overshadowed by Carmen. Put simply he was a little stiff, especially in the scene where he has Carmen tethered by a rope, circling each other with a cat-and-mouse intensity.

I kept wanting him to “man up” a bit more.

Jose Maria Lo Monaco and Andeka Gorrotxategi; Photo Prudence Upton

Revival Director Andy Morton makes strong use of the chorus. The men’s chorus was a little lackluster, not delivering the kind of Spanish testosterone expected and the amplified sound quality feeling very thin at first.

In contrast, the women’s chorus was dynamite – opening with slinky dress over red bra straps and all busts and bravado with voices to match.   

Baritone Luke Gabbedy conveyed the toreador Esca­millo convincingly, and soprano Natalie Aroyan delivered a sweet Micaela. She gets top marks for singing atop an elevated shipping container in Act 2 – a certain career punctuation to have sung suspected by a crane in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

After six editions, Handa is getting the sound quality better. Amping an opera in an often windy cove of Sydney Harbour has been a challenge in the past.

Conductor Brian Castles-Onion has been a veteran wielding the orchestra for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour – not an easy task with the pit below stage. But Bizet’s score sounds every bit as bright and resonate in the Autumn evening setting outdoor.

The controversial ending

Revival Director Andy Morton has captured the spirit and vitality of Edwards’ original vision, with one glaring exception for aficionados. The final scene has been drastically altered. And, as per a formal statement to press, apparently without the knowledge or permission of the original creative team.

Read: Opera furore rages on as creatives decry Carmen changes

In the 2013 version, Don Jose runs past Carmen, slashing her throat – a mirroring of the brutal bullfight happening concurrently, out of sight. Carmen turns; a slow reveal to face the audience revealing the bloody wound. She drops to her knees, the tableaux mirroring Escamillo simultaneous triumphant over a slaughtered bull.

For the Handa production, is it a mere stab in the stomach amidst an embrace, which is a somewhat flat conclusion to two hours of building crescendo and passion.

The softer tone strips Edwards’ production of that well conceived and constructed conclusion. Perhaps, like many things with the harbor productions, it was a compromise sensitive to more popularist audiences.

For most, the ending still holds the passion of a scorned lover, and your clichéd Opera moment.

It is difficult to be critical of these “big bash” events – like their cricket counterpart, they are engineered for the audience, and inevitably deliver. I am not so much a purist. Opera has always been about entertainment and the delivery of a story.

Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour — Carmen
Composer: Bizet
Director: Gale Edwards
Revival Director: Andy Morton
Conductor: Brian Castles-Onion
Set Design: Brian Thomson
Lighting Design: John Rayment
Sound Design: Tony David Cray
Choreographer: Kelley Abbey
Costume designer: Julie Lynch

Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquarie’s Point, Sydney
24 March – 23 April

Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina