*The title quote is from Habanera, one of Carmen’s arias.*

I had really high expectations for my most recent trip to the opera to see Carmen because opera was nothing really new to me; I sing opera and I had seen other operas before, including Hansel and Gretel, The Little Prince, and Carmen once before. So when I heard tickets to the opera that I would not have to pay for, I thought to myself, “sign me up!”

Since I had seen Carmen before, I hoped to focus more on the different aspects of the performance, rather than my subtitles and the plot. Okay, so I admit that I did turn my subtitles on, but I promise that I was not watching them the whole time (just like seventy-five percent of the time…). However, since I did know what was going on, I got to appreciate the costuming, scenery, and (my personal favorite) the music.

I really loved the costumes; especially the peasant/gypsy character costumes and Carmen’s outfits. Being up in the “family circle,” it was hard to actually pay attention to the details of the costumes, but I will comment on what I could see. The costumes at the gypsy party scene (which I will talk about later), were so fantastic. I cannot say that I have ever seen any actual nineteenth century Spanish gypsies, but the actors’ styling was exactly what I would have pictured in my mind. I looked up a picture on the Metropolitan Opera House’s website, and they had a great picture of those costumes. I was amazed to see that, although they looked so simple from where I was sitting, the costumes were actually very intricate and detailed. And Carmen’s costumes. Wow. I just want to point out that I was extremely amused that she took off one piece of her costume in every scene she was in. I thought it was funny, but that might just be me. Anyway, I just thought Carmen, played by Anita Rachvelishvili, looked fabulous, and you could tell she knew it. The costumes were perfect for the character, but I guess they would have to be because they would not pay a costume designer to do a so-so job. Her costumes were sensual without being extremely revealing and just beautiful. Especially her last dress. Wow. It was just stunning. Plus, she was being thrown around in it and everything, and not once did she trip over that train. Obviously, I really liked the costumes.

I was mystified by the scenery. First, I want to talk about the curtain with the red rip (I do not really know what I would call it). I thought it was very interesting visually, but I do not really know what the intention of it was. Maybe I missed something, but if anyone else figured it out, please PLEASE let me know! But even though I did not know what it was all about, I still enjoyed it. At the very least, it gave me something to talk about. Moving on to the main scenery. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it was all the same structure, just rotated depending on the scene? Either way, it was really impressive because it looked so real. I thought it was a great idea for the whole thing to rotate, especially since the brief pauses between the acts were, as the name would suggest, very brief; it probably really cut down on scene-changing time, compared to if the structures had been removable instead.

I feel a special kind of happiness when I talk about the music in Carmen, and I do not just mean the singing. Clearly, the orchestra was the real MVP of the night. I was able to pick out individual instruments, but none of them were to obvious that they upset the blend of sounds. I did think that the orchestra overpowered the singers a little bit at times, but I wasn’t even mad because the accompaniment was beautiful. I said I would talk about the gypsy party scene, so here it goes. I especially loved this scene because the music did not just come from the orchestra. The actors on stage were doing a dance where they would clap and stomp their feet and it really captured my interest because it was not exactly aligned with the music so it added a little something extra to the performance. I believe that it was the first scene after a brief pause or intermission (but I could be wrong), so it helped refocus the audience’s attention on the performance. The soloists were definitely amazing. The man who played Don Jose had such a beautiful voice; when he started singing, a quiet “yas” escaped me. Personally, I thought there was more to be desired from the woman who played Micaela; I sometimes could not hear her well and I was not as impressed as I could have been. Maybe that is just coming from me, being a soprano myself, and having heard many other soprano opera singers. I don’t know, her voice just sounded very typical to me, but a man sitting one row over from me was really enthusiastic about her and kept shouting “Bravo!” every time she appeared on the stage. I was extremely appreciative of the bass voices and the soprano 1 voices in the chorus; the bass voices because I do not come by too many of them and I love basses, and the soprano 1 voices because they had such control over their voices and did not sound strained at all on those high notes. So shout out to you guys. And finally, Carmen. Thank you, Anita Rachvelishvili. Rachvelishvili played the part perfectly. If I had to imagine the voice that would be perfect for the part, it would be hers. She had such control over her voice and such a beautiful voice quality. And I do not remember which aria it was in, but she did this fantastic crescendo, then decrescendo, then crescendo again, ALL IN ONE BREATH. I was envious at that point, since my breath control is terrible. There was just nothing I disliked about her. The music in general was just on a whole other level, for me. It was just so amazing, I felt like I wanted to be up there singing with the performers.

I feel like I need to talk about the character Carmen. She knows she is a hot mama and she is working it to her advantage. She literally had men on their knees for her. Carmen was using her womanly charm to getting stuff done and messing with all the men. Basically, I aspire to be her. I just really admired that she, in the words of Miley Cyrus, “can’t be tamed” by any man. Before she was killed she triumphantly declared that “Carmen was born free and she will die free.” What a woman.

The opera is a great experience, which is definitely not just for an older crowd. Of course, when I was asking two elderly women which building the opera was in to make sure I was going to the right place, they condescendingly pointed me to the middle building. With that said, I think that young people might only get turned off by the opera because of the elderly audience members who are trying to keep it for themselves. They almost make you feel like you do not deserve to be there in a way; they look at you with an air of superiority as if any “youngster” is an uncultured swine and they act as if you are personally inconveniencing them by being there. They must be at war with themselves over the fact that there are children in the opera. Overall, I was shocked to see that there was a significant population of younger people at the opera, not counting the student groups.

But is opera a dying art form? I think not. Personally, I think there are more people studying opera now than in recent years. At Queens College, we have the Aaron Copland School of Music, where vocal majors train in classical music (I cannot confirm that for instrumentalists, as I do not actually know any). Performing arts high schools teach opera. There is at least one ten year old girl on some talent show every season who sings opera. To me, that does not sound like an art form on its way out.

The gypsy costumes/party scene I was talking about. I got this image from the Metropolitan Opera House website. Please note that this is from a past performance of Carmen.