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4Ceiling fans spin as Nadine Benjamin’s Clara sings Summertime to her baby – it’s the first singing we hear, and Benjamin delivers it gorgeously. You can almost hear the heat – and indeed, it is George Gershwin’s score, buoyantly played here under the specialist guidance of conductor John Wilson, that more than anything establishes the atmosphere of summer in the American south. Gershwin researched it enthusiastically: the prospect of working with Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and turning their play into an opera brought him to their hometown of Charleston, visiting churches and absorbing the music of the Gullah Geechee community first-hand. It’s no coincidence that there’s a slight stylistic shift whenever we hear from Sportin’ Life, the slippery, perma-smiling drug pusher who always has an eye on New York – his big numbers, including It Ain’t Necessarily So, have his voice shadowed by a quietly sleazy muted trumpet.
Nadine Benjamin, una soprano de carrera tardía y por ello mismo reconocida hoy en el Reino Unido como una artista capaz de llegar sin prejuicios de edad, cantó un excelente Summertime al comienzo y durante toda la velada protagonizó una Clara de fulminante autenticidad y carácter hasta el momento de su sacrificio final, cuando abandona a su hijo para buscar a su marido y ahogarse con él en medio de una tormenta. También merece una mención especial un My man is gone que Latonia Moore (Serena), cantó no como una queja individual sino como lo que debe ser, un lamento de trascendencia colectiva, en la línea del Requiem de Brahms.
One of my fondest memories of growing up in Wiesbaden, Germany was dressing up and attending Sunday matinees with my Grandma Dorothy at the Opera House. If I could pick one word to describe my fond memories of the opera it would be grandeur. Unfortunately my experience with Opera Colorado's production of Bizet's CARMEN (Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) was anything but. Before I go into this critic, I have to say that if they had called this Carmen: The Concert, my expectations would have been altered and thus this review. The design team of Director Kathleen Belcher, Chorus Master John Baril, Conductor Robert Wood, Lighting Design by SeifAllah Christobal, and Costume Design by Ann Piano gave us a more bare-bones and stripped down version of this iconic opera and just me wanted more...much more. With the lack of any set or backdrop, a forgotten chorus stuck in the back of the stage in white shirts and black slacks, a minimal ensemble and the orchestra sitting in the middle of the stage like an awkward elephant in the room. So here is my wish list from the show - I wish that they had dressed the chorus in peasant costumes and had a painted backdrop of a rolling Italian countryside to transport us (even a little) into the story. Had they done these small changes, I could have gone with the orchestra being onstage. Even for my issues with the show, I did see several moments of excellence including the fun gypsies and the passionate exchanges between Carmen and Don Jose.
