Bizet: Carmen
(sung in English with English, Xhosa and Afrikaans
dialogue)
Pauline Malefane (mezzo-soprano) - Carmen
Sandile Kamle (tenor) - Don José
Andre Strijdom (baritone) - Escamillo
Pauline du Plessis (soprano) - Micaëla
Zintle Mgole (soprano) - Frasquita
Mpontseng Nyatsa (soprano) - Mercedes
Zorro Sidloyi (bass) - Lieutenant Zuñiga
Steven Hicks (baritone) - Corporal Morales
Andries Mbali (actor) - Lillas Pastia
Broomhill Opera Company (chorus & dancers)
Western Australian Symphony Orchestra
Charles Hazlewood (conductor)
Mark Dornford-May (director)
Wednesday 6 February 2002
His Majesty's Theatre, Perth
Presented by the Perth International Arts Festival 2002
The Broomhill Opera Company hails from South Africa and draws its members
from all parts and ethnic groups of that country. They have brought two shows to
the 2002 Perth Festival: an African rendition of the Chester Mystery Plays and
Bizet's Carmen. Scenically translating a medieval naive work into a
contemporary African idiom is, of course, rather a different matter than doing
so with a work firmly rooted in the European classical repertoire.
The curtain was up before the audience entered, showing a steeply raked stage extending forward over the orchestra pit, with a metal grid directly above the conductor, the smallish orchestra quite hidden; the stage was surrounded by scaffolding on three sides. As the audience took its seats, the stage gradually filled up with women in pink nylon uniforms and men in military dress as well as some in casual modern-day clothes; the ethnic mix on stage appeared to reflect that of present-day Cape Town, with a predominance of indigenous Africans. The overture began, fast but not overly loud (likely muffled by the covered orchestra pit), and a girl entered carrying — a traditional matador jacket.
In a setting plainly intended to suggest modern South Africa, that
echt-Spanish attire presents something of a suspension-of-disbelief problem, which points to the wider topic of setting Carmen anyplace where bullfights are not a regular entertainment. (In Carmen Jones, of course, Escamillo
becomes a prizefighter, but that requires a re-working of the entire libretto.)
Another aspect of this issue is the way Carmen describes herself as a gypsy — which, in this production, she very clearly is not. While
almost any setting can comfortably accommodate soldiers, working girls,
femmes fatales and love and death, matadors and gypsies are rather
location-specific. Still, the modern opera-goer, who might have to deal with a
space-traveling Tamino or a dreadlocked Count Orlofsky or Isolde and Brangäne on
an ocean liner, does learn to take these little irregularities in her stride.
It is not clear how much formal vocal training any given member of the Broomhill Opera Company might have, but there is no doubting the enthusiasm which most of them bring to bear. Pauline Malefane, big-bodied vocally and physically, was a consummate Carmen; one did not doubt for a moment her ability to attract and destroy Don José or anyone else to whom she might take a fancy. Her rich mezzo ran into intonation problems here and there, but the conviction and charisma of her performance overrode these. The Don José of Sandile Kamle, on the other hand, was somewhat understated; in the Flower Song, for instance, his light tenor was tender but hardly impassioned. During his confrontation with Escamillo, when the latter reveals the name of his lover — usually the cue for some tasty eye-rolling and scenery chewing — this Don José didn't even take his hands out of his pockets. André Strijdom's bullfighter was rather more glamorous but had serious pitch problems and difficulty keeping up with the orchestra. Pauline du Plessis, a very fine and obviously trained lyric soprano, gave us a touching Micaëla. It was surprising at first to see Lillas Pastia as a drag queen, but after all his tavern is hardly a hangout of the gentry.
The ensemble singing was particularly fine; the members of the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra are skilled at operatic performance and, apart from the difficulty of the enclosed pit, played with their usual élan under the baton of Broomhill visitor Charles Hazlewood. There was some interesting African-derived choreography, including a fascinating curtain call routine in which the entire cast retreated to the back of the stage, then came forward in a stamping rhythm with arms linked to take their bows. While the staging was generally lively, there was the occasional lull between items when the performers became frozen in their places. The three-way confrontation between Carmen, Don José and Escamillo was dramatically effective, as was the corporal's appearance from the auditorium in the last scene, and it was good to see a traditional death-by-knife ending after the various shootings, stranglings and other creative murder methods visited upon Carmens in recent years.
One peculiarity of the production was that the score was sung in English, in a generally amusing if occasionally clunky translation, but the dialogue was spoken in a variety of tongues: English, Xhosa and Afrikaans. This did not do much to enhance dramatic thrust or communication to a foreign audience. It was hard to avoid the feeling that a non-theatrical point was being made here, but if the idea was to highlight the fact that the Broomhill Opera Company is more successfully integrated than, say, the South African national cricket team, it was rather unnecessary: you just had to look at them.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Broomhill Opera Company will present the U.S. premiere of its production of Carmen in May 2002 at Spoleto Festival USA .
