‘Carmen’ seduces audiences once again at Sarasota Opera

Jay Handelman

, Sarasota Herald-Tribune – February 22, 2024

Watching and listening to Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” at Sarasota Opera is a bit like sitting through a collection of opera’s greatest hits, all in one production, which likely explains its enduring popularity. At just about every turn, even those with limited exposure to opera or classical music will hear something familiar within a story that draws you into the characters.

This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen “Carmen” in Sarasota in the last 30 years and with a few exceptions it works on many levels both musically and dramatically.

The character Carmen has an infallible ability to make men instantly fall for her and bend to her bidding. She is determined to prove that she can have anyone she wants and is just as prepared to drop a man at the slightest hint of boredom or rejection.

As she sings in the famous aria “Habanera”: “Love me not, then I love you; If I love you, you’d best beware!”

They are words that are not heeded by the respectable soldier Don José, who is in love with the sweetly innocent Micaëla but is ready to throw everything in his life away to be with Carmen after she tosses a flower at him as a taunt and a test. Once he submits, she is ready to move on with the hero-bullfighter Escamillo, with drastic results.

Mezzo-soprano Chelsea Laggan brings a fiery spirit, a condescending look and a radiant voice to her role as Carmen. You might want a more physically sinewy performance, but she creates all of the right feelings with her voice and facial expressions. Behind the gentle and haunting melody of the “Habanera” is a fierce warning. In the second act, she joins Bryn Holdsworth as Frasquita and SarahAnn Duffy as Mercédès for the frenzied “Gypsy Song” (“Les triangles des sisters tintaient”) in a tavern that allows her to express a freer style.

Laggan has a palpable connection with tenor Victor Starsky as Don José, the upright soldier who becomes one of Carmen’s many distraught followers. Starsky’s clear and powerful voice puts heart into his songs, from the early “Flower Song” to a crushing lament in the closing scenes when Don José is at his most anguished. He makes you feel how much the man is torn, as he sings lovingly of the mother he left behind, and of Micaëla, who tries to save him.

Micaëla is the grounded, adoring young woman Don José plans to marry, and soprano Sarah Tucker makes her as sweet and alluring as you could imagine, a wonderful contrast to the danger that Carmen represents. At Tuesday’s sold-out performance, her soaring voice and compassion grew stronger as Micaëla realized how much is being lost in Don José’s choices. David Weigel plays Don José’s boss, Zuniga, as stalwart but eager for a good time himself with Carmen.

As the bullfighter Escamillo, baritone Andrew Manea arrives full of bluster and confidence accompanied by the roar of a crowd after a great success in the arena to sing the Toreador song. He conveys the needed bravado but not quite the romantic swagger you might expect to be a good match for Carmen, and his voice sounded clenched.

Bizet’s music sounds radiant from the Sarasota Opera Orchestra led by Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi, conveying both the buoyancy and the lurking somberness in the score. Sarasota Opera apprentices and studio artists play soldiers, vendors and others and add to the fullness of the

sound, and a children’s chorus from the Sarasota Youth Opera provides a lot of spirit in the opening scenes as they mock the routines of the soldiers outside a cigar factory.

Director Martha Collins brings fluidity to the movement, even if some of the scenes with the full chorus and children’s chorus look a little crowded on David P. Gordon’s familiar set. There is a sense of purpose behind each scene not always evident in opera stagings.

All these elements make it understandable why “Carmen” remains one of the world’s most popular and a clear favorite in Sarasota.

‘Carmen’

By Georges Bizet. Conducted by Victor DeRenzi, directed by Martha Collins. Reviewed Feb. 20. Through March 22. Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. For ticket information: 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org