Georges Bizet
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Georges Bizet 23 MARCH 2019 VICTORIA SQUARE, TARNDANYANGGA 2 Georges Bizet Conductor – Oliver von Dohnányi Director – Stuart Maunder Lighting Designer – Wes Hiscock Costume Designer – Emma Brockliss Chorus Master – Sharolyn Kimmorley Repetiteur – Andrew Georg Language Coach – Christine Rothauser Fight Director – Ruth Fallon Assistant Fight Director – Nino Pilla Carmen - Helen Sherman Don Jose - James Egglestone Escamillo - Morgan Pearse Micaela - Emma Pearson Frasquita - Desiree Frahn Mercedes - Bethany Hill Morales/Dancairo - Samuel Dundas Remendado - Adam Goodburn Zuniga - Wade Kernot STATE OPERA CHORUS ADELAIDE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Duration: 190 Minutes including interval. 3 DIRECTOR’S NOTE Carmen is possibly the most famous opera of Flower Song in Act II, and Micaëla’s soaring all time probably because it contains more Act III aria and most notably the baritone’s hits per square metre than any other opera. famous Toréador Song. Geoges Bizet’s masterpiece of the gypsy Carmen herself has no actual aria but seductress who lives by her own rules, no rather several solos in the form of songs— matter what the cost, has had an impact far that is, moments in which the character is beyond the opera house. Its melodies have actually supposed to be singing within the proliferated popular culture from Gilligan’s context of the drama. Every time she sings Island to the Muppets. a major solo, it’s a performance within the performance. She is sort of the Sally Bowles Carmen, famously was a scandal at its of the opera. premiere and was roundly denounced in the press for its flagrant immorality. This is music theatre charged with an The power of the music and the drama, unprecedented realism that makes the two however, created an equally vocal faction principal figures, Carmen and Don José, as in favour of the work. And everywhere vivid as flesh and blood, destroyed by their away from Paris it was a success: Wagner, appetites and their weaknesses. Brahms, Tchaikovsky and even two unlikely But even though it’s full of colorful Germans: Otto von Bismark, the man who characters, Carmen is really about just two united the German states, and the great people. Carmen and José. Carmen, as even philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche all extolled she herself knows, is doomed from the start, the brilliance of the work. Nietzsche, indeed she does not change from beginning to end. praised the opera, declaring ‘the robustness She is entirely free. of the score is nothing less than a cure-all for the world’s spiritual ills’. And we see Carmen totally from Don Jose’s perspective, so in a strange way we are Brahms went to see the opera over twenty all turned into Carmen’s lovers. It is his times; the great Wagner declared, ‘At last. disintegration that forms the core of the Someone with new ideas’; Tchaikovsky was opera. in awe at the premiere and later wrote; José, in contrast to Carmen, undergoes ‘I am convinced that ten years hence Carmen a complete, doomed metamorphosis. He will be the most popular opera in the world’. changes from a naive country boy, to a The score of Carmen contains so many besotted lover, and finally into a homicidal instantly recognizable melodies that it can demon who, driven mad by unrequited love, be easy to overlook how well constructed it murders the object of his fierce love. is. The orchestra brings to life a wide palette of sound, and Bizet is now renowned as a master orchestrator. The major solo arias STUART MAUNDER AM are not only arresting melodies but all follow Artistic Director the dramatic purpose: the tenor’s wrenching 4 SYNOPSIS ACT ONE ACT THREE Seville – Micaëla enters searching for Don Smugglers’ Hideout – Don José is still José, but he is not amongst the soldiers on infatuated with Carmen, but is brooding duty. Don José’s regiment arrives and the over the honourable life he has sacrificed for guard changes. The cigarette workers come her. Carmen has lost interest in Don José out for their break, Carmen amongst them. and the emotional commitment he demands. She comments on the perverse nature of She suggests he return to his mother. love, and give José a flower. Micaëla returns Carmen then foresees her death in the cards. with a letter from Don José’s mother, which The smugglers are moving on and leave Don dispels his thoughts of Carmen and reminds José to guard their retreat. Micaëla arrives, him of his love for Micaëla and his family. wanting to see Don José. Escamillo has Screams erupt from the factory, where also made his way to the hideout, seeking Carmen has attacked another worker. She Carmen. A fight begins between the rival is arrested and Don José is left to guard her. lovers, which is stopped by Carmen’s return. Carmen convinces José to help her escape, Escamillo leaves, inviting the whole group promising a night of love in return. to his next bullfight. Micaëla is brought forward, imploring Don José to return home to his dying mother. He eventually agrees, ACT TWO warning Carmen that they will meet again. Lillas Pastia’s Tavern – Don José has just finished a prison sentence for his part in ACT FOUR Carmen’s escape. Escamillo, the celebrated toreador and his group of supporters pass by. Seville – Escamillo and Carmen arrive at Carmen and Escamillo are attracted to one the bullfight. Carmen’s friends warn her another. A band of smugglers arrive, and that Don José is lurking in the crowd, but ask the gypsy girls to join them in their next she is not intimidated. Don José confronts escapade. Carmen refuses to go, since she Carmen outside the ring and desperately is waiting for Don José. He finally arrives, begs her to begin a new life with him. but shortly after their reunion is recalled to The more piteously he pleads, the more the barracks. Carmen accuses him angrily determined Carmen becomes. A Chant of being more dedicated to duty than to love. goes up for Escamillo inside the ring, but Don José protests his devotion, but Carmen Don José blocks Carmen’s way. Carmen demands that he desert and follow her. contemptuously takes Don José’s ring from Zuniga, Don José’s officer, enters, looking her finger and throws it to the ground. Don for Carmen. A fight erupts between the two José reacts. men. The smugglers return and break up the duel. After this act of mutiny, Don José has no choice but to join up with Carmen and the smugglers. Interval 5 CREATIVES Conductor Director OLIVER VON DOHNÁNYI STUART MAUNDER Oliver von Dohnanyi studied conducting Stuart is Artistic Director of State Opera with Václav Neumann at the Academy of South Australia. Musical Arts in Prague, and later with Otmar Suitner at the Hochschule für For the last thirty years Stuart has been Musikin Vienna. In 1979, he made his directing musical theatre and opera in debut with the Bratislava Radio Symphony Australia. He joined The Australian Opera Orchestra. Throughout the 1980s, he was as Stage Manager in 1978, becoming a closely associated with that orchestra, Resident Director in 1981. In 1992 he joined as well as with the Slovak Philharmonic The Royal Opera (UK) as a Staff Director. Orchestra and the chamber group Canticorum Iubilo. In 1999 Stuart was appointed Artistic Administrator of Opera Australia, becoming He subsequently turned his attention to Executive Producer 2004 -2008 . His OA opera. From 1986 to 1989, he was chief productions include Tales of Hoffmann, conductor of the Slovak National Opera Manon, Gypsy Princess, Don Pasquale, My and in 1993, was appointed music director Fair Lady and A Little Night Music. His of the National Theatre in Prague. He has Trial by Jury, HMS Pinafore and Pirates of conducted at the English National Opera Penzance have been televised nationally on and the Salzburg Festival, and has appeared ABC TV. with the English Chamber Orchestra. Dohnanyi’s discography includes works by Recent productions include Cunning Little Rubinstein, Liszt, and Smetana. Vixen, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George and Sweeney Todd (Victorian Opera), Tosca, Rigoletto, La Boheme (West Australian Opera) and Candide and The Mikado (New Zealand Opera). From 2014 to 2018 Stuart was General Director of New Zealand Opera. 6 Lighting Designer Costume Designer WES HISCOCK EMMA BROCKLISS Wesley made the decision to move to Emma has over a decade of experience Australia in 2012. He was offered Senior working in theatre as a costume maker, Lighting Supervisor at Opera Australia, wardrobe supervisor and most recently as a based in Sydney. Prior to coming to costume designer. Australia, Wesley ran his own business, Motionlighting, for 13 years in the UK. Emma graduated from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2008 with an Advance Diploma During his career, Wesley has worked on in Costume for Performance. Since then many projects in the event industry from she has made significant contributions conference to product launches. His most within the wardrobe departments of many accomplished design was lighting Coventry local theatre companies such as, State City Centrein the UK for the Millennium. Theatre Company of South Australia, Brink Other credits include the re-lighting of Productions and Slingsby Theatre. ‘Barber of Seville’ for Opera North & more recently the re-lighting of La Boheme at Emma has also toured nationally and Sydney Opera House, Onegin in Melbourne internationally with the musical, Wicked and Faust at the Adelaide Festival theatre Australia, and is currently in the final & His Majesties Theatre in Perth. Wesley semester of a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the lit Opera in the Domain from 2013 –2016 University of South Australia. before moving to Adelaide.