OPERA REVIEW
'Carmen' has much to offer opera lovers

By Gregory Shepherd

In a nutshell, Georges Bizet's "Carmen" tells the story of a mama's-boy corporal who is in love with a fiercely independent gypsy woman who works in a cigarette factory.

A successful production of "Carmen" demands performers who can sing and act these parts equally strong. Hawaii Opera Theatre's final presentation of the season has two such performers.

Sort of.

At Friday night's premiere Ning Liang invested the title role with real passion and several layers of personality. Her mezzo voice had effective soaring notes when it counted but a strangled quality in large parts of its mid-range.

Last-minute replacement James Cornelison as Don Jose, the army corporal, seemed to take the mama's-boy aspect of his role a bit too literally, and his characterization in Act One had the energy and passion of a tuna sandwich.

His acting and vocal power grew as the night progressed, however, and his high B-flat in the "Flower Song" was beautifully rendered with a diminuendo.

Jamie Offenbach did the most consistent vocal and dramatic work as Zuniga, Don Jose's commanding officer.

As Escamillo, Phillip Skinner gets to sing the famous "Toreador Song." And although his low notes wouldn't have intimidated any bulls, he brought swaggering confidence to the role.

Karen Driscoll did nice work as Micaela, the jilted lover who spends most of the opera pining for that wimp, Don Jose. Had "Oprah" been around a century ago, Micaela would have dumped that loser in no time, girlfriend.

Mary Chesnut, as Frasquita, Carmen's friend from the cigarette factory, did the best vocal work among the smaller roles. One of the most effervescent scenes of the evening came when she and her fellow ne'er-do-wells set about cooking up yet another illicit get-rich-quick scheme.

Besides Chesnut and Liang in this scene, Georgine Stark (as Mercedes), Erik Haines (as Dancairo) and Eric Van Hoven (as Remendado) all did excellent work.

Quinn K. Kelsey got Act One off to a good start as Morales, the goof-off foot-soldier.

The HOT Chorus did its usual fine work, and the Hawai'i Youth Opera Chorus made a strong contribution to the first act. Choreography by Vanessa M. Chong was well-executed by the six dancers in the production, and the orchestra, led by Mark Flint, supported the action well.

Peter Dean Beck's scenery design was pleasing to the eye and versatile enough to pass for several different venues.

Bernard Uzan's stage direction emphasized the crowd scenes quite effectively, but some of the blocking for the principals seemed clunky and not well thought out.

His touch of having Zuniga executed at the end of Act Two seems to fly in the face of the libretto, which has his captors saying that they will be detaining him for an hour or so, not killing him. On the other hand kidnappers lie, and Uzan's direction may be interpreted as a boldly creative decision.

Gregory Shepherd has been the Advertiser's classical music critic since 1987.