United States Bizet, Carmen: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of LA Opera / Domingo Hindoyan (conductor). Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, 25.10.2026. (JRo)
Carmen is a highly charged drama of love, lust and death, and Carmen herself has become a mythic character as renowned as Medusa, Circe or Salome. Seville and the cigarette factory are as familiar to operagoers as Central Park is to New Yorkers. Perhaps that is why director Thaddeus Strassberger felt the need to spin the opera into a more complex web of plot devices and set changes. The smugglers camp was in a cemetery rather than a mountain hideout. The parade of toreadors outside the bullring became a Semana Santa procession inside a cathedral, and Lilas Pastia’s rustic tavern was an elegant Moorish cafe. Religious symbolism and the occult abounded.
The time period was switched from the early 19th century to the 1950s. That would be fine if the action was clear and unobscured by the set design. Instead, Spanish Baroque excesses were rampant and threatened to swallow the singers. Rather than the staging accommodating the demands of the opera, the opera was forced to accommodate the staging. Carmen’s opening aria was partially sung behind a heavy wrought iron gate and mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb was barely visible, missing her grand entrance. In Act IV, Don José (Joshua Guerrero) arrived at the cathedral (normally the bullring exterior) as a penitent in rags, bloodied and beating himself with a scourge. In the same act, Kathleen O’Mara as Micaëla transformed from a dowdy country girl into the Virgin Mary perched on a massive float. Escamillo, dressed in a white bejeweled suit with padded shoulders and followed by an entourage, climbed a massive Mayan staircase in the tavern scene and looked every inch like Elvis Presley in Las Vegas. At the tavern, Captain Zuniga was beaten, blinded and ultimately entombed alive in Act III. With witches casting spells over an urn in the cemetery, it felt more like Macbeth than Carmen.
There were spirits cloaked in black parading across the stage during interludes; a television set showing soccer; an enormous projection of a Baroque painting of a saint; and a noisy helicopter dropping contraband into the cemetery. At times the production felt like an Italian neo-realist film and, at others, a dive into Radical Catholicism.
Domingo Hindoyan, LA Opera’s new music director, was in the pit, and he and the orchestra soldiered on through endless interruptions from flamenco heels, hand drumming, a helicopter and various other stage business. He conducted Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet here in 2024, drawing a vibrant and lushly romantic sound from the orchestra, and I expected the same for Carmen. There were some particularly fine legato passages, the singers were well supported and the balance between them and the orchestra was excellent.
There were moments when the singers were given room to shine: Chaieb was at her best and most authentic in Carmen’s ‘Card Aria’; Guerrero’s tenor gleamed in ‘The Flower Song’; O’Mara was a wonder in every aria and duet; Liam James Karai as Escamillo suffered from the Elvis metaphor in the ‘Toreador Song’ but regained his footing in ‘Je suis Escamillo, Toréro de Grenade’ in Act III. Vinicius Costa as Zuniga was in fine form, Gabrielle Turgeon’s soprano and comedic skills were commendable as Frasquita, Katie Trigg was an admirable Mercédès and Ryan Wolfe proved a lusty Morales. As the smugglers, Remendado and Dancaïre, Samuel Wallace and Mario Manzo were in good form.
At the center of the storm were Chaieb and Guerrero. They persevered despite the opera’s challenges: Chaieb with her sensual stage presence and Guerrero with his fatal innocence. It would be interesting to see them in a toned-down version of Carmen where singing was privileged over production.
Jane Rosenberg
Featured Image: Dancers in Act IV of LA Opera’s Carmen © Cory Weaver
Production:
Director and Sets – Thaddeus Strassberger
Costumes – Mattie Ullrich
Choreography – Antonio Najarro
Lighting – Pablo Santiago
Projections – Greg Emetaz
Stunts & Action – Ran Arthur Braun
Intimacy Director – Sasha Smith
Children’s Chorus director – Fernando Malvar-Ruiz
Chorus director – Jeremy Frank
Cast:
Carmen – Rihab Chaieb
Don José – Joshua Guerrero
Micaëla – Kathleen O’Mara
Escamillo – Liam James Karai
Zuniga – Vinícius Costa
Frasquita – Gabrielle Turgeon
Mercédès – Katie Trigg
Le Remendado – Samuel Wallace
Le Dancaïre – Mario Manzo
Vendor – Melissa Treinkman
Roma Man – Steve Pence
Sombra – Rosa Mercedes