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pera Tampa's 'Carmen' light, safe

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published December 4, 2005

Carmen is arguably the most popular of operas, and Opera Tampa's production takes no chances with it.

When Georges Bizet's final opera debuted in 1875, it raised a storm of controversy over its lower-class characters, its violence and its title character, a woman whose passion for men is exceeded only by her passion for freedom.

Heady stuff, but what a sold-out audience got Friday night at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center was Carmen as a flirt, not a force of nature.

Not that anything was flat wrong with the production, which was as professional as Anton Coppola's company always is. But Carmen is all about uncontrollable emotion and doomed love, and this version did not bring those dark and vivid colors.

In fact, the most effective scenes were the lightest and most comic, such as Carmen and her girlfriends plotting gleefully with the smugglers in Act 2.

Soprano Cristina Nassif looks the part of Carmen, with her mane of dark curls and imperious bearing, although the character's man-enslaving sexuality seemed pretty much under wraps. Nassif's singing was inconsistent, strong at some points but thin at others, perhaps because the part is usually sung by a mezzo-soprano.

More impressive vocally, and especially moving in her third-act aria, was soprano Rosemary Musoleno as Michaela, the good girl to Carmen's bad one.

As Don Jose, the wayward soldier the two women compete for, tenor Gerard Powers conveyed the character's emotional breakdown well. The desperation in his powerful final duet with Carmen was a rare emotional high note.

In the role of Escamillo, the dashing bullfighter who steals Carmen's heart, Armando Mora delivered the irresistible Toreador Song with easy charisma and a rich baritone.

Victoria Atwater and Linda Mule sparkled in their comic roles as Carmen's friends, as did Enrique Toral and Timothy Truschel as the smugglers.

The children's chorus, in ragamuffin costume, was charming as always, especially the tiny guy who did cartwheels across the stage in the first act.

The adult chorus was very good. The first act's paean to smoking by the cigarette-factory girls, with its shimmering harmonies, was particularly lovely (and in these abstemious times it was a relief to see they hadn't been recast as water bottlers).

But, although it had its moments, this Carmen was merely pretty, not soul stirring.

[Last modified December 4, 2005, 01:18:20]