Maria Todaro, the new General Director of Florida Grand Opera, is on a mission to make the art form more relevant and palatable to modern audiences. This time her target is the opera Carmen, arguably one of the most popular and recognized of all time.
Musically, no other opera has penetrated pop culture like Carmen has. Almost every aria will be familiar to you.
The Muppets, Pixar, Family Guy, The Simpsons have all sampled this music. Movies like Five Nights at Freddy’s, There’s Something About Mary, Trainspotting, The Fifth Element, have sampled this music.
Formula 1 has played music from Carmen at their winners podium since the 90’s. Beyonce starred in a version of the opera for MTV in 2001, titled “Carmen: a Hip Hopera”
Obviously the story is already enduring the tests of time; Carmen is a temptress. She seduces a soldier to avoid imprisonment by swearing her love in a siren song after which she carelessly tosses him a flower, only to cast him aside for a flashy bullfighter who knows how to party.
She is ruthless and uses her femininity to her advantage. Unabashedly sexual, she seeks freedom more than anything else and resists constraints.
But of course, FGO is trying to attract new blood to the opera- so although it’s a timeless tale, they felt like they had to tinker with it.
Florida Grand Opera and Carmen
Todaro has directed this version and rewritten the speaking parts. In this FGO adaptation, premiering this Saturday, Carmen’s not only using her femininity to get out of trouble, she’s also forming a militia to fight for freedom from Franco’s dictatorship of Spain in the 1930’s. That’s not the only narrative shift- the flashy bullfighter is also a resistance fighter who knows Hemingway, and the author will make an appearance on stage at some point.
Whether altering the speaking parts and leaving the music alone will be successful remains to be seen. It was discordant earlier in the season with The Magic Flute, as the speaking parts said one thing and the arias sang another. The message became muddled. Hopefully Carmen is a strong enough woman to carry the story and her back doesn’t break under the pressure.
Either way, we’ll be dressed in our finest and grooving along in the audience as we watch a strong, independent woman steamroller over people who get in her way.
For more info and tickets, click here.
