Review | Opera Santa Barbara’s Tragi-Karmic ‘Carmen’

Hearing the frothy and ultra-familiar strains of the Carmen overture rising from the Granada Theatre orchestra pit last week had the combinative effect of cultural comfort food and a freshly scrubbed welcome mat. It’s official now: Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) is back in season. The strains of Bizet’s brightly lit music, crisply played and conducted by OSB’s formidable director Kostis Protopapas, struck an ideal introductory chord (or set of chords) by which to launch into the 30th anniversary of Santa Barbara’s ambitious opera company.

Of course, the score’s hale, bounding cheer and Spanish musical flavors through a French composer’s filter tell one part of the story. Carmen herself (beautifully sung and portrayed with proper mix of lust and control by OSB first-timer Sarah Saturnino) is a more complicated bunch of people, a manipulative seductress — a rebel with claws — headed for a downfall by the final act. 

Hapless soldier Don José (rigorously and passionate sung by Nathan Granner) is the man in a dizzying middle zone or two, tempted by our “sorceress” anti-heroine and tormented by the compromised moral fiber which binds him to his truer love Micaëla (glowing-toned Anya Matanovic) and his ailing mother. Also in the precarious mix of characters is a bullfighter and would-be Carmen lover Escamillo (all due brash charm and garrulous sonorities from baritone Colin Ramsey).

Something’s gotta give. And it does, with a brute comeuppance-lined finality, if you’ll forgive the plot spoilage.

But along the way, the tragedy-in-wait mixes up with comic and dance-lined regalia (with fine dance sequences by Ethan Ahuero and Rachel Hutsell, to Cecily MacDougall’s choreography), and Sevillian scenes of frivolity and impending doom. At times the tragic, comic, and romantic aspects of this comic opera chestnut cross-cut within a single scene: that mercurial quality in standard opera repertoire makes Carmen, Carmen.

Fidelity is the order of this OSB production, which proved to be a very good place to start for the uninitiated Carmen-goer. On the whole, the production heeds solid and conventional approaches to the material from stage director Fenlon Lamb and resourceful set designer Dahl Delu, who is abetted by Daniel Chapman’s atmospheric projection schemes (useful especially in the rugged smuggler’s mountain outpost scenes) and lighting designer Helena Kuukka. A brief appearance by the Ojai Pixies chorus brings momentary relief of innocence and light into the murky morality tale saga.

A tidy cavalcade of memorable arias punctuates the slow-brewing dramaturgy of Carmen, given persuasive renderings at the Granada. Presenting two views of love — one fairly sacred and the other provisional and borderline profane — Micaëla’s “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante” early in the opera contrasts sharply with Carmen’s famed and teasingly flirty aria “The Habanera.” Likewise, the pleading luster of Don José’s “Flower Song” is the sensitive yin to the braggadocio-fueled “Toreador Song” of matador Escamillo. 

Although following a traditional path, production-wise, OSB’s Carmen succeeded in that time-honored feat to be found at the opera, transporting us to another realm, however over-dramatized. Santa Barbara is fortunate to have a very fine opera operation, trustily providing that transportive service on a regular basis.

A logical segue awaits in the current season. The next feature on OSB’s calendar is the tribute project La Divina: The Art of Maria Callas (Lobero Theatre, Nov. 10 and ), celebrating Callas, one of the most definitive of “Carmens.”