Carmen in the Badlands a mammoth undertaking for one night at the opera
Opera buffs have seen La Traviata in Chez Pierre, heard Nessun Dorma in a subway station, Un Bel di Vedremoon from a flatbed truck, and a full-blown Pagliacci at the Coney Island amusement park.
Now it is time for another grand opera from the adventurous Mercury Opera company – in a location to end all locations. They present Carmen in the Badlands for one night only, Saturday, Aug, 4 at the Badlands Amphitheatre in Drumheller, Alberta.
Hewn from an ancient hoodooed desert canyon like set out of Jesus Christ Superstar, the venue is particularly fitting for the annual Passion Play every July, for which the place is primarily known.
Enter Carmen.
Mercury Opera artistic director Darcia Parada, who is dedicated to bringing opera to larger audiences on unconventional stages, says this is a pilot project for a planned longer run of Carmen in Drumheller next year. The venue, she says, is gorgeous, and “lends itself to multiple operas,” and rattles them off, adding, “It is a very Mediterranean palette.”
Along with Biblical lands, one may also think of Spain – where this tragic tale of the titular gypsy woman is set. Apparently Carmen didn’t go over very well when it premiered in Paris in 1875. Aside from the fact the main character is murdered by a man – sorry, spoiler alert – audiences seemed to find the whole thing a little “talk-y.” Too much dialogue, not enough opera. Some adjustments were made by composer Georges Bizet and his team, Parada says, new shows were mounted – and Carmen now stands as a classic proudly alongside its grand opera peers. And yet it also retains its status as grand opera dressed up as musical theatre. Or is it the other way around?
Parada explains, “If you really go back and analyze it, it was more like musical theatre. Of course now it’s elevated, mostly because of its age, and because its orchestrations are much more sophisticated than Andrew Lloyd Webber. But Carmen just grabs you. You just can’t help but love the music. You get people leaving the theatre humming the songs. There’s a reason they appeared on Bugs Bunny, let’s face it.”
As did Gioachino Rossini – and he’s real opera, too.
This show is a hugely ambitious project for Mercury Opera, along with its producing partners Opera Classica and the Badlands Amphitheatre. With concession profits donated to charity, they’ll have 75 performers (including local actors from The Passion Play) including a 24-piece orchestra, with full costumes, sets, all the rehearsals and logistics of getting them all together on an outdoor stage open to the elements – all for one night at the opera.
“Opera is mammoth undertaking,” Parada says. “It doesn’t have a long shelf life. Once it’s out there in the public, it’s live theatre and then it’s gone, and it takes so many people to put it on – so you really need to have a large audience. So I can do the more unconventional things to reach a wider public.”
And after this, what? Opera on an airplane? In a graveyard?
“A troop carrier?” Parada suggests. “A train would be good. Maybe if I could find a few boxcars … ”
Photos by Darcia Parada, rehearsal photo below
