To my great surprise my business trip schedule
allowed me to see at short notice Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” at the National Opera
of Belarus. I am not the biggest fan of “Carmen”, but it was ok to see a traditional
direction (Galina Galkovskaya) of this world-famous opera.
Carmen tells a story of Don José, who enlists
and falls madly in love with a girl from the tobacco factory – Carmen - and
forgets the home village girl – Micaëla. Carmen soon grows tired of Don José
and falls in love with the toreador Escamillo. The end is not rosy and Don José
kills Carmen out of jealousy.
This opera is full of familiar songs, which
in my eyes is both its strength and its weakness. On the other hand, it is nice
to hear familiar, compelling tunes, but I also really like operas, that you
cannot see regularly in every opera house of the world.
This Minsk version had some Finnish flavour
in it, since Anna Kontek was responsible for the costume design. When the
direction is traditional, you cannot expect any surprises from it, so the
visual side of the performance played a big role. Kontek’s costumes were on the
fine line between traditional and imaginative and it was nice to look at them.
From the point of view of singing the
evening was not a bullseye. I have e.g. once seen in Minsk Verdi’s “Macbeth”
that had stunning singers, but this “Carmen” did not reach its level. Unfortunately,
Oksana Yakushevich, who sang the main role, had clear difficulties with the lower
and middle register. High
register sounded great, but it was not quite enough. Don José (Aleksey Mikutel)
got his voice warmed up only in the second and third acts. Only Tatiana Gavrilova,
who sang the role of Micaëla, was consistently good during the whole opera. Her
aria ”Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante” was excellent.
So, I
cannot say that this opera was the highlight of my operatic year, but despite
its small flaws, it was quite entertaining, so I was happy with my evening in
Minsk.
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