Reseñas de producciones pasadas
2“Carmen” at the Ordway, performed with a double cast, is a bit of a homecoming for Graves, who performed the title role with Minnesota Opera back in 1991. Working with a keen design team, Graves brings a somber, desolate feeling to the piece, full of symbolism. The lighting design by Robert Wierzel and Amith Chandrashaker uses extreme breaks between light and dark to show contrasting life choices: freedom on the one hand, and constraint on the other. When Don José (played on opening night by the impressive Won Whi Choi) deserts the army and runs away with Carmen and the Romani travelers, the set opens up to reveal a bright, white light, one that offers new possibilities. But the new freedom, for Don José, is itself suffocating.
And fun is a fine description of this staging, which transplants a tale of the Crusades to 1980s Wall Street, turning what was once early-18th-century Christian propaganda into a wry commentary on capitalism. Full of imaginative costuming and staging ideas, it's also finely sung and acted, and that comes through clearly in Minnesota Opera's new North Loop venue, the Luminary Arts Center. Giacomo Rossi's libretto is all about love amid warfare, with sorcerers and psychics aiding each side in what was then a Christians-vs.-Moors story. In Minnesota Opera's version — the brainchild of director Mo Zhou — old money does battle with new, the silly-suited aristocracy trying to either swallow or merge with a successful startup where the leaders dress in pointy-shouldered, flame-emblazoned leather jackets, bodices and codpieces.
