Carmen

My wife and I went to the KC Lyric Opera production of Bizet's Carmen Wednesday night. What a great opera. I was thoroughly impressed by the tenor who played Don Jose. Carmen was pretty good, too (and just about as lusty as the character should be without becoming pornographic). I'd never heard the show before so it was a lot of fun. THE MUSIC! Holy cow the music for the opera is incredible. I had forgotten just how much music from that show has made its way into popular culture.

The staging left something to be desired, though, in many respects because the director was hired at the last minute. I have some friends in the chorus that said that rehearsals were attrocious because she spent so much time blocking then reblocking. They said that rehearsals got so bad at one point that the principals basically started blocking their roles themselves and opening questioning the director's capabilities. Ouch!!! The problem, though, is that the director should have known what she was doing because she's directed Carmen before in (Florence!) so it wasn't like she didn't know the show.

Anyway, the show came together and was great. As a bonus the house was nearly packed which is unheard of for the KC Lyric Opera on a Wednesday night. It's rare that 3 hours flies by so quickly.