Stripped of the stigma of glamour and stuffiness opera tends to have, LSU Opera is presenting a fresh look at an old story, with an adaptation of Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.”
The LSU School of Music will present “La Tragedie de Carmen,” today and Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Hatcher Hall Theatre. General admission tickets are $10 and student tickets are $5.
“It’s like opera unplugged,” said Travis Richter, vocal performance doctoral student who plays Don Jose. “We take out the glitz and glamour of it all and get down to the nitty gritty.”
Jami Rhodes, vocal performance doctoral student who plays Carmen, said “Carmen” is the epitome of opera.
“It’s short, it’s very active, it’s sultry, it’s dangerous, it’s comic,” Rhodes said. “So, dramatically it’s very interesting.”
Dugg McDonough, associate professor and artistic director of LSU Opera and this show, said all of the people performing in University operas are students.
“One of the things we’ve been able to do is – try to expand singers’ theatrical knowledge,” McDonough said. “It’s very important in success in today’s opera world.”
He said many of the University’s singers are mezzo-sopranos, women who have low soprano voices, and this production has a strong mezzo-soprano part.
Daniela Mack, voice performance graduate student who also plays Carmen, said “‘Carmen’ is pretty much the mezzo-soprano dream girl.”
Carmen is one of several roles in the production with two actors playing the same character, Mack said.
McDonough said this adaptation of the play was made in the ’80s by British stage director Peter Brook.
“They wanted to take the story of Carmen and strip away all of the trappings of grand opera … with the best parts of Bizet’s music but in more of the spirit of the novel it was based on.”
Mack said this version of the opera is on a much smaller scale than the original.
“It’s really accessible,” Mack said. “The dialogue is in English, and I think it’s very well acted.”
The theater is small, and the audience circles around the stage, Mack said.
“This show in particular isn’t your average opera,” Mack said. “It’s really a very intimate performance.” Patrick Kelley-Alvarado, music senior who plays Garcia, said the show will be enjoyable for students.
“It’s not your grandaddy’s opera,” Kelley-Alvarado said. “It takes the best music of the show and turns it into this raw thing that people can relate to.”