Gaëlle Arquez imposes her powerful Carmen without singing the famous habanera

The famous habanera did not play at the Teatro Real in the performance of Carmen, by Georges Bizet, last Wednesday, March 27. After the appearance on stage of the gypsy cigarette girl, singing the recitative that culminates with the resounding for sure in D minor, the cellos did not start the disturbing and lascivious habanera rhythm. And we heard, in its place, a bubbling in the flutes, in the key of A minor, which introduced a colorful aria with a chorus, in 6/8 time and typically French, with the same lyrics that we know: Love is a child of Bohemia.

That was Bizet’s first idea when he finished writing Carmen, in the summer of 1874. The original version of his most famous opera that Bärenreiter will soon publish. An edition by musicologist Paul Prévost that will also include the other two versions considered original of this opera with sung numbers and spoken dialogues (both with the habanera): the one from the March 1875 premiere and the even shorter version that he published as a score for voice and piano shortly before his untimely death at the age of 36.

The justification for that minor aria, heard yesterday at the Teatro Real instead of the Havana one, is related to the dramaturgy devised by Bizet. The composer did not want to present the protagonist as a powerful fatal Woman but like a capricious casserole. And concentrate her transformation, a little later, when she seduces Don José and convinces him to let her escape from her, singing the famous seguidilla Near the walls of Seville of purely Spanish perfume. This is stated by the Belgian director René Jacobs (Ghent, 77 years old), in the hand program, within a text that will accompany his next recording of this original version of Carmen in Harmonia Mundi.

The idea is interesting, but we did not see it on the stage of the Teatro Real. and the excellent mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez was a model Carmen without that transformation, since she sang the aforementioned exit aria with the same vocal voluptuousness as the very popular Havana singer. A concert version of Bizet’s opera with the singers and chorus performing among the orchestra’s instrumentalists along with slight costume and lighting details. And a performance framed within an international tour of the Ghent director together with the B’Rock Orchestra and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur that started, on March 12, in Antwerp and ended in Madrid, after passing through Paris, Dortmund , Cologne, Bruges and Hamburg.

This early version of Carmen, prior to the changes, simplifications and cuts that Bizet had to reluctantly make after six months of rehearsals at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, has many advantages and some drawbacks. Among the first, the theatrical section stands out with an exquisite fluidity between the dialogues, melodramas [partes dialogadas con acompañamiento orquestal] and musical numbers. All of this is highlighted by the libretto with dialogues by Henri Meilhac and sung texts by Ludovic Halévy, so inspired by the famous new by Mérimée (but also in the preceding narrative poem The gypsiesde Pushkin).

Musically there are many attractive elements. The chamber details of the orchestration and the much more varied and polyphonic profile in the choruses are recovered. But with so many dialogues the opera stretches to three hours and we miss two of the three orchestral interludes, which Bizet added later to ensure scene changes. However, what we miss most is the habanera that the composer wrote based on The arrangementby Sebastián Iradier, to satisfy at the premiere the mezzo Célestine Galli-Marié. A piece that he did not write in a hurry, as they say, but rather that he created in a dozen different versions, as Charles Pigot tells in Georges Bizet and his work (1886).

The performance by the B’Rock Orchestra and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur was excellent, although René Jacobs’s conducting did not convince in his first foray into this repertoire. His monotonous gestures ensured the opera flowed with precision and his moderate tempos did not elevate a single moment of the first two acts. Everything improved, after the break, with a little more dramatic imagination in the exciting fight between Don José and Escamillo, in the third act, and in the final scene, in the fourth.

Jacobs has benefited from an excellent period instrument orchestra in each of its sections. With the silky and velvety sound of the strings led by the Russian Evgeny Sviridov. An exquisite wood, which featured the Israeli flutist Tami Krausz along with the Leonese Bárbara Ferraz, among other Spaniards that this Belgian group has. And a solid period metal, despite some occasional mistakes, where the horns led by Bart Aerbydt stood out with a beautiful solo in the air by Micaëla. The Namur chamber choir contributed several secondary soloists and had a performance full of sparkles. They were joined by the magnificent ORCAM Little Singers at the beginning, but also in an excellent choir Here they are! Here they are! in the final act.

The cast was another outstanding element with careful handling of French prosody and better female soloists. Arquez is perhaps one of the most outstanding current interpreters of the role of Carmen, combining the theatrical and psychological demands of her character with a vocal roundness full of intensity and subtleties. Her applauded lament from the letters in the third act was one of the highlights of the night. But the other star of the cast was soprano Sabine Devieilhe, who elevated Micaëla’s fragility and determination with a memorable aria I say that nothing frightens me in the third act. Even the soprano Margot Genet and the mezzo Séraphine Cotrez were also ideal, respectively, as Frasquita and Mercédès.

Jacobs tried to justify in the hand program the choice of the male protagonists where, according to him, many prejudices reside. And it is true that Don José does not have to be a heroic tenor, but he requires a singer who evolves from sweetness to violence. The tenor François Rougier did so by forcing his instrument, although without losing musicality, which allowed him to ensure the demanding pianissimo in the high B natural of the flower aria. Regarding Escamillo, Jacobs speaks of graceful baritone and certainly Thomas Dolié was an Escamillo as competent as he was light and forgettable, although he improved in the third act. Good bass Frédéric Caton as Zuniga and baritone Yoann Dubruque as Moralès.

And another of the highlights of the cast were the characters most closely linked to the comical opera. This was the case of Le Dancaïre, by Emiliano González Toro, and Le Remendado, by Grégoire Mour. Both highlighted the quintet of the second act, one of the most exemplary ensemble numbers of the night. Furthermore, their dialogues were among the funniest parts of the production and this version has even allowed us to recover the spoken character of Lilas Pastia, who was brought to life, with a sense of humor, by the pianist and vocal coach of this production, Karolos Zouganelis.