Jovita Vaškevičiūtė.jpg

6 October 2010 at The Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius, the role of Carmen was sung by Jovita Vaškevičiūtė, (house-debut as Carmen), owner of an exceptional warm and beautiful voice, which suited the titelrole as Carmen very well
. It was a great evening with a good new Carmen production, first premiered 20 November, 2009.  Her Don Jose this evening was Audrius Rubežius, which I must admit is growing with this role. Now he is on his way to be a good Don Jose, and I enjoyed his singing very much. Very Powerfull when needed in the end. His Rose aria was a great hit

. He is still pressing to reach out, but in the combination with dramatic role as Don Jose, he needs that, and this is only giving this demanding role a lot of the character as it needs.

Liudas Norvaisas was Escamillio, the Toreador from Sevilla. Regina Šilinskaitė sung Michaela first class. As Dankairo and Remenendas we enjoyed Arunas Malikenas and Rafaila Karpis, and as Frascita for the first time  The wonderful soprano  Irena Zelenkauskaitė (house-debut as Frasquita), as we just have enjoyed as a great Violetta in La Traviata, and as Mercedes Fausta Savickaitė.

Conductor of the extra big choire, and orchestra Martynas Staškus.

This evenings Carmen was dedicated to the anniversary of opera soloist Irena Jasiūnaitė.

What I didn´t like was that the spectacular start of the  last act is made like a film presentuing how t was in Sevilla iearly in the 20th Century. The Idea is good, and letting the choire singing behind worked well, but I was missing the grand tableaux. It is not the same when it is a film, the audience is coming to see an opera, not to see a film, they couldn´t see if the choire was singing during that part, or perhaps it was singing on tape? Specially when it is such a rich production with extra big choire. I dont understand if this was to share costume money? I am shure the audience too found this film idea strange, as they lost the very spectacular opening scene with a lot of people on stage to the 4rd act, to a bad quality film. I would appreciate to have it all live.

CARMEN by Georges Bizet.

Director Arnaud Bernard (France)
Set Designer Alessandro Camera (Italy)
Costume Designer Maria Carla Ricotti (Italy)
Choreographer Gianni Santucci (Italy)
Light Designer Vinicio Cheli (Italy)
Chorus Master Česlovas Radžiūnas

Premiere of this production was 20 November, 2009

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The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is buzzing with excitement – on 20th of November we will welcome the premiere of G. Bizet’s masterpiece Carmen. French director Arnaud Bernard is preparing a production of an opera that once conquered the whole world with its immense style and passion. It is the most often staged opera in the world, while its author Georges Bizet remains in the operatic history primarily as an author of that single work.

Is this opera Spanish or French? In the opera one can hear Spanish rhythms, a few Spanish songs, Habanera, Seguidilla, motives of Gypsy music, playing of castanets. Bizet’s relationship with Spanish spirit is quite interesting. When someone asked him if he has plans to travel to Spain for the improvement of his score, he replied “No, that would only confuse me”. And still, Carmen is one of the most beautiful musical landscapes of Spain, created with French sense of refined style.

Carmen wasn’t blessed with instant success – its premiere at the Opera-Comique in 1875 was marked by scandal rather than acknowledgement. Instead of classical, biblical or mythological heroes, ruling the stage were representatives of the low social class, acting in a vulgar psychological context. Don Jose wasn’t your regular Aeneas, and Carmen was obviously far from Dido. They’re not even close to Romeo and Juliet! Instead of speaking about love, this opera discussed sex and its destructive outcome. Scandal! Carmen and her co-workers from the factory were smoking on stage, and don’t forget the horrifying death in the final scene! Carmen was obviously an outsider of the society, a threat to the law and order. Opéra-Comique has never before seen anything like that. Moreover, intensive dramatic power of the music greatly disappointed all of those who went to theatre only to be entertained. The premiere was a major shock for “family theatre”.

Despite all negative comments, some critics, i.e. Joncieres and Theodor del Banville praised the work for its innovative spirit. In 1880 P. Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron N. von Meck: “I am absolutely sure that in some ten years Carmen shall be the most popular opera in the world”. Unfortunately, Bizet didn’t live to see this words coming to life. His Carmen was soon removed from the repertoire of Opéra-Comique but travelled to Vienna, Brussels, London and New York. After five years it triumphantly returned to Paris where it was greeted with huge enthusiasm and began its stunning career that resulted in the gift of immortality to Bizet.

Bizet created a masterpiece that was interpreted in thousands of different performances and productions. His music serves as material for ballet works (most famous of them being Rodion Shchedrin’s suite by Cuban choreographer Albert Alonso, created together with Maya Plisetskaya), musicals, many popular music adaptations, cinema – numeruous silent movies, sound-films and even cartoons, not to mention advertisements or mobile phone melodies. The admiration of the great 19th century French opera masterpiece is still alive even today.

The theme of Carmen was put on screen not only in the most famous cinema studios ir England, France, Italy, USA, Denmark or Spain, but also in Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Philipines, Sweden, Hong Kong. It was interpreted by some of the greatest directors of the 20th century, such as Charlie Chaplin, Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, Jean-Luc Godard, Francesco Rosi and others. The opera constantly gains new versions – its famous arias are sung by cartoon characters; in a production by Takarazuka Revue entitled Piece: Mister Carmen, the two principal characters exchange places – Carmen is sung by a man, and Jose, in turn, by a woman. In 1953Carmen also gained a parody Spike Jones kills Carmen, in which Carmen works in a bubblegum factory.

Despite all different visions of the work, Carmen is first of all is a major cornerstone of every opera theatre’s repertoire, staged more often than any other opera, it is also the most moving facet of opera and an ideal example of this specific art form.

Director Arnaud Bernard started his career as violinist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Strasbourg. In 1989, he was hired by the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse as stage manager and since that time, has worked as assistant director for all major productions. During this period, he continued his activities as assistant throughout France as well as abroad (Germany, Belgium, England, Argentina and United States, Japan, Italy, Spain) and particularly in the world’s most prestigious operahouses: Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, Scala di Milano, Opéra Bastille, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and others. After having been appointed as Associate Stage Director and Production Manager at the Théâtre du Capitole in 1996, he made his personal debut, at the age of 29, staging Falstaff for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. followed by Il Trovatore in Toulouse and a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1998), also at the Théâtre du Capitole. More recently, he has staged Luisa Miller at the Fenice, La traviata in Prag (PSO), a new production of Falstaff at the Teatro San Carlo in Napoli for the opening of the season 2006, Rigoletto in Marseille and Nantes, L’Elisir d’amore in Toulouse, a new production ofCavalleria Rusticana in St. Gallen, a new production of Carmen in Helsinki in co-production with Lausanne and Tokyo, a new production of The Queen of Spades in Toulouse, Falstaff at the Teatro Colon, revival of La Bohème in Verona, Carmen and La traviata in Lausanne and in Tokyo, Carmen in Bilbao, Falstaff and La Bohème in Zagreb.

Mr. Arnaud Bernard, who has staged Carmen before, claims that “any new production of the same name is still at least 80% new. When you know certain opera very well, you are free to interpret the material from different angles. Even if the staging formula is the same, you have different performers and have to demand different things from them. Creativity is influenced by everything – people, artists, the spirit of the theatre. Carmen is a fantastic music, fantastic story, fantastic structure. One can’t take out anything from this work – everything falls into places so perfectly. In opera everything is ruled by music – the text, movement, moods, and naturally – directing. It’s impossible to create a movement that would contradict music”. The most important idea behind this production is to create a “simple, but passionate show”.