Having seen a relatively small scale Carmen on Sunday has set me thinking. I began wonder whether the modern generation of counter-tenors could take on the role. There would be no point in having Carmen played by a man in drag in a traditional production. But what if Carmen became one of the transvestite hookers who worked the Bois de Boulogne in Paris (perhaps they still do). I think the story updating could make a lot of sense, with the smugglers being turned into a gang of thieves or perhaps drug dealers. This would give a chance for some extra tension between the man, the woman and the man/woman.
A few years ago Stephen Wallace gave us the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe (no, I know its not very close to Carmen) but the production seemed to make nothing of the fact that we had a man playing a woman, definitely a lost opportunity.
I have been listening to a boxed set of 6 Handel operas for a review and a few of them had roles for soprano castratos. Handel's use of this voice type was relatively rare, he tended to use altos. So that altos and mezzo-sopranos are used to playing men in the operas. But when sopranos do so, at least on record, the result is not always convincing. They still sound like women, do we need to start exploring how a soprano might sing a castrato role and at least give some indication that she is a man?
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Georges Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles ; Julie Fuchs, Cyrille Dubois, Florian Sempey, L'orchestra nationale de Lille, Alexandre ...
-
Britten: Peter Grimes - Nicky Spence - Welsh National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Dafydd Owen) Britten: Peter Grimes; Nicky Spence, Sally Matthews,...
-
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro - Sarasota Opera, 2025 - (Photo: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera) Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro , Verdi: Stiff...
-
Bach: Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen - Olivier Stankiewicz, Lucy Crowe, ensemble led by Maria Włoszczowska - Wigmore Hall (taken from live s...
-
Libertas : Beethoven, Schubert, Beach, Marx; Äneas Humm, Doriana Tchakarova; Rondeau Production Reviewed 19 April 2025 The young Swiss barit...
-
Prokofiev: Suite from Semyon Kotko - Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: Marc Gascoigne) Prokof...
-
Natalie Burch, James Way and Annemarie Federle at St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington where their recording of Britten's Canticles ...
-
Sunwook Kim & Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Barbican Centre (Photo: Ed Maitland-Smith/Barbican Centre) Anna Clyne: Stride , Beethoven: P...
-
Martin Owen, Manchester Camerata, Gábor Takács-Nagy at the Stoller Hall (Photo; Rob Everett) When horn player Martin Owen and I met to chat...
No comments:
Post a Comment