Media Reviews

• Event Name: Carmen
  Article: Carmen
  EDGE Contributor - Nov 09, 2009
  By Ed Tapper

  French opera continues to be a curiously elusive genre on our musical stages. Whether it is the difficulty of the sung, French language, a scarcity...
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  French opera continues to be a curiously elusive genre on our musical stages. Whether it is the difficulty of the sung, French language, a scarcity of singers to do it justice, or a general decline in its popularity, it seems to have taken a subsidiary position to Italian, German, and even Eastern European forms---much to the dismay of Francophiles and true, opera buffs. With its sumptuous production of Massenet’s Thais a few seasons back, Boston Lyric Opera distinguished itself as our sole bastion of French opera. For its season-opener, the company chose the grand-daddy, or should we say, the big mama of them all--- Bizet’s Carmen.
  
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• Event Name: Carmen
  Article: For BLO, a potent new chamber “Carmen”
  Boston Globe - Nov 07, 2009
  By Jeremy Eichler

  Boston Lyric Opera’s general director Esther Nelson has promised more homegrown new productions for the company, and she is keeping her word. Last...
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  Boston Lyric Opera’s general director Esther Nelson has promised more homegrown new productions for the company, and she is keeping her word. Last night at the Shubert Theatre, BLO opened its season with a new “Carmen,’’ presented in a stripped-down, theatrically intense staging by Nicholas Muni.
  
  
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• Event Name: Carmen
  "Captivated me and my students"
  Comment posted by: Tom Westmoreland, Band Director, Lynnfield High School from Boston, MA, Nov 21, 2009
  

  I took 20 high school students to see the dress rehearsal of Carmen on Wednesday, November 4. My students were completely enthralled by the production. They raved for days afterwards, not only to me... Expand

  I took 20 high school students to see the dress rehearsal of Carmen on Wednesday, November 4. My students were completely enthralled by the production. They raved for days afterwards, not only to me and their fellow band mates, but other teachers. On top of this, most of these students were boys...and if you can get fifteen 16 year old boys to like opera, you must be doing something amazing. The set is meaningful without being overwhelming, which leaves the story to be told by the music and the actors. Overall I thought Lockhart's interpretation of the score was superb, and the singers were top notch. Dana Beth Miller is completely engaging as Carmen. It was a wonderful production, and as I said before...if you can get teenagers to sit for 2.5 hours and be engaged in a piece of art that is 150 years old, you are allowing the story to shine but also bringing a freshness to a new audience. Collapse

• Event Name: Carmen
  "A show with ideas."
  Review posted by: Operanne from Chicago, Nov 18, 2009
  

  As an occasional visitor from Chicago it's great to see BLO mounting a first-rate production. In nearly 5 decades of opera-going throughout Europe and North America, I've seen my share of Carmens.... Expand

  As an occasional visitor from Chicago it's great to see BLO mounting a first-rate production. In nearly 5 decades of opera-going throughout Europe and North America, I've seen my share of Carmens. This one's up there with the best of them. One may not agree with all the scenic or staging ideas, but at least this production HAS ideas, and they're worked through consistently and with a clear dramatic purpose. The casting, right down to the smaller roles, is good, and the singers seemed to have settled into their roles by the time I saw the show, despite the comments of some of your other reviewers. I particularly liked the way the final scene was handled - dispensing with the usual pageantry and glitz enabled the music and drama to register to telling effect. Collapse

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