Directing Carmen
Multi-talented Karen Tiller has Hawaii Opera Theatre in good shape fiscally as its executive director, and as stage director her productions draw raves. Next up, Bizet’s Carmen, perhaps the world’s most popular opera, Feb. 27 and March 1 and 3
By Alice Keesing
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
|
ibility in the community. Tiller’s even talking about a dramatic spotlight shining on the building during the grand opera season.
On another wall of the meeting room is the whiteboard that lays out HOT productions for the years to come. The company already has cast everything through 2010 and is working on 2011. And next year is a big one with HOT’s 50th anniversary.
“We are plotting,” Tiller says with a conspiratorial smile.
In the meantime, it’s Carmen and 80-hour weeks getting the opera ready for the stage. This opera is guaranteed to bring a smile to Tiller’s face even as she’s facing a thick wad of bills that need to be paid.
“Carmen, I believe, is a masterpiece on every level,” she says.
Ironically, Bizet’s Carmen premiered in Paris in 1875 to less-than-stellar reviews. The theater was even forced to give tickets away to keep the show going. Today, it’s one of the five most-produced operas in the world.
For this production, Leann Sandel-Pantaleo sings Carmen, and Richard Crawley takes on the role of Don José. Crawley first came to HOT and worked with Tiller when he did Tosca in 2006.
“We hit it off right from the start,” says the tenor. “She’s a fantastic director and she has a wonderful, wonderful sense of humor.
“Being an opera singer, you’re away from home and on the road all the time, so if you can’t laugh, what’s the point?” he asks.
Crawley has worked with directors all over the opera world and says he appreciates Tiller’s insight into the characters. Even with operas that have been performed innumerable times, Tiller is often able to find special moments and different ways of telling the story, he says.
“That really vitalizes the people you’re working with.”
Carmen, of course, has two of the most intense characters in the business with Carmen and Don José. Set in Seville, Spain, Bizet’s opera spins the story of Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a hot temper. She woos Cpl. Don José, leading him into a downward spiral where he rejects his former love, mutinies against his superior and joins a gang of smugglers. When Carmen turns away from him, it leads to her tragic end. It’s dramatic, it’s dark - it’s everything that opera should be.
So, as Tiller likes to say, “We’ll see you at the opera.”
Page 2 of 2 pages for this story < 1 2
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
