Two Scandals in Paris
By: Frank Cadenhead
The two Parisian scandals on everyone’s lips in December were operatic in scope but also happened to be about opera. After all, Paris is still a city where artists are the center of continuing debate with their audiences. How timely this is since, in a few days, 2013 arrives with the centenary of the opening of the Théàtre des Champs-Elyseés. The riot a few months after the opening was about the Ballet Russe production of Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps (Rite of Spring). It is a historic and iconic symbol of the revolution in the arts going on at that time.
The Opéra National de Paris’ first new production of the season, Bizet’s classic, Carmen, opened December 7. While the opera opened its doors in early September, this first new production marks the “unofficial” season opening and is traditionally a few months after the season begins. This is based, I am guessing, on the assumption that the beau monde – those important society luminaries – often linger at their country estates into the Fall. That was certainly true a few centuries ago.
This “opening” marks the third year of the leadership of Nicolas Joel as director and the spectacular failure of this new Carmen will not give a much-needed lift to his popularity. Until recent decades this opera with its spoken dialogues was always found in the more intimate Opéra-Comique and some question whether it should be on the vast Bastille opera house stage.
Joel has a record of unpopular new productions and this one was particularly decried; there was derisive noise from all corners of the auditorium opening night. The respected theater director Yves Beaunesne gave us a one set staging looking like an abandoned factory or aircraft hangar. He updates the period to post-Franco Spain and has obvious references to Pedro Almodóvar’s films but the focus of the story was lost amid the drag queens and constantly circulating bicycles. The human drama at the heart of this masterpiece was lost among the excesses, often merely decorative.
Topped by a Marilyn Monroe wig seemingly left over from Halloween, Anna Caterina Antonacci seemed baffled by the meaning of it all and even this adored star and definitive Carmen from a few years ago at the Comique received boos from the audience. The only artist applauded by the unhappy crowd was music director Philippe Jordan whose hiring has so far been the only unqualified success for M. Joel.
Over at the Théàtre des Champs-Elyseés, their directeur général, Michel Franck, oversees a five opera season along with other dates filled with concerts, recitals and dance. With the centenary season underway, he can now boast of a succès de scandale. (Merriam-Webster translates this as “something (as a work of art) that wins popularity or notoriety because of its scandalous nature; also, the reception accorded such a piece.” The 1913 Sacre is the classic example.)
All he did was import a production of Médée of Luigi Cherubini by the cutting-edge director Krzysztof Warlikowski which premiered two years ago in Brussels and is now available on DVD. Opening on December 10, the more conservative members of the audience could not even wait for the intermission and the opera had to stop two or three times from the noise. The Créon, Vincent Le Texier, even suggested from the stage that the outraged could leave the hall. But others in the audience shouted encouragement and there was a real mixture of bravos and boos at the curtain. The sulfurous Nadja Michael triumphed again as the wrung-out Medea (“Médée Winehouse,” declared one headline).
Even so, a controversial staging, now the norm in Brussels, was a bridge too far for the mostly middle-of-the-road audience at the TCE. Franck’s former boss, Dominique Meyer, now heads the Vienna State Opera and it looks like Franck could be seeking more operatic adventure as the preplanning of Meyer comes to an end. Warlikowski is no stranger to Paris; Gerard Mortier, Joel predecessor, invited him three times and each time he won substantial audience approbation.
The selection of Joel as Mortier’s successor was to be a return to more balanced, audience friendly stagings at Bastille and Garnier. But Joel’s choices so far have been weak and the critics have been merciless. In July a Carmen was staged in Lyon by Olivier Py which placed the whole opera in a burlesque theater with dwarfs, cross-dressers and bare breasts prominent. If that could work, and it did, perhaps Beaunesne’s effort in Paris just never got a grip on what he was trying to say. Operas with a strong directorial vision are predominate around Europe and the critical dialogue is whether or not directors have done a good job with their individual readings.
Tags: Anna Catherina Antonacci, Dominique Meyer, Gerard Mortier, Michel Franck, Nadja Michael, Nicolas Joel, Philippe Jordan
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Tags: Anna Catherina Antonacci, Dominique Meyer, Gerard Mortier, Michel Franck, Nadja Michael, Nicolas Joel, Philippe Jordan