Dunster House Opera's Carmen Charming at Best

Georges Bizet's Carmen is an opera rapt with passion, where conflicts of love and loyalty, hope and despair play roles as large as the individual characters themselves. The story of Don Jose, a corporal in the Spanish army torn between his duty and his love for the seductive and dangerous Carmen, this work has virtually shaped the myth of romantic 19th-century Spain.

And now the opera that inspired cultural apocalypses comes to Harvard. The Dunster House Opera Society's Carmen made an ambitious attempt to portray all of the historic and romantic melodrama of Bizet's sole masterpiece, but it fell just short of the mark. Despite memorable aria performances and excellent lighting, the passion so requisite to a good production was not there.

Lara Freidenfelds' Carmen was superb, considering the lack of dramatic support she got from the rest of her cast. Her voice was explosive throughout the first act, and she came through the famous "Habenera" with a spark of brilliance. Despite the weakness and discordance of the orchestra, she held the melody and retained the inflexions of the song. Unfortunately, her flair for the dramatic deteriorated slowly throughout the play. Teasing, seductive and convincing in the first act, her gestures and movement became less spirited and aimless by the final scene. Freidenfelds made an alluring and exciting Carmen, but she did not have the stamina of Bizet's heroine.

Aaron Arzu left nothing to be desired in his singing the role of Don Jose. His ability to hold a melody shined through in his renditions of the Alcalan marching song and the plaintive aria to Carmen in the second act. But his positioning and gesturing were unguided, empty and often too quick and emphatic. His crescendos were sudden where they should have been gradual, harsh when they should have caressed the ear. He sang his part with technical aplomb but not with the heartfelt inspiration of a great portrayal.

The roles of Zuniga (Robert Danielowich) and Micaela (Minna Hahn), are not supposed to be devoid of feeling, but an audience unfamiliar with the opera might have left Dunster on Saturday night thinking so. Danielowich's voice was strong but in mangling Bizet's French came off as unimpressive. He did not project downstage, but constantly across, his gestures at times relevant, at times not. He conveyed authority in his part, but little else.

Hahn's Micaela, on the other hand, explored the depths of tepidity. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, her voice was most likely melodious. But the orchestra too easily drowned her out, and her acting was nonexistent. Micaela is an interesting bit part; despite her fragility, she feigns strength in her aria in the third act. Hahn had the fragility but showed no strength. Playing Zuniga and Micaela with such vapidness, Danielowich and Hahn undermined the aesthetic contributions of these characters to the opera. Piquant roles too easily become inconsequential.

Steven Bocchino (Morales), Katie Tucker (Frasquita) and Jamila Roos (Mercedes), like the others, focused their efforts on good singing alone. Bocchino's stage motion in the first act singularly lacked purpose. And Tucker and Roos had little feeling in their performances, struggling with their portrayal of girlish ecstasy during the fortune-telling scene. But none of their voices left anyone disappointed.

David Smith and Thomas Page as El Dancairo and El Remendado, respectively, provided a saving grace for the production. Although their voices were not overpowering, they expanded their roles beyond mere singing with their superb comic improvisations and harmonizing.

The chorus for Sperry's production was another saving grace. Consistently excellent, they showed stamina the leads lacked. The resilience of their voices and their ability to sustain convincing activity behind the leads gave a needed boost to the show. Although their choreography was at times off, it seemed more a problem of direction than timing.

The orchestra was charming at best. The percussion and woodwinds put in strong performances; the wind solo at the beginning of the third act was most notable for its subtlety. The strings, often weak and very audibly discordant, definitely hurt the musical quality of the production as a whole.

Finally, Lighting Designer John Ruark and the technical staff deserve high praise. The lighting for this production was as good as it gets in student theater. Mood lighting was gradual in scene transitions, dramatic and explosive in the final scene, shooting to blood red for optimal effect. The flawless technical coordination dulled the edges of the production's other mistakes.

It's good to see undergraduates taking a stab at the complex and stimulating world of opera. Of course, such large productions are difficult to produce, but student opera can be done effectively and creatively. Dunster House's Carmen gets an "A" for effort but a "C" for mediocrity.