Opera in the City - San Francisco Opera's new production of Carmen

Mijo and I were fortunate to see the latest production of Carmen by San Francisco Opera. We heard the shows have been sold out but Mijo was able to get us tickets on Friday night show.

As expected, the cast and the entire production delivered marvelously. We truly enjoyed Carmen.

This was the first time I saw a production of Carmen. It is one of the more popular operas because I've heard some of its music before.  In fact, I have some of the songs in my playlist. I especially like Habanera.

 

Here's my understanding of the story. The setting is a factory. Carmen is a gypsy girl. She started a fight and got arrested and was handed over to a corporal named Don José.  It was love at first sight. Don José let her go but he was put sent to prison because of this. Carmen has an admirer, a toreador named Escamillo. In the end, because of jealousy and a mother who is ill, Don José left Carmen. In the end, it is Don José's jealousy that will be the cause of Carmen's death. I hope I got it right.

   

Ginger Costa-Jackson performed that evening as Carmen and she was amazing. Great singing and awesome acting. Brian Jagde was also wonderful as Don José. The couple, I think, is one of the sexiest couples in any live theatre I've seen. I love their chemisty. They were sizzling hot. Of course, the entire company delivered flawlessly. There was nudity.

   

The Opera in four acts is by Georges Bizet.  The Opera is in French with English subtitles.  The characters were doing a selfied in one of the acts. This shows the production is updated. That actually made me curious how much different this production is from the previous ones.

Just a bit of tidbit. Carmen has been performed in 32 previous seasons at San Francisco Opera. Its first San Francisco performance was October 1, 1927.

   

As always, the displays outside is pretty during the day as well as in the evening.

     

Another good thing about this city is how the different institutions collaborate like the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco Opera to bring Opera to more people especially the communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Opera at the Ballpark will telecast Carmen on July 2 at 7:30pm at AT&T Park.

~rl