Thornton director screens Bizet opera ‘Carmen’ at SCA


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Prior to SCA’s first opera screening of the semester, George Bizet’s “Carmen,” Thornton resident stage director Ken Cazan explained how Bizet’s titular character is a significant female protagonist who has historically been misunderstood. (Photo from Metropolitan Opera)

USC Visions and Voices collaborated with the School of Cinematic Arts to present a broadcast of “The Met in HD: George Bizet’s ‘Carmen’” on Feb. 2 at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theater.

Following a discussion held by Thornton School of Music chair of vocal arts and resident stage director Ken Cazan, the three-hour performance deals with concerns of destiny, love, freedom and female self-expression.

“‘Carmen’ is truly one of my favorite operas,” Cazan said in his pre-opera presentation. “I’ve been able to direct it dozens of times … dramatically, it’s brilliant. It has humor, it has pathos, it has psychopathic killers.”

Cazan acknowledged his special connection with the main character’s background and talked briefly about his own roots with the history of the piece.

“I had never met any of my Romanian relatives until I was about 12 years old,” Cazan said. “I had no idea I had this gypsy background. … I recreated [a memorable visit from the Gypsies] in my very first production of  ‘Carmen’ with cars and parcels piled up on top of them, with guns and stuff they were smuggling. It really came full circle.”

According to Cazan, Carmen represents a free spirit, an unbound antihero who simultaneously drives the opera’s plot through seduction and invention, who is herself destined to follow the path of fate at the end of the piece.

“‘Carmen’ scandalized its initial audiences,” Cazan said. “The artistic director found it a very repulsive piece. He found the characters repulsive, he found the sexualism repulsive, he found the over-sensualism of the piece repulsive. The general manager said, ‘This is going to make us a fortune.’”

In his eyes, Carmen uses her feminine prowess to advance her social status and keep herself out of harm’s way.

“She wants something better, and she is going to get it, and no one is going to stand in her way,” Cazan said “That’s way ahead of its time … sadly, she’s also a victim of her time.”

Students at the event said they enjoyed the opera. Rachel Glass, a freshman majoring in business administration, expressed such a view.

“A lot operas are about betrayal, about love, circled around love,” Glass said. “I thought the idea that her main goal was to be free … I don’t know if she ever really did love anybody. She might have loved the freedom that they could give her but I don’t know if she ever truly loved anybody.”

Mary Jabagchourian, a freshman pre-nursing student at the College of the Canyons, also spoke of her fascination with the production

“I’m an avid musical and play-goer, and this was also my first opera,” said Jabagchourian. “The music just captured me and the plot was amazing. ”

“Carmen” isn’t the only opera SCA is presenting this semester — the school  will host a live screening of Gaetano Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” on March 2 and a screening of Richard Wagner’s “Die Walküre” on March 30. at 9 a.m.