The SF Opera wraps up its Fall season with two girls behaving badly, Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Bizet's Carmen. Manon is a young woman, who on her way to seclusion in a convent, elopes with a poor student, Des Grieux. It is not said what peccadillo she committed to earn a sentence of life as a nun, but her brother, instead of being dismayed at the news of her disappearance, calmly expects her to show up as a courtisan sooner than later. Which she does in Act II, taking residence with a filthy rich old lech named Geronte. When she realizes that, for all her jewelry, she is bored, undersexed and misses her hot stud of a student, and attempts to leave the gilded jail with both Des Grieux and the bling-bling, drama unfolds.

Carmen wants to have her cake and eat it too: she finds Don Jose cute, and he is hopelessly in love with her. So she demands that he abandons his career as a soldier to follow her gypsy ways. Of course, when she tires of him, he cannot devote his energy to, say, cleaning the rifle real neat or ironing the uniform he gave up. He has no better activities than to stalk her. Drama, again, which ends up with Don Jose knifing her and then singing an aria, “Si je l’avais fait.” (French for If I did it).

Hadar Halévy as Carmen, picture Terrence McCarthy/SFOpera who also took, below the jump, the picture of Karita Mattila and Misha Didyk

Since both operas are so driven by their lead female character, they hang on the quality of the performers. We have to admit being a tad disappointed by Finnish soprano Karita Mattila in the role of Manon. Her voice is as delightful as ever, but she acted Manon as if she was taking speed to escape from the boredom of Geronte’s bedroom. Her gestures were awkwardly brisk and intense, especially in a danse scene that we found cringe inducing. Why wouldn’t her lover, Des Grieux, give her the back massage she so obviously needed to relax all that tension?

She makes up for it in Act IV, set by the libretto in Louisiana, of all places, with an emotional plea for love and redemption. It is unfortunate that the decor is this drab, dry stretch of gravel, which makes Louisiana look as humid as Death Valley, and that almost all the singing happens lying on the ground. But we’ve always found this act contrived no matter who performs it, as this part of the story was added as a bow to convention by Manon’s author, the Abbé Prévost. His sinning lovers eloping happily to the New World was not a morally satisfying ending at the time, so he had to “punish” Manon for being a liberated woman.

A quick word on the other performers: as Geronte, bass Eric Halfvarson is this awesomely dislikable and yucky old man. We shudder at the thought of him and Manon having an intimate moment. Misha Didyk, as des Grieux, was a bit shy at the beginning, but warmed up as the evening progressed. And Sean Pannikar, again outfitted with the strangest wig, welcomes us with tons of charm and lots of insolence as the student who opens the show.

As for Carmen, the title role had landed on Hadar Halévy’s pretty lap when Marina Domashenko had to leave due to health reason. Halévy was originally scheduled for the alternate cast, but stepped in on opening night and her performance was inspired. She breathed life into the overheard, over-repeated arias (“L’amour est enfant de bohème”, you must have heard that one before) and looked the role, being both sexy and unreachable at the same time. Her slightly slurry voice is not as clean and pure as, say, Mattila’s, but it’s perfect for the part: Carmen ain’t clean and pure either.

She was helped by terrific conducting from Sebastian Lang-Lessing who is music director of the Opéra de Nancy, the very house where we heard our first opera, Carmen already, as a boy wearing short pants, a long long time ago. By the way, next time you’re at the opera, take a peek at the conductor during one of the love-drenched arias of the sopranos: they almost always lipsync along, and we found it hilarious to see Lang-Lessing, who looks more like an accountant than a sensual goddess, mouth “Prends garde à toi.” Oh, the silly fun we have.The orchestra in general, and the flute of Julie McKenzie in her first and third act solos, were remarkable.

On the other hand, Marco Berti’s Don José seemed to wear out as the night progressed, his voice becoming shakier and his pitch more and more approximate, and Kyle Keterlson’s Escamillo, aka. the toreador, lacked punch. The Adler fellows had shining moments: Eugene Brancoveanu as a soldier standing out of the lot, and Kendall Gladen as a sexy Gipsy, whose voice is almost as pretty as her legs (something we’ll never say of a male singer not named Nathan Gunn, but she shows both off, so the comparison is not that inappropriate).

And a tidbit to conclude: Ricardo Herrera, who is an evil Lieutenant in Carmen wearing Dr. Strangelove-like sunglasses, had a non-singing part in the Barber of Seville, as the old and hunched servant. Why would you put a perfectly fine young singer into the silent part of a crumbling old man? Well, that’s opera.

SF Opera
War Memorial Opera House
Performances:
Manon Lescaut, Fri. Dec 1, 8 pm, Thu. Dec 7, 7:30 pm and Sun. Dec10, 2 pm.
Carmen, Sat. Dec 2, 7:30 pm, Sun. Dec 3, 2 pm, Wed. Dec 6, 7:30 pm, Fri. Dec 8, 7:30 pm, Sat. Decr 9, 7:30 pm
Box Office: 864-3330.