Similarly, in the famed Habanera (sung while Garanca casually begins washing her shirt and feet) she delivers the initial verse with an aloofness that lay somewhere between boredom and 'been-there-done-that.' Only at the repeat of the verse does Garanca then turn up the heat, and to great effect. When Don José pays her only scant attention early in the first act, Garanca simply shifts into a higher gear and scoops her unwitting passenger on-board. At the tavern, Garanca dances wildly on the tables during the rowdy gypsy song of seduction ( Les tringles des sistres tintaient), and later, when Don José enters the tavern, Garanca teases him (during the Castanets Dance ) with a lap-dance.Ĭuriously, Garanca downplays her character's seductive demeanor (some men will no doubt disagree with this) and aims instead to project herself as a poised, confident manipulator - one who has only one talent in life, but knows when and how to use it to her advantage. When arrested and placed in the hands of Don José, Garanca uses a set of handcuffs and a rope tethered to him to stage a powerfully suggestive Seguidilla, inviting her captor to allow her to escape and accompany her to Lillas Pastia's Tavern. Garanca's Carmen is a three-dimensional, hands-on character who uses not only body and voice but also props, staging and dancing to convey her irresistible persona.

The plot of Bizet's Carmen centers around an army corporal, Don José ( Roberto Alagna), who is torn between an infatuation with the manipulative femme fatale, Carmen (Garanca ) and the redemptive forces in his life, represented by the innocent Micaëla ( Barbara Frittoli). And he's not alone: By the second act I was prepared to give it all up (mother included) and follow Garanca to a remote gypsy hideaway in the mountains.

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of Carmen, starring Elina Garanca as one of the most vocally stimulating and visually alluring Carmens in recent memory, places Don José's self-destructive decisions into proper perspective: Under Garanca spell, this man had about as much a chance of staving off disaster as the bull in the toreador's arena.

Indeed, when Don José sheds his honor, his soul and even his mother for the beguiling gypsy, audiences generally hold him accountable for his poor choices even while dutifully mindful of the nature and power of his addiction. It is often said that we are the sum total of the decisions we make in our lives.

Carmen opera metropolitan 2010