His claim to fame is the role of Emile De Becque in a Broadway revival of South Pacific and as the caricatural Shostakovich Nose at the Met. She was a Micaela blown about the stage by the whims of a few soldiers and smugglers rather than the stolid emotional force of Jose’s ties to his mother.īrazilian baritone Paulo Szot was the Escamillo. Current Adler Fellow Sara Gartland possesses a small, quite lovely voice with an engaging flutter. Young Brazilian tenor Thiago Arancam was an adolescent looking and sounding Jose whose singing gave great pleasure but who lacked the power to make Jose’s frustration and rage seem more than a temper tantrum. And since Carmen is a dialogue and numbers opera anyway the artistic concept seems to have been to make it a true operetta-like musical.Ī light-weight cast was the result. It would seem that San Francisco Opera built its cast around this formidable persona and that meant lighter voices and lighter weight personalities. She has a tonality that incorporates her quite lyric voice with a bright, American presence. The problem is that Kate Aldrich is a very specific artist. Aldrich may arrive for the final four performances, but stay tuned.

Georgian diva Anita Rachvelishvili, a veteran of the role at La Scala, the Met, Munich, etc., has now made her local debut and takes the next four performances as well. This fine young artist has already distinguished herself as a viable Carmen on several of the world’s major stages. American mezzo and recent Adler Fellow Kendall Gladden took the first two performances. Guess what!Īnita Rachvelishvili īut this time, so far, the replacements have been very likely Carmens. Five years later la Aldrich, now a Rossini diva as well, was to be the centerpiece for eleven performances of this get-em-in-the-opera-house war horse. But American lyric mezzo Kate Aldrich surprised everyone with a Carmen that was splendidly charismatic. Of the several step-ins one seemed the most unlikely.

San francisco opera carmen