Opera Southwest's "Carmen"

 

In early May I photographed a dress rehearsal of Opera Southwest's production of Bizet's Carmen, one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon.  At New York's Metropolitan Opera alone it has been performed over 1,000 times.

The opera revolves around four principal characters:  Carmen (Eliza Bonet), a fiery and sexually fearless heroine . . .

Don José (Isaac Hurtado), a naive soldier who becomes infatuated with Carmen, ultimately driven to murder by a fateful mix of conscience, jealousy, and despair . . .

Two other lead characters play opposite parts in José's descent.  Escamillo (Octavio Moreno) is the glamorous toreador that Carmen can't resist.

On the other side of José's life is his childhood sweetheart, Micaëla (Cecilia Violetta Lopez), who tries multiple times to rescue José from his perilous infatuation . . .

In the course of the opera, José grows increasingly unhinged and at the end confronts Carmen outside the bullring where Escamillo is performing . . .

His entreaties grow more desperate . . .

. . . but Carmen steadfastly rebuffs him and he gets more physical . . .

. . . until finally he stabs her.

She collapses and dies . . . and the curtain falls.

From a visual (rather than musical) perspective, this was a wonderful opera to photograph, thanks especially to the acting of the singers (principals and many others); the stage director (Carson Gilmore); the lighting director (Daniel Chapman); scenic designer (Dahl Delu); costumer (Kaylee Silcocks); and wigs and makeup (Jacqueline Chavez) .  

In addition to the images above, here -- for various reasons -- are some of my favorite images from the production.

And during curtain call, I even got a nice shout-out gesture from Escamillo!

If you would like to see these images -- and many more -- in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!