Cheryl Livingstone speaks to the love triangle at the centre of one of the world’s best-loved operas
Scottish Opera’s new season kicks off with one of the world’s best-loved operas – Carmen.
This steamy tale’s scandalous heroine and instantly recognisable music makes it a true gem of the operatic repertoire and a favourite for theatregoers around the world.
Justina Gringyte, who has the privilege of taking on the title role, said she’s not intimidated by the opera’s iconic status.
“I think the most important thing in doing these famous big roles is that you know you are going to be criticised, liked and not liked,” she said.
“If you do an unknown piece, people don’t have anything to compare it with. But when you do a role like this, people have their own memories and agenda and for any actor you’ve just got to really detach yourself from other people’s judgment and do your job the best you can.”
This will be the Lithuanian mezzo-soprano’s Scottish Opera debut, and is hot on the heels of her winning Best Young Singer at the International Opera Awards 2015. But she comes well prepared, especially having taken on the role of Carmen for the English National Opera already.
“As a singer, you have your core roles, let’s say 10 core roles, and you want to do them all the time,” she said.
“This is more of a Carmen year and there will be more Carmens in the future. You want to explore that role and then you want to do that more than once.”
Some might think doing a role more than once could become monotonous, but Justina sees it a different way.
She said: “Every production is different. You might repeat the same role, but you have different colleagues and a different director and everyone has their own point of view, so that’s very interesting.
“I mean like Jane Eyre: we know Charlotte Bronte wrote that, but then there are so many very different movies and TV shows of Jane Eyre; different accents, different settings, different directors and so on. It would be very boring if the same production was done over and over.
“It’s also very interesting and challenging to forget what you’ve done before, forget the recordings of other productions from other people and just completely create a new picture.”
Carmen tells the story of one of the most famous love triangles in the classical music world. When Don José, a naïve, young soldier, meets the alluring and exuberant Carmen, thoughts of marrying his childhood sweetheart are soon forgotten. But Don José, performed by Noah Stewart, is not the only one to fall under Carmen’s seductive spell. When she chooses another man, Escamillo, played by Roland Wood, she sets in motion a shocking and unmissable showdown at the bullfighting arena.
New York-born tenor Noah is also making his debut with Scottish Opera, singing the role of Don José – also a character he has played before.
“This production is different from other Carmen productions because we are using original French dialogue, which is how the piece was first presented,” he said.
“The result is a more earthy and real presentation, with all the traditions of French Grand Opera.”
Since graduating from The Juilliard School in New York, Noah has established himself as an extremely versatile crossover artist. As well as singing title roles around the world’s great opera houses, he sang backup vocals for the American rapper Coolio and became a Decca recording artist with his debut solo album, Noah, which peaked at number 14 on the UK albums chart and topped the UK classical music charts for seven weeks in 2012.
Earlier this year, Noah appeared with English National Opera in The Indian Queen and with the Royal Opera House in the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.
His experience with Coolio came in high school when “big artists would want the best young vocalists to perform for them at the big award shows”.
“Coolio needed a few for the David Letterman show,” he said.
“At the time, I was learning my first opera in my Opera Workshop class and didn’t think anything of the audition. I sang a spiritual and they were blown away. It was a great experience for me. A couple of months later, I performed my first opera. First experience in rap and in opera in one year. Pretty cool I’d say.”
Carmen will be at HM Theatre, Aberdeen, from tonight, Thursday, October 22, until Saturday, October 24, and Eden Court, Inverness, from Tuesday, October 27, until Saturday, October 31.
FIVE MINUTES WITH ROLAND
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR MAIN CAREER STEPPING STONES?
There are no real obvious stepping stones or shortcuts in the opera business. It’s about hard work, technique and luck. There is no Star is Born moment when you sing well one week and the next find yourself thrust on to the Royal Opera House stage. You turn up, know your music and pay attention. If you’ve done your preparation and act professionally, you’ll be asked back.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT OPERA?
That no two days or productions are the same. Sometimes I’m on stage all by myself; others it’s like there’s a party going on. We as singers get to experience the highs and lows of human emotion on a daily basis through the dramatic and visceral power of our art form. Even when things go wrong it’s exciting – the adrenalin rush of standing in front of 2,000 people and forgetting the words is not something I’ll ever forget. The relief of it all coming back to me was a different kind of magic.
Plus, I get to wear silly clothes and mess around on stage for a living, which beats sweeping the streets.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF PLAYING ESCAMILLO?
Having a knife fight in very tight leather trousers.
HOW HAVE REHEARSALS BEEN GOING?
Fine. Opera rehearsals are nothing like most people imagine. We don’t sit around in cashmere and furs, sipping champagne. It’s sweaty, scruffy work that usually involves scrabbling around on a dusty floor, or hours of kneeling while a man with a baton shouts at you for singing behind the beat. It can be a lot of fun, though, particularly if everyone gets on. Fortunately, this is a really friendly cast. You can feel the love – tonight especially, as we start to work through the opera in costume and make-up for the first time.
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE ROLE?
The 16 performance fees and the chance to work at home in Scotland. (And the aforementioned leather trousers).