Utah Opera: Colorful 'Carmen' able to electrify audience
Review » Top duo of singers execute classic melodies and songs.

By Catherine Reese Newton

One of the hottest tickets in town this cold January is Utah Opera's "Carmen," a vibrant production that's a welcome respite from the dreary gray of a Salt Lake City winter. Saturday's sold-out opener would have been worth attending just for the fiercely committed performances of the two leads; happily, they were surrounded by top-notch singing, acting and playing in a strikingly handsome physical production.

The Georges Bizet score is one of the most spectacular ever to hit an opera stage. Conductor Ari Pelto and stage director Garnett Bruce have judiciously trimmed the original five-hour score to fit Utah Opera's three-hour running time, and their pacing Saturday was impeccable.

Pelto made it clear from the first brisk bars of the famed overture this was going to be an exciting ride. The orchestra and singers rolled out tune after glorious tune, yet the action never felt rushed.

There was nary a wasted gesture in Bruce's direction. From the way Don José polished his rifle while making a point of ignoring Carmen's sultry "Habanera" to the bullfighter flourish with which the matador Escamillo removed his coat, it seemed every movement revealed character.

The production team has opted to include spoken dialogue in French, as in the original production at Paris' Opéra-Comique. It was a smart decision that helped propel the plot smoothly and swiftly. The switches from singing to speaking never felt jarring, partly because of Pelto's keen sense of balance between instruments and singers. The conductor got an exemplary performance from the Utah Symphony, achieving a chamber-music quality during intimate moments yet savoring every delicious detail in the flashier passages.

Leann Sandel-Pantaleo sings the title role of the Gypsy who refuses to play by anyone else's rules. Her rich mezzo-soprano voice, technical assurance and dramatic chops bowled over Saturday's audience. Equally stunning on opening night was tenor Chad Shelton as Don José, the Spanish soldier destroyed by his obsessive love for Carmen. He sang with expression and power as he convincingly portrayed the character's disintegration; José's desperation in the final showdown with Carmen felt painfully real. The audience was engrossed in the action, reacting audibly at several points.

Baritone Christopher Feigum was a solid Escamillo, though he registered lower voltage than Sandel-Pantaleo and Shelton. He was a bit light at the bottom of the range, but his singing in the higher register was beautifully suave. Baritone Gregory Pearson, one of Utah Opera's most reliable character singers, played Zuniga; he was the standout among a uniformly strong supporting cast: Christopher Clayton as Moralès, Erin Snell as the responsible and intrepid Micaëla, and Brent Turner, Aaron Blake, Chanel Wood and Melissa Treinkman as the four smugglers. The Utah Opera Chorus had another outstanding outing, and the children's chorus, drawn from the Madeleine Choir School, was one of the best in memory. Not only was their musical preparation under Melanie Malinka beyond reproach, the youngsters sang and acted like real children.

Thanks to John Conklin's "gritty-not-pretty" set (now on its third run at Utah Opera) and Susan Memmott Allred's beautiful new costume designs, the production looked as good as it sounded.