The National Opera of China staged "Carmen" at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing over the weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Chinese debut.
The restaged opera, however, did not achieve the expected success as its debut did 20 years ago.
Bezet's "Carmen" premiered in 1875 to wide acclaim and profound controversy.
Since then, it has long been considered one of the best works in opera history.
In February 1982, the National Opera of China gave 27 sold-out performances under the direction of French director Rene Terrasson and under the baton of Jean Perisson.
At that time, Miao Qin, performing as Carmen, Wang Xinna as Don Jose, Ji Xiaoqin as Micaela and the chorus all gave thrilling performances and amazed French musicians, domestic critics and local audiences.
After the premiere, the National Opera performed more than 140 times all over the world.
However, according to Wang, former president of the then National Opera as well as the first Jose, more than 100 performances were given in the first six years. Yet from 1988 until now less than 40 have been given.
Wang also pointed that not all of todays' performers sing with professional dedication.
"Certain problems in the management of the National Opera have hindered the performers' creativity and initiative," he explained.
In 2000, the National Opera of China invited Terrasson to restage "Carmen" to revive the repertoire after an interval.
Last week's celebratory performances did not improve over time, critics said.
The settings remain the same as 20 years ago: the stage is surrounded with charred wood, a symbol of the war taking place in Spain and Carmen's fight for freedom; a long road is in the distance; on this road of destiny, everybody except Carmen travels on it.
Director Fang Xiaoqin was loyal to Terrasson's version, different from many works portraying Carmen as a frivolous or even dissolute gypsy woman.
Instead, Terrasson interpreted the story of Carmen from a sociological angle.
In his version, the break-up of Carmen and Don Jose was caused by differences in their personalities.
As a cigarette worker, Carmen belonged to the lowest class in society.
Because of her social position and perhaps the natural free spirit of the gypsies, Carmen was always ready to rebel.
Don Jose attempted to cage her in but freedom was the most important thing in Carmen's life.
Throughout the show, audiences could see how Carmen's feelings for Don Jose changed after she came to realize that they were from different worlds.
When she met Escamillo, Carmen decided to live with him. Like Escamillo, Carmen was also fighting for her freedom.
Except for Liu Shan, most of the actors and actresses gave a so-so performance.
She carried on the drama as she enticed Don Jose with her expressive "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ( "Habanera") and tried to delight him with "Je vais danser en votre honneur."
Compared with her portrayals of the character on other occasions, Liu said: "In 1986, when I first performed Carmen, just after graduating from the conservatory of music, I sang naturally without much acting since I myself was a young girl too. Now I pay more attention to bringing to life her emotions. It is a kind of improvement."
Another obvious defect comes as the play was sung in Chinese instead of in its original language.
Twenty years ago, the opera was translated into Chinese, the 25th language in the history of the opera, since few Chinese singers were good at French and many audiences were not familiar with the French libretto at that time. The Chinese libretto still sounds awkward.
In their performance in 2000, audiences found that Wei Song sang in French while all the others sang in Chinese. This was due to the fact that Wei came from the Shanghai Opera Theatre and had not performed the Chinese version before.
"The French libretto might fit the music the best," admitted Wang, "Yet Chinese is better in terms of communication for the performers and audiences."
It might be an improvement that the actresses concealed their shyness and restraint - a traditional characteristic of Chinese women. They portrayed the wild gypsy women better than before, especially when they rushed out of the sweaty cigarette workshop to brawl with each other.
(China Daily February 07, 2002)
