Carmen the Cabaret: Lively Tunes and Audaciously Sexy
Image: Andrew Worssam/Supplied
Multi-talented mezzo Eliane Morel has sung many of Carmen’s arias with the quartet Opera Bites in venues such as pubs, where people love their interaction with their audiences.
When she played Carmen in a more formal “staged” production, she realised she missed that relationship with the audience and wondered how she could tell Carmen’s story so that the audience was engaging with a person rather than merely watching a tale unfold. That’s when she thought of doing a cabaret.
“I think Carmen is much stronger, funnier and sassier than most productions allow her to be. A lot of her humour and defiance is actually in the libretto. Doing a cabaret allows me to bring all that out. But I also ask audiences to question how they interpret the story, and whether they like the direction it takes.”
Does Eliane think Carmen has been maligned in her representation in opera and other art forms?
“The worst part of Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen, the inspiration for the opera, is when he spends a chapter talking about what degenerates gitanos (gypsies) are. In Bizet’s opera, gitanos are exciting and exotic, but neither really questions what being oppressed for 400 years in Spain means, and how it informs Carmen’s actions. That’s an aspect I decided to highlight in my cabaret.”
I asked Eliane about the aspects of domestic violence and victim blaming in Carmen’s story.
“There’s domestic violence at the heart of this story, but a lot of the victim blaming comes from outside. It’s pretty clear in the opera that Carmen’s ex-lover, Don José, is toxic, fragile masculinity personified. When she ditches him, he stalks her, accuses her of damning his soul to hell, then murders her. Outside the opera, people have labelled Carmen a “femme fatale,” assuming that her ease with her own sexuality and decision to dump Don José are the cause of her death, not his actions. This cabaret asks audiences to challenge those assumptions.”
Why does Carmen have to die at the end of the opera? Is Eliane keeping her alive in her cabaret?
“Carmen’s death in the opera is inevitable because the music and the storyline lead in that direction. Even Carmen foretells and appears to accept her own death. But in a cabaret where we give Carmen agency and a voice, what does she really think about being killed by Don José? You’ll have to come for yourself to see!”
I asked Eliane if she thinks Carmen is a feminist, or a feminist icon.
“Carmen is a strong and fearless woman, unapologetic for her sexuality and her choices. The way she dies in the opera strips her of her power. I hope this cabaret gives it back to her.”
Carmen is the most popular opera in the operatic canon, full of lively tunes and an audaciously sexy heroine.
In this captivating reframing of the opera, award-winning fab-cab team Eliane Morel with Daryl Wallis on keyboard not only present those memorable arias from the opera, but hold an audience-led séance to get Carmen to tell her own story.
Carmen the Cabaret deservedly won the Newcastle Fringe Best Artistic Merit Award. It has been described as a “masterful mix of comedy, opera and drama that will have you laughing, crying and singing along”. Don’t miss it!
Carmen the Cabaret is on at the Bondi Pavilion, Wednesday 2 April
