{"id":59,"date":"2015-06-23T01:20:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/158.182.41.82\/germany15e\/?p=59"},"modified":"2015-07-18T22:35:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T14:35:33","slug":"carmen-a-passionless-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/?p=59","title":{"rendered":"Carmen: A passionless production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kumiko Lau<br \/>\nphotos\u00a0courtesy\u00a0of\u00a0Bettina St\u00f6\u00df<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_61\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/158.182.41.82\/germany15e\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Carmen.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-61\" src=\"http:\/\/158.182.41.82\/germany15e\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Carmen-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"Massimo Giordano playing Don Jose clutches a murdered Carmen, played by Angelika Kirchschlager\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Carmen-300x200.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Carmen.jpeg 470w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-61\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Massimo Giordano playing Don Jose clutches a murdered Carmen, played by Angelika Kirchschlager<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Georges Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen<em>\u201d<\/em> may not be the most popular opera, but it certainly tops the favorites list of diva lovers. The opera not only features a flirtatious and tempestuous love story, but its well-known melodies certainly keep you awake.<\/p>\n<p>Berlin\u2019s Deutsche Oper production is the foundation of this second largest opera house in the country. But opera, a relatively complex art form, is equal parts theatre and singing. Starring Cl\u00e9mentine Margaine and Elbenita Kajtazi, this \u201cCarmen\u201d disappointingly lacks the passion that makes this three-hour production so well loved.<\/p>\n<p>Carmen is not an easy woman to figure out. Margaine\u2019s mezzo vocals are impressive and her acting convincingly expresses both the temptress and manipulator. But, Margaine lacks Carmen\u2019s fire. The scene of her seduction of Don Jos\u00e9 fails to drive the emotions of the house.<\/p>\n<p>The role of the heartless Carmen who leads the solider Don Jos\u00e9 to suicide requires more than pure vocalism: blazing eyes, sexual allure, and most importantly, a sense of danger. Margaine was nowhere close to bringing any of these to that Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the lack of stage presence, the singing was entertaining and well executed, and the orchestra, conducted by Jacques Lacombe, performed beautifully.<\/p>\n<p>Deutsche Oper\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d was definitely not the best I\u2019ve ever seen, but, for 55 euros, well worth it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kumiko Lau photos\u00a0courtesy\u00a0of\u00a0Bettina St\u00f6\u00df Georges Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d may not be the most popular opera, but it certainly tops the favorites list of diva lovers. The opera not only features a flirtatious and tempestuous love story, but its well-known melodies certainly keep you awake. Berlin\u2019s Deutsche Oper production is the foundation of this second largest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[5,7,9,4,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}