By Sonja Methoxha
TIRANA, Sept. 29 – The opera season in Tirana started on Sept. 27 through Sept. 30 with the return of Carmen on our stage.
The production was a collaboration between the Tirana Theatre of Opera and Ballet and its Belgrade counterpart, an Albanian-Serbian joint work to celebrate art and music.
There were different artists portraying the characters in each night, so an enriched performance with flowing emotions would take place, the dynamic energy remaining as artists were taking their rest.
This was my first time in the opera. I went on the third night with a close childhood friend who was a first-timer as well. We shared feelings of anxiety and curiosity. We’ve certainly seen opera pieces on TV or the internet, but nothing beats the real thing. It’s simulation versus reality.
Carmen has four acts. The stage was already decorated for the first act, while a voice in the background repeated three times that the show would start soon, and that we should take our seats and turn the mobile phones off. On the meantime, the orchestra was playing some music to tune the instruments and fill the atmosphere until all was set.
The show started off with a game of cards. It is amazing to note the precision of the music with the blow of the cards on the table. This gave me a childlike enthusiasm and the appreciation of art’s wonders filled my chest.
Then the singing started. Suddenly, I could feel a large smile being carved on my face and my eyes sparkling almost as much as the stage lights. Goosebumps crawled on my skin. There was a piece of art which merges singing, symphony, storytelling, acting, visuals, history and fiction, into a thrilling production which explores the undying phenomenon of human character development and its love tangles.
However, on a more personal level, the piece spoke to me about the female pursuit of freedom. Living in a country where females are still objectified and face scorn both whenever they try to succeed on their own or choose a shortcut, they face violence along the way. Such cases occur mostly in the context of love relations, where love notion is equaled with possession, rather than real freedom, as should be the case.
Just like in Carmen, Don Jose for me represents the male privilege, which has built him soft and fragile with a high sense of pride that is easily being broken as the truth emerges from Carmen when she tells him that he doesn’t love her.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Carmen was portrayed by Ivana Hoxha and Don Jose from Janko Sinadinovic. The duo was a smart combination which worked dynamically and managed to grasp and render the characters. Hoxha’s Carmen was energetic, mean and real in her depiction of sentiments, making sure to sing her thoughts clearly .
Sinadinovic’s Don Jose was slushy, passively active, with an anticipation to his explosion in the end of the show which managed to shake the entire stage.
There was a fascination which grew in me. There was this harmony of the choir and the characters which sang at their own pace or acted in their own world. These worlds within the world of the stage which managed to coexist in concord. I couldn’t get enough of the interplay.
However, there were some technical issues which made the show a bit difficult to follow. The opera is written in French, and it was also performed in French. On the sides of the stage were two screens which showed the text in Albanian. It was like seeing the opera with subtitles. But, the subtitles weren’t always accurate; at times they forgot to display them, they weren’t following the text at all or just flashed by too quickly to be read. So in that sense, one couldn’t grasp the entirety of the plot and dialogue, unless they knew French or had already read the piece prior to the show.
There were a few instances when instead of conducting dialogue, the artists were staring from the audience instead of the interlocutor. And at times, Hoxha’s Carmen felt too wicked rather than playful and free.
At other times, the overall cast failed to follow the plot or read some movements of the characters. It focused more on the singing performance rather than exploring the full potential of the characters and exploiting the space to bring something more fluctuating, leading to everything feeling a little bit static.
Regardless, it was all an amazing experience full of wonder concerning the magic of the voice waves and how they can transmit energy and emotions. An alluring phenomenon on how sound can fill an entire auditorium.
The event took place at the Palace of Congresses, which is where the upcoming opera shows will be performed.
The show was directed by Gezim Myshketa and the orchestra was conducted by Dejan Savic, director of Belgrade’s Opera. The main roles were performed by both Albanian and Serbian opera singers, and the two Balkan Operas anticipate future collaboration together, both in opera shows and ballet.
