An appreciative crowd – including yours truly – welcomed Lakewood’s native daughter, J’Nai Bridges, to the Seattle Opera for the opening weekend of Carmen on May 3. The three-time Grammy winner played the titular role – the vibrant and ultimately doomed Bohemian. A sold-out audience included J’Nai’s parents, the daughter of her mentor, and many good friends.  

 

J’Nai has professed her love for the role of Carmen since her senior year in high school. To date, she has been Carmen’s voice 14 times. J’Nai has said that she loves the character’s strong, free spirit and unwillingness to back down from anything, or anyone. J’Nai also appreciates the opportunity to play Carmen as a vehicle for the voices of all women. The opera shocked and scandalized French audiences when Georges Bizet debuted it in 1895. Why? Because it dealt with working classes and lower classes in a time when only the upper classes were subjects of any form of art. In addition, Bizet’s opera shows instances of violence against women – the most impactful being that of Carmen’s murder by the hands of her lover, Don Jose. 

 

Let me tell you, it hits differently when you watch it in person. In this day and age, when we have all seen countless acts of violence in movies and television, watching Carmen in her final battle against Don Jose remains terrifying. Stage director and choreographer of the Seattle Opera version this time around, Paul Curran, expertly pairs the final scene with a bull fight in the background. Don Jose is like the charging bull. Carmen, in her signature red dress, is the target.  

 

We were all fully engaged with J’Nai and Carmen by this moment. J’Nai played the role of the sassy Roma to perfection ever since she first walked in as the cigarette factory girl that every man desires. Carmen flirts with everyone there but is always mindful of her own boundaries. As often happens, she becomes fascinated by the one man who isn’t falling all over her – Don Jose. Unfortunately, it’s a bad match. Carmen falls in and out of love. Don Jose, not so much. When Carmen decides that he is not suitable for her, or for her lifestyle – she is part of a band of smugglers -- she asks him to leave. Instead, Don Jose, jealous and full of rage, locks on. 

 

Obviously, I am putting this intricate story into a nutshell. Other important characters include Don Jose’s original hometown girl, Micaela, played by Kathleen O’Mara; and handsome bullfighter, Escamilla – Carmen’s last and possibly only real love -- played by Benjamin Taylor. Ryan Capozzo as Don Jose was convincing as the vengeful lover, having shown us throughout the opera his capacity for sudden fits of anger, and his indecisiveness, which allows him to blame Carmen for everything. 

 

You’ve got to hand it to opera performers who have to emote so many different emotions while also singing, acting, moving around, maybe dancing. Sometimes they have to say regular sentences in song form – “What’s going on?” “How are you today?” Other times, they have to rage and weep. I loved watching J’Nai’s expressions change depending on the situation, from flirtatious or loving to fiery and rebellious. She looked fantastic in the tight-fitting dresses only Carmen could wear with such aplomb, or the smuggler’s red shirt and leather trench.  

 

You could feel the audience’s anticipation leading into the famous aria that Carmen/J’Nai sings in the first act, or her dance for Don Jose in the second act. The famous song, called “Habanera,” compares love to a willful bird. Love doesn’t do anything how you want it to. It leaves when you want it to stay. It stays when you want it to go. The metaphor could apply to Carmen herself; we feel J’Nai putting her heart into the words. While she may have a reputation as a flirt, Carmen wants lasting love like everyone else. But she is not willing to compromise to get it. 

 

Carmen is one of the three most popular operas in the world. Seattle Opera is considered a top-tier opera company. J’Nai is opera royalty. There could not be a better time to go to the show.