My close friend Emily Senturia was the assistant conductor for Opera Delaware’s production of Carmen. I went to see it November 4. It was my first Carmen, and I absolutely loved it. What a wonderful opera. If I ever do start performing opera material, I would love to play Escamillo someday. For the most part, the whole group was excellent. The particular stand-out for me was Gustavo Lopez Manitti as Don Jose. He was absolutely phenomenal. In a much smaller role, Erika Person did stand out as Mercedes, too. I saw her the following January as Phoebe in Yeomen of the Guard. There did seem to be something of a weak link in Kimberly Doucette’s Frasquita; perhaps she was having an off night. Here are some key bits of the program:
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November 5th, 2006 
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[...] The last (and first!) time I saw Carmen, with Opera Delaware, I thought the characterizations in this scene worked quite a lot better. Carmen had this sort of “ok, do I REALLY have to sit here and listen politely to this? Ok, FINE” expression, which is way more plausible. The way I see it, the interesting thing about Carmen and Jose’s relationship is that by the time he wants to go join in the bugle retreat, everybody in the whole world except for Jose knows that this relationship is just a terrible idea. That was lost in this production, which seemed ambivalent about whether it thought those crazy kids could really make it. The weird extended romance continued; they share a passionate kiss at the end of Act III, after his decidedly unenthusiastic joining of the gang. [...]