 Welcome to Think Tech on Spectrum OC16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech and to Hawaii. I'm Rachel James. And I'm Michelle Daigle. In our show this time, we'll visit the lanai at the other side of the Neil Blaisdell Center just before a performance of Carmen for a talk about that opera. The talk was by Lynn Johnson, a member of the board of directors of Hawaii Opera Theater and a retired member of the music faculty at UH Manoa. The concert hall at Neil Blaisdell Center is home to the Hawaii Symphony and the Hawaii Opera Theater, HOT. It has 2,100 seats, and in mid-October they were all filled for Carmen. Carmen is one of the most famous and popular operas in the world, composed by George Buzet in the 19th century. It is one of the ABC operas, as they say, along with Aida and La Bohème, ABC, get it? The opera was performed in 1875 at the Opera Comique in Paris, where it scandalized its audiences, featuring a liberated woman so unusual for those times. After the premiere, most reviews were critical and the French public was indifferent. Buzet died 90 days later, unaware of the fame his opera would later achieve. In fact, in the next few years, the opera became famous in productions outside of France and was revived in Paris in 1883. After that, it became more and more popular at home and abroad. Since then, it has become one of the most famous and popular operas in the world, and the Habanera and the Toria d'Or song are among the best known of all operatic arias. The story is set in southern Spain. The fiery gypsy Carmen seduces the young soldier Don José, but their tour de faire turns sour as he attacks his leader, deserts his duties, and abandons his lifelong sweetheart, Micaela, to join Carmen's band of smugglers. Carmen soon grows tired of Don José, however, leaving him for the glamorous bullfighter Escamillo. At the end, in a jealous rage, Don José kills Carmen. The tragedy is complete. The music of Carmen has been widely acclaimed for its melody, harmony, atmosphere, and orchestration, and for the skill with which Buzet musically represented the emotions and suffering of his characters. Prior to the opening of Carmen, Think Tech did several video talk shows of Lynn Johnson, including one with Micaela Nash, Repetitor, who has returned to Hawaii to provide voice and language training for the players at HOT. He is our, what we call, a repetitive, or repetitive tour, if we're going to do the slight French thing, which means that he coaches all the singers and he runs the rehearsals, all the rehearsals before the symphony comes in. So, when you put a cast together, you have all these talented people coming from all over, they have to come together and create an ensemble, a group that works together, and he helps make that happen. So, tell us, why don't you tell us a little bit about, first of all, how did you come into your fabulous piano player, which means that not only can you perform well, but you can sight-read, right? Yes. He can sight-read like a demon. I mean, that is, I studied piano. I've studied for 40 years. I can play hymns on Sunday if I really work at it, you know? And he sits down and just plays this stuff. So, tell us, how did you get into being a coach like this? Well, I mean, it was kind of by accident. I went back to school and I was, I knew I didn't want to be a solo pianist anymore, but there weren't a lot of options that I knew were available for me, and I took a class that was called Song Interpretation. And in that class, it was all about how to connect with your singer and to work more in that. And my teacher at the time, the teacher of the class, after the first couple of classes, he said, well, you should be doing this. This is obviously very simple for you and like a good fit. So you were a natural. You were a natural. It was a natural fit. It was a natural fit for sure. And right then, I went to my current solo teacher at that time and said, I need to switch. I need to switch into this other program. So where were you studying? That was at McGill University in the Schulich School of Music in Montreal. In Montreal. So I made the switch and I haven't looked back since. Can you tell us the relationship of your character and Carmen? So I kind of, I'm a little bit jealous of Carmen sometimes because I have a very big crush on Escamillo, the Corridor. But we're best friends. We're her Mercedes, who is like my counterpart. We're with her all the time. We're the three female thieves. There's a point where the three of us are like singing together, trying to lure Don Caillero, or like flirt with him. And it's fun. It's just like, we're three best friends. The girls out, yeah. And then there's one point where Micaela comes in and we're all standing just sneering at her. So we're like the mean girls. That's my favorite part. Right, right, right. I said that. I'm reducing a quintet, which is very, very fast. And I was like, how many, I couldn't get all the words I be able to. And I'm like, if I just put my mouth like I'm kissing the whole time, I can do it easily. So with friends, you want delicate consonances and you want to just always look like you're kissing somebody. And then it's much easier. This is very French. Right, that's a cultural French. And that's a wonderful quintet. And that's in the second act. And you are with Mercedes and Carmen and then these two smugglers come in and they need help moving merchandise. They need to help. And they say, nous avons besoin de vous, which means we need your help. And so it's very rhythmic and exciting. And it's wonderful, it's just a great quintet. So we're going to have a break in a minute, you know, but Leslie, could you sing us out into the break? I want to do a little toriotore. Okay. Toriotore, guardi, toriotore, toriotore. Lynn regularly presents her opera talks on the blazed L&I before HOT performances. And she's very good at it. For many people, her talks are a high point of their opera-going experience. Here is the talk she gave for Carmen. So welcome to George Bizet's amazing opera, Carmen, probably the most popular opera of all time. And for good reason, it has everything. Fascinating, passionate characters, a gripping plot and most important, fabulous music. So let's start with George Bizet. He was born October 25th, 1838. He showed such talent at an early age. His parents decided he should enter the Paris Conservatory at age nine. Bizet was determined to make it as an opera composer. Now, although he composed a number of operas, not one of them was a hit. Nevertheless, he was still young. He was still considered a good, a very fine composer. Well, by the end of 1872, he was thinking seriously of composing an opera based on Prosper Merime's popular novella about a passionate gypsy named Carmen. It's important to realize that during the 19th century in France, Spain was considered an exotic country. Well, in the place of the Spanish conquistadors, new symbols of Spain came into being, the Spanish bullfighter, the Spanish smuggler, the Spanish gypsy, and most of all, the Spanish female dancer. Well, the French went nuts over Spanish music and Spanish composers came to Paris. So what makes a piece Spanish? Well, you have a Spanish scale. It's in between a major scale and a minor scale, and it begins with a half step. That's a white note going to a black note on the piano. So there are a lot of half steps in Spanish music. The opening of the famous Abanera at the beginning of Act I is a good example. You know, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Men cannot resist these descending half steps. Then you have Spanish rhythm. A common technique is to have a dotted rhythm in the accompaniment and then triplets in the melody. So here's your dotted rhythm. Everybody try, ready, go. Okay, now I'm gonna have you do that, and then I'm gonna sing the Abanera with its triplets. You know, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Don't let that throw you, okay? You keep on with that dotted rhythm. Ready, go. One, two, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Very good. Bizet chose as his librettist Ludovic Alevi and Henri Mayak, a duo team who was well-known. However, the Opa Comique was considered a family theater and a wanton gypsy did not fit with this image. The Louvain protested, Mary May's Carmen, isn't she killed by her lover? And that background of these gypsies and cigar makers at the Opa Comique, a family theater, the theater where marriages are arranged, you will frighten off our audience, it's impossible. Well, Alevi, the librettist, fought for Carmen. He said, we're gonna soften Carmen's character and we have introduced a chaste young woman into the story who embodies family values. There will be gypsies, but there are comic gypsies and Carmen's gonna die, but we'll sneak it in at the end after a brilliant act played in bright sunlight. Well, the Louvain was not convinced. Please try not to have her die. Six months later, he resigned in protest. Well, now the key was to find the proper Carmen. Bizet settled on Celestine Gallemarie, a French mezzo-soprano. Like Carmen, Gallemarie was very much a free spirit. She had been married at 15, a widow at 21, and was the lover of another composer at the time she was hired for Carmen. Rumor has it that she and Bizet had an affair. Well, Carmen premiered on March 3rd, 1875. Bizet and those who believed in his talent knew that Carmen could and should serve as a turning point for his career. Much has been written about the reasons for the failure of this premiere. It was certainly not what the audience expected. It was though they went to see the little mermaid and they got Lolita. Well, one critic described Carmen as, quote, a savage, half gypsy, half Andalusian, sensual, mocking, shameless, behaving and believing in neither God nor the devil. She is the veritable prostitute of the gutter and the crossroads. Then there was a problem with the music. The popular genres on which the music was based were not those of good French homes, but of vagabonds. Gypsies and others thought to be socially undesirable. Charles Gounot, who attended the opening, along with numerous other French composers, had yet another complaint. He accused Bizet of plagiarism. He and Bizet were actually very close and Bizet considered him as a friend as well as a major influence. Gounot apparently complained, George has robbed me. Take the Spanish airs and my melodies out of the score and there remains nothing to Bizet's credit, but the sauce that masks the fish. Well, Bizet had the feeling that all was not right. In the interval before the last act, he told his friend Dandi, a well-respected French composer, I sense defeat, I foresee a definite flop. This time I am definitely sunk. Well, Dr. Leslie Wright, a former head of the musicology department at UH, is a world-renowned Bizet specialist and she wrote, a few critics were thoroughly vitriolic and dismissive, but overall, Carmen was damned with faint praise. In other words, it was okay, but not great. Not one critic spotted a masterpiece. Bizet died three months to the day after the premiere, never realizing Carmen would be considered as one of the greatest operatic masterpieces of all time. Since it was written for the opera Comique, the original version of Carmen included spoken dialogue. Now, later, after Bizet's death, his friend Ernest Guillot substituted spoken dialogue with recitative. As a result, there is no definitive version of Carmen. The production, you will see this evening, has spoken dialogue taken from the original production. So let's move on to the opera itself. Many romantic operas have a plot that boils down to A likes B, but B likes C. So this is kind of the way it was in high school. You like somebody and they like someone else. Carmen is no exception. In Carmen, A likes B and at first, B likes A, but then B falls for C. Now C is at first taken with B, but then she falls for D. So B ends up killing C. So let's take a look at this love quadrangle. Carmen, Carmen is a Spanish gypsy. She's seductive and passionate, fearless and independent, and she wants what she wants. In many ways, she signifies the exotic woman whom European men find irresistible and European women find threatening. Mikaela. Mikaela is a character not in the original story by Mary, but brought to the opera as a foil to Carmen. She is Carmen's opposite, modest and chase and devoted and dutiful and young and lovely. In short, the type of girl Don José should marry. So then you have Don José. It's supposed to be José, not José, just so you know that. This is the French being Spanish. Okay. Don José is a corporal in the army of dragoons or calvary. He comes from a nice family and he adores his mother. He's ready to marry Mikaela, but is seduced by Carmen. Carmen to him is like heroin to a drug user. He becomes completely addicted. It is his fate rather than Carmen's that interests us and the music characterizes his gradual decline, scene by scene, act by act, from honest soldier to deserter to vagabond and finally to murderer. Escamillo. Escamillo is a bullfighter and he's a hunk. He decides to go after Carmen. He has no illusions about the kind of woman she is but pursues her just the same. Though the plot is simple, it is still riveting and it's made all the more powerful by the music, the opera begins with one of the most exciting overtures in all the repertoire. You know, and it's energetic and captivating and includes tunes from the famous melodies. You'll hear, and suddenly the music stops and you have Carmen's ominous fate theme, a theme that sets forth the simple fact that Carmen is doomed. Notice how the music builds and builds and builds and ends with what can only be described as a violent climax. Notice that this theme returns at various points throughout the opera. The curtain opens to a group of dragoons relaxing in a square waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on various passersby. Young and lovely Micaela appears looking for Don José. Morales, the corporal, tells her José is not yet on duty and invites her to wait with him. She declines promising to return later. José comes in with a new guard while a group of working class urchins have fun imitating the soldiers in a delightful children's chorus. The factory bell rings and cigarette girls emerge from the factory singing an exquisite woman's chorus. Then Carmen enters and she sings her famous abanera, a highly seductive aria about the unpredictability of love and she warns, if I love you, watch out. As the young women go back to work, Micaela returns and shares with Don José a loving letter from his mother and passes on to him a kiss from her. Well, Micaela is lovely. What other woman could he possibly want? Suddenly, there's a commotion, a fight has broken out. Carmen has attacked a fellow worker when challenged she's completely defiant. Zuniga, the captain, orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with another seductive Spanish aria. The seguidilla, he is smitten with a promise that she will meet him later at Lila Pastia's tavern, she persuades José to let her escape and as she runs off, José is hauled off to prison for a dereliction of duty as act one closes. Act two opens two months later in Lila's Pastia's tavern, the place Carmen had promised to meet. Don José, if he let her escape, she is waiting for him and passes the time with the officers including Zuniga who has his eye on her. Escamillo, a famous bullfighter, arrives with a bit of fanfare and sings the famous Torridor song. Well, he's clearly taken with Carmen. Two gypsy smugglers, Revendado and Dan Caillers show up and they implore Carmen and her two companions, Mercedes and Tresquita, to help them move some merchandise in a wonderful, rhythmic and energetic quintet. Nusavob is wonderful, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. We need your help. Well, Carmen, who's awaiting Don José, refuses to join them. He finally arrives, the rest retire and José and Carmen are alone together. He is thrilled to see her and she dances for him. Then he hears the bugle calling him back to the barracks for roll call. He must go. Carmen insists that he doesn't love her. If he did, he would follow her. He must now make a choice. Zuniga bursts in and orders him to leave and José refuses to yield to his rival. Well, they start to fight but Carmen summons the gypsies from their hiding places and they hold back Zuniga and Don José as an open mutineer against a superior officer is forced to leave Seville and follow Carmen and the gypsy smugglers into the mountains. Well, as you might imagine, things don't get any easier for Don José. He ruins his career, goes against all the values he cherishes, abandons his family and the good girl he should marry, all for Carmen who ends up falling for someone else. This opera is a tragedy, not only for Carmen but also for Don José who loses all sense of dignity and self-respect. Carmen remains who she is, strong, willful, free and passionate to the very end. Don José becomes a broken man. You cannot help but be moved by each of these characters and the incredible music that accompanies them. Two other operas will be performed in the months to follow, Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment in French in February next year and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onyagin in Russian in April. Opera is a demanding and multidisciplinary art form and we are so lucky to have HOT in Hawaii. Opera is at the center of our cultural experience and it's incumbent on all of us to learn about it, to attend its performances and to encourage our children to be there too. If you wanna know more about Carmen the Opera, just Google the name Carmen. If you wanna know more about HOT or get tickets to the other operas this season, Daughter of the Regiment and Eugene Onyagin, check out hawaiiopera.org. Yes, attend and support the opera. And now let's take a look at our Think Tech schedule of events going forward. Think Tech broadcasts its talk shows live on the internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and some people listen to them all night long. If you missed the show or if you wanna replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on thinktechhawaii.com and YouTube. For our audio stream, go to thinktechhawaii.com slash radio and we post all our programs as podcast on iTunes. Visit thinktechhawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live streaming YouTube links. Or better yet, sign up on our email list and get the daily docket of our upcoming shows. Think Tech has a high tech green screen studio at Pioneer Plaza. If you wanna see it or be part of our live audience or if you wanna participate in our programs, contact shows at thinktechhawaii.com. If you wanna pose a question or make a comment during our shows, call 808-374-2014. Help us raise public awareness on Think Tech. Go ahead, give us a thumbs up on YouTube or send us a tweet at thinktechhi. We'd like to know how you feel about the issues and events that affect our lives together in these islands. We wanna stay in touch with you and we'd like you to stay in touch with us. Let's think together. We'll be right back to wrap up this week's edition of Think Tech, but first, we wanna thank our underwriters. Grateful thanks to our underwriters. The Annie Sinclair-Newton Memorial Fund, the Atherton Family Foundation, Bernice and Conrad von Hamfun, Kassel and Cook Hawaii, the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education, Collateral Analytics, the Cook Foundation, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Hawaii Council of Associations of Apartment Owners, Hawaii Energy, the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Hawaiian Electric Companies, Gailin Ho of BAE Systems, Integrated Security Technologies, Kamehameha Schools, Carol Mon Lee and the Friends of Think Tech, MW Group, the Omediar Ohana Fund, the Schuyler Family Foundation, the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust, Yuriko J. Sugimura. Thanks also to our viewers like you. Okay, Michelle. That wraps up this week's edition of Think Tech. Remember, you can watch Think Tech on Spectrum OC16 several times every week. Can't get enough of it? Just like Michelle does. For additional times, check out oc16.tv. For lots more Think Tech videos and for underwriting and sponsorship opportunities on Think Tech, visit thinktechhawaii.com, be a guest or a host, a producer or an intern, and help us reach and have an impact on Hawaii. Thanks for being part of our Think Tech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech, energy, diversification and global awareness in Hawaii, and of course, participating in the cultural life of our community. You can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next Sunday evening for our next important weekly episode. I'm Rachel James. And I'm Michelle Daigle. Aloha, everyone.