He was especially convincing in his character’s impetuous and anguished utterances, which he emphasized with an appealing plangent ping. Davila showed off a burly, dark-hued tenor. The sense of tension and control gave way only in the final scene, where, apparently energized by imminent death, her Carmen produced an entirely new sound of bright, fiery power.Īs Don José, Mr. Margaine’s singing included touches of straight tone where her inky low notes took on the street-savvy sound of a chansonnière. There is an air of self-loathing about this Carmen that explains why she not only accepts her death at the hands of her jealous lover but also actively orchestrates it. As an actress, she commands something like the stylized expressions of silent-film-era sirens. Margaine fully inhabited her character with a vocal performance that underlined the calculation behind the lascivious demeanor. Álvarez pulled out because of a respiratory infection just an hour and a half before the show.
He is a seasoned performer in regional opera houses here, he was assigned to cover for the part of Don José, and so he had been fitted with a costume and had familiarized himself with the outlines of the staging.
Davila might never have seen the limelight. Her coolly smoldering performance of this most famous operatic femme fatale showed she was more than ready.Īs understudy to Marcelo Álvarez, one of the Met’s most prized tenors, Mr. Margaine was scheduled to take over the part of Carmen later in the run, so she was poised to step in when Ms. This revival of Richard Eyre’s handsome production, conducted by Asher Fisch, should have opened with another French mezzo, Sophie Koch, in the title role. But two last-minute health-related cancellations meant that both lead roles were sung by artists making their house debuts. According to the printed program, Clémentine Margaine, a French mezzo, and Rafael Davila, a tenor from Puerto Rico, shouldn’t have been up there acknowledging the audience’s standing ovation. Two understudies looked overjoyed during the curtain call for Bizet’s “ Carmen” late Thursday evening at the Metropolitan Opera.
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