{"id":244283,"date":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/carmen-sultry-opera-hits-civic-center\/"},"modified":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","slug":"carmen-sultry-opera-hits-civic-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/carmen-sultry-opera-hits-civic-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmen: Sultry opera hits Civic Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Carmen:<\/a>
Tbilsi born Nino Surguladze to play title role in "Carmen". (Courtesy of ninosurguladze.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Charlene Baldridge | <\/strong>Cr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN<\/p>\n

Cuando:<\/strong> May 7 – 20; times vary by performance.
\nDonde:<\/strong> Civic Center, 3rd & B Street Downtown San Diego
\nInfo: (<\/strong>619) 533-7000
\nWeb:<\/strong> sdopera.com<\/p>\n

When Nino Surguladze was 7 years old, she curiously followed a line of kids to its end, whereupon she found herself at an audition being asked what she wanted to perform. \u201cI guess I could sing a song,\u201d Surguladze said, and the Tbilisi (Republic of Georgia) native commenced to give voice to a well-known Georgian folk tune. Two weeks later, a letter of acceptance arrived and Surguladze found herself enrolled in an academy for theatrically gifted students. Thus began the mezzo-soprano\u2019s international career.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before Surguladze was capturing attention. Even before she graduated, her voice teacher began entering her in vocal competitions, and in 2001 the Academy Studio of the prestigious La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, selected her to make her professional debut as Marguerite in \u201cLa Damnation de Faust.\u201d Since then, Surguladze has sung major roles in the great opera houses of Europe. She made her U.S. debut at Chicago Opera and her Metropolitan Opera debut last season as Maddalena in \u201cRigoletto.\u201d<\/p>\n

After hearing Surguladze sing the trouser role of Nicklausse and the Muse at Teatro Regio, San Diego Opera general and artistic director Ian Campbell engaged her to perform the title role in Georges Bizet\u2019s 1875 tragedy, \u201cCarmen,\u201d which closes the season May 14-22 at the Civic Theatre. Thus the adult version of the brave, inquisitive little girl, who followed a line because she was curious, comes to San Diego as the fiery, sultry gypsy named Carmen.<\/p>\n

The opera is set in Seville, Spain. Surguladze plays opposite tenor Richard Leech\u2019s Don Jose, an innocent country boy enlisted in the army, who saves Carmen as she is led to prison for stabbing a coworker. When he is released from jail, Don Jose joins Carmen\u2019s renegade gypsy band of smugglers. Along comes his old girlfriend from home (Micaela, played by soprano Talise Trevigne), who attempts to persuade him to return to his mamma. Smitten with Carmen, Don Jose refuses. When Carmen falls for a matador (Wayne Tigges) Don Jose is insanely jealous. He murders Carmen at the bullring, thus ending the tragedy Carmen foresaw all along.<\/p>\n

Directed by Sonja Frisell and conducted by Edoardo M\u00fcller, \u201cCarmen\u201d is melodic, colorful and passionate. The music includes Carmen\u2019s well-known and seductive \u201cHabanera,\u201d Don Jose\u2019s haunting \u201cFlower Song,\u201d and Escamillo\u2019s \u201cToreador\u2019s Song.\u201d One of the most performed and popular of grand operas, it is a thrilling conclusion for any city\u2019s opera season. Performances take place at 7 p.m. Sat., May 14; 7 p.m. Tues., May 17; 8 p.m. Fri., May 20 and 2 p.m. Sun., May 20 at the Civic Theatre, 3rd and B Street, downtown San Diego. For information and tickets, visit: sdopera.com or call (619) 533-7000.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theatre Critic When: May 7 – 20; times vary by performance. Where: Civic Center, 3rd & B Street Downtown San Diego Info: (619) 533-7000 Web: sdopera.com When Nino Surguladze was 7 years old, she curiously followed a line of kids to its end, whereupon she found herself at an audition […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Carmen: Sultry opera hits Civic Center","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}