Word: dragoon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...been jettisoned in an effort to return to the sunbaked spirit of the original Prosper Mérimée novella. Gone are the choruses of soldiers and cigarette girls, as well as most of the opera's secondary characters. Instead, the focus is on the hotheaded Basque dragoon Don José and his fatal passion for the dark-eyed gypsy Carmen. Brook has even given the work a new title: La Tragédie de Carmen...
CARMEN'S staging does a disservice to some top-flight performances. As Colonel Calverley, the leader of a troop of dragoons whose fiancees have all fallen in love with the poet Bunthorne. William Propp wins over the audience from his first entrance. In one toothy grin, he can look mischievous and still hopelessly bemused, and he handles the perilous patter-song without missing a beat. Carmen's basic idea for staging this number--a list of the ingredients that go into a heavy dragoon--is original and witty: the Colonel sings it on his soldiers' shoulders, lending new meaning...