Over the past two weeks, the Sarajevo Philharmonic has dedicated nearly 50 hours to rehearsing and performing Geoges Bizet’s Carmen. Although Carmen is very popular, and part of the standard repertory of most opera companies, it has not been staged in Sarajevo in over 20 years. Needless to say, there were many local musicians and music-lovers who eagerly anticipated the premiere. J Some fantastic singers from all over the region were hired to come perform the leading roles.
Now that the Carmen performances are over, I’m completely wiped. I’m not sure I would have it in me to have a regular job with an opera orchestra. The performances are so long, and usually the oboe parts are continuously exposed and challenging. Carmen is no exception. I was playing both principal oboe and doubling on English horn, and the majority of my solos were in the final hour of the show. I have a very difficult time concentrating for 3-4 hours, and so when the time came to play my final solos, I couldn’t really give them my all. At least I didn’t make any gigantic, glaring mistakes, but it’s still frustrating whenever I can’t put in my best effort.
On the plus side, there were a few moments that always cheered me up and made me laugh. At the beginning of the second act, there is a flirty little flute duet, in which the conductor wanted an over-the-top exaggeration of the dynamics. To show this, he did a little dance, shaking his hips and (a bit rotund) belly. I called it his “sexy dance”, and had to hold in giggles every time.
Of course, I also enjoyed all of the big hits, like the Habenera and the Entr’acte to the third act. The two mezzo-sopranos who performed the title role had a few little quirks that made their renditions “special”. One sang a few lines to the second act in a completely bizarre, phlegm-y voice, so it sounded like Carmen had gone howl-at-the-moon crazy. The other Carmen played her own castanets, which was pretty cool. (Usually, the singer will fake it, while a percussionist in the orchestra plays the part.)
During our final rehearsal on Thursday, we had a long pause between the third and fourth acts. The pause is supposed to be quite short, so we did not leave our seats, but for some reason on Thursday, it took extra time to reset the stage. While we were waiting, I was getting nervous, because I have a large oboe solo in the Entr’acte that opens Act Four. However, the principal flute player, Sakib, began softly imitating my solo, adding in “Bosnian-sounding” grace notes. (Augmented seconds, for you music folks.) I muttered “Bosanska Carmen” (“Bosnian Carmen”) and the whole wind section began to giggle and join in. Pretty soon, about half the orchestra was playing the Ent’acte in 7/8 time, using a Bosnian scale, with jingling percussion adding icing to the cake. Too bad I didn’t have my mini-tape recorder!
After the final performance of Carmen, the whole orchestra was exhausted. I usually go out and celebrate with my friend after concerts, but this time, everyone was too tired. The tram was still running, so we caught it rather than taking a cab.
The tram on Saturday night is usually full of young people on their way out. Last night was no exception. There were two young guys sitting in front of me, who began arguing. It seemed like they were with a group, but no one else in their group seemed to want to get involved. The argument escalated, and the guys began swinging on the hand railings and kicking at each other. Everyone ran to the back of the train car, except for me, since I was trapped in a window seat with the fighting guys right next to me. Yikes! Just as I was about to hop over the seat behind me to escape, a “good Samaritan” guy walked over and broke up the “monkeys”. Enough is enough, so even though the fighting stopped, I decided to exit the tram with Admir and Arvida, and take a cab the rest of the way home. Oy.
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