How Do You Spell Chicago– F-U-N !

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo copyright, 2010

The 1980 Chicago poster I’ve displayed in my home since relocating to Southern California in 1987, shows the city as a child’s crayon coloring exercise. Blue Lake Michigan and green parks are in the forefront while the rest of the US recedes to the Pacific. New York and the Atlantic are seen beyond Asia giving the artwork a vitality which amuses and refreshes, just as the real city does for visitors.

First-time guests are astounded by Chicago’s breath-taking lakefront, stretching for miles, awash in sailboats, marinas, pristine parks dotted with notable sculptures, fountains, all anchored by world-class museums set like glittering jewels into the vast parks. That’s the view from atop the Hancock Building…something not to be missed. It offers a superlative shoreline vista.

The sunlight bouncing off the lake, enhanced by the tens of acres of open spaces, gives the public buildings a fairytale feel, as though someone sketched them in watercolors. The openness of the lakefront owes a debt to Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. He designed among many projects, the lakefront parks, skyscrapers and the Chicago Columbian Exposition, 1893. Taking his cue from Baron Georges Haussmann, 19th century city planner of the old Roman city of Paris, which was entirely rebuilt to Haussmann’s designs, Burnham designed the city’s new look. Old Chicago was burned down in the Chicago fire, October, 1871. Burnham and the city’s leading citizens seized the opportunity to recast the city in more of a European style, yet, with strong American underpinnings. These were the people who were already collecting Renoirs, Monets and other masterpieces now found at the Art Institute. These vibrant successful Americans put their mark on the former swamp-city Chicawa.

We never tire of ‘going home” to drink in the energy of vibrant Chicago. In August we made our annual pilgrimage to take in a championship roller hockey tournament, see the museums and do lunch on the lakefront. We sampled a café in Millennium Park and delighted in being at the pinnacle of pleasure at the delightful Signature Room, on the 95th floor of the iconic Hancock Building, Michigan Avenue.

Of course, we paid our respects to the fabulous Impressionist painting collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve got the postcards of Renoir’s “Two Sisters – On theTerrace,” “The Rowers’ Lunch,” to prove it. In fact, my collection includes one of the miniature Thorne Rooms and the monumental Georges Seurat “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”- which I obtain over and over. I also raid the gift shop for children’s art books. Always treasures to be found there. The thrill of being in close proximity to great masterpieces right in one’s own hometown encourages the soul to relish creativity. Our friends took in the new modern wing of the museum…a bridge too far for bad knees.

After seeing the paintings (“On The Terrace”is still on the back wall where it is not seen to advantage) we strolled a block north to the Park Grill, tucked under the lee of the stunning sculpture affectionately called “The Bean.” Sam, our waiter, secured a secluded alcove for our party of six old-time friends. It was relaxing and fun. The menu offers seafood, salads and pastas, as well as kobe burgers ($17),grilled turkey burgers ($14) and chicken wraps ($14.50). Opening with friedcalamari ($10.50) we tried salads and burgers – all declared delicious. For quality and ambience diners felt the experience was highly enjoyable.

The next day, my husband, Dan and I, selected the best lakefront restaurant for viewing the splendid scenes of Chicago– the Signature Room (as in John Hancock) on the 95th at the Hancock Building. Go in the daytime for spectacular lakefront vistas to four states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois. Looking like dollhouses in the distance one sees the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry and acres of gorgeous parks and marinas. Roof-top swimming pools down below on city buildings were curiously empty on that hot August day, as were the streets. Relatively little traffic was seen in what is the heart of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile of North Michigan Avenue.

Looking like a child’s Lego playland was Navy Pier with its Ferris Wheel (George Washington Ferris’ invention was first seen at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition 1893) and other attractions, including Chicago River tour boats which go through the locks – sort of a mini-Panama Canal cruise. The locks and river reversal are a marvel of civil engineering. The reversal in 1900 enabled the city to send its sewage down to the Mississippi preserving the lake for drinking water. Construction of the Ship and Sanitary Canal was the largest earth-moving operation that had been undertaken in North America up to that time. It was also notable for training a generation of engineers, many of whom later worked on the Panama Canal (1904-1914). City and suburban residents get their water from the lake, and enjoy the best-tasting water of any metropolis.. The Signature Room’s special summer $15 buffet had packed the space, which gave it a big city vibe. Beautifully dressed families celebrating graduations kept company with office groups, shoppers, as well as cuddly duos. The room is elegant, yet, casual, with white tablecloths topped with white butcher paper. My lobster bisque ($7) was delicious. I was surprised by the oversized yummy Cobb lobster salad ($22). What thrilled most was the heart-stopping city panorama a foot away through plate glass windows: spectacular! After you enjoy the day sights, go back at night for dinner in this romantic setting.

To all this satin we added a touch of burlap by creating a cheering section for our Huntington Beach, CA, grandson, Andrew DeCarlo’s State Wars Roller Hockey Championship Tournament in suburban Darien, contiguous to our former home in Downers Grove. When Andrew learned where the games would be played…he said, “Oh, good, the family can come to see me.” And they did. From great-great aunt Gen DeCarlo DeMaio to Chicago Softball Hall of Famer great-uncle Peter Rocco and aunt Jen, to aunts, cousins and friends too numerous to imagine. It was great fun. Andrew, 10, of course, played on the California team (selected in try-outs). The well-organized and well-executed State Wars Roller Hockey Tournament, under Tim McManus’ management, paired teams from nearly 30 US states and Canadian provinces. It was declared “…best roller hockey tournament we’ve participated in…” by parents Michael and Lorena DeCarlo…sister Michelle loved collecting the state pins each player was given.

Andrew’s Div. 99 A CA team took the Gold Medal and Andrew played on the winning All-Star Team. My lifelong girlfriends fell in love with the little girl on Andrew’s CA team – Tanner Gates, San Diego, Ca. . Her long blond pigtails flew across the rink and even when three players tried to muscle her she fluffed them off. How wonderful girls today have these opportunities in sports. The entire tournament was exciting and greatly enjoyable. Chicago is a city of superlative action…I wouldn’t go so far as the new Mark DeCarlo book, “Fork On The Road: 400 Cities One Stomach,” which says…” if you are bored during the summer in Chicago, slap the loser in the mirror.” But he has a point. There’s an endless array of festivals, concerts, museum exhibitions all through the year…find your fun at www.cityofchicago.org and make your day.

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Credit: Angela Rocco DeCarlo is a former Chicago journalist. Author Mark DeCarlo is her son. His new book, “A Fork On The Road: 400 Cities One Stomach” is available at bookstores and online and is based on his popular Travel Channel TV show “Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo,”
Copyright, 2010

Las Brisas: Pacific Ocean Views and Rose Gardens

Warning: This is not an unbiased review. I love Las Brisas Restaurant for its incomparable location. The place is quaint, just comfortable enough to satisfy, with flashy rose gardens in seasonal bloom, but make no mistake, it is the ocean which holds pride of place. It sits on a promontory overlooking the sun-dappled Pacific Ocean, with curving Laguna Beach to the south replicating vistas of Italy’s Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, our families’ ancestral home.

For us former Chicagoans, the place, especially in January, represents a fantasy of beauty and breezes (hence the name – The Breezes) to which we’ve brought our most beloved family and friends. Our Chicago-born fathers, Mike DeCarlo and Pete Rocco, taking their first plane ride in their 80s, relished the experience of eating in sunshine on a winter day. My sister, Christine, and others have shared our delight in merely being in this sublimely spectacular spot. Native Californians cannot fathom the depth of pleasure experienced by we cold-clime folk, who find ourselves squinting into the winter sun as we munch delicious Las Brisas nachos on the terrace. We can almost feel we’re again visiting fabled Positano, Italy, seated on the terrace of the celebrated San Pietro Hotel. The scenery is that similarly spectacular. Any visitor will respond favorably to the sensual charm of the area.

We are not alone in our devotion to the Las Brisas experience. The Southern California landmark began in 1938 as the Victor Hugo Inn. It became Las Brisas in 1979, and has been a magnet for visitors from all over the world, not just Chicago. Having on-property valet parking is no small thing in a beach town with limited street parking.

Of course the food is lovely…the calamari is particularly delicate and flavorful with a soft garlic lemon butter sauce ($10.25) that is a fine introduction to whatever comes next. On one recent visit we had our favorites on the patio –fish and chips and cheesy nachos – yummy. The patio has its own menu, separate from the inside dining room. Last week the couple seated next to us on the patio were visiting from Naperville, Illinois, a town near our former Downers Grove hometown.Noticing my Cubs bag they struck up a conversation and we had the most pleasant time talking about our rotten-weather Chicago and how glorious is Las Brisas.

Reservations are taken but the promise of a window seat is withheld. Therefore to increase your chances of unobstructed ocean views try going on a Monday when there is more opportunity to snag a window table to catch sight of the pelicans fishing for their lunch or if one is lucky seeing dolphin play dates carousing in the distance. There is an outcrop of rocks off the gazebo viewing area which is home to marine birds and mammals – I think they may be seals.

The place offers Mexican Riviera seafood dishes, as well as beef and chicken entrees for breakfast, lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch and cocktails. My lunch dish of four large sea scallops sautéed in spicy chardonnay with garlic butter sauce and wild mushrooms was marvelously fresh-tasting and flavorful ($17.50). I’ve enjoyed the Ensalada de Primavera –substituting romaine for the spring greens but keeping the caramelized walnuts, pear, cranberries, feta cheese with a citrus-ginger dressing. ($6.50). Never having acquired a taste for alcohol I cannot speak for the drinks but I did notice margarita cocktails were priced at $9.50.

For those seeking every opportunity for beautiful vistas it is worth mentioning a small park with gorgeous views reached off Pacific Coast Highway by turning right (if you are driving south) onto Crescent Bay St. Continue to the end of the cul-de-sac and park on the street. The little park provides wonderful views up and down the coastline. The town of Laguna Beach is filled with art galleries and other interesting shops. Begin and end at Las Brisas and you are sure to enjoy it all.

Las Brisas Restaurant
361 Cliff Drive
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
949-497-5434 – reservations online –
www.lasbrisaslagunabeach.com

Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright, 2010

Renoir Exhibit LACMA

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo

Pierre –Auguste Renoir Exhibit
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
February 14 – May 9,2010

Pierre – Auguste Renoir,(1841 – 1919) the French Impressionist painter known for his luminescent female nudes, was a towering figure in the art world along with other Impressionist greats such as Monet and Cezanne. This ticketed LACMA Renoir exhibit; February 14 – May 9, 2010 – illuminates Renoir’s later works as a postimpressionist whose influence on modern painters, such as Picasso, has received lesser discussion.

This exhibit, which opened this past fall at the Grand Palais, Paris, is the first to focus on the mature works of Renoir, in his last years. The exhibit moves on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art June 17. The show brings together about 80 of his paintings, drawings and sculptures from collections in Europe, the United States and Japan. In addition, works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisee, Aristide Maillol and Pierre Bonnard demonstrate Renoir’s often overlooked influence on their art. A startling echo can be seen in Picasso’s female figures after viewing Renoir’s nudes painted in his 20th century career.

Many years ago a friend and I took our seven young sons – ages 3 to 12 - to see a glorious Renoir exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. The huge canvases of beautiful early career nudes shown as though lighted from behind. On the way home in the proverbial stationwagon of that era I asked, of no one in particular, “Did you like the show?” “Yes,” came the immediate reply from the way way back. “We counted 47 nudes.”

Alas, this show would perhaps have disappointed. I counted less than fifteen nudes, which are different in their light reflective qualities from early works. Nonetheless, it is an exhibit for serious art students as well as casual observers. The curators of the exhibit wish to demonstrate how Renoir’s curiosity and determined art self-instruction influenced his late works.

According to the experts, in October, 1881, Renoir decided, after finishing his Luncheon of the Boating Party, one of the most famous and admired Impressionist paintings, to achieve his ambition to go to Italy. He planned to visit Venice, Rome, Florence and Naples to view the paintings of Raphael, Titian and other Renaissance masters. He did just that and was as awed as any ordinary tourist, except his titanic talent allowed him to utilize what he had absorbed in creating something different in his later paintings.

That something different did not always please his admirers. American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt is said to have written to a friend that Renoir was painting pictures of “enormously fat red women with very small heads.” Visitors today may see for themselves whether that critique holds true. The later nudes are characterized as “monumental” in describing the appearance of out-of-proportion lower limbs.

As Renoir aged he was ravaged by severe rheumatoid arthritis and moved to Cagnes, in the South of France, for the milder climate. Though unable to walk or even stand, with hands deformed by his disease, he nonetheless continued to explore his vision to create new perspectives of his art. He often used his three young sons and a nanny, Gabrielle, as his models. His later paintings includes the 1902 masterpiece, Reclining Nude ,which recalls Rubens and Raphael themes of idealized spring and fertility.

In 1913, Renoir is said to have stated he was about to reach the goal he’d set for himself with his trip to Italy 12 years before; “I’m starting to know how to paint.”

Perhaps this is the mark of genius when curiosity and ambition cannot be faded by age or infirmity. Renoir is said to have painted until his last days.

Not a bad life for an old man –using his talent to capture his vision of the naked model before him. Beauty such as he created does not age or wither…tastes may change and new perspectives open to works unappreciated previously. This exhibit encourages modern viewers to learn and enjoy the enduring creativity of a great painter.

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Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90036
Tickets - $20; admission $12 –under 17 years free, seniors, $8
Free second Tuesday of each month;Target Free Holiday Mondays. After 5 p.m.
daily “pay what you wish” program.
Hours – Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, noon-8 p.m.; Friday, noon-9 p.m.
Closed Wednesdays.
1-323-857-6000
www.lacma.org

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Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright, 2010

A Day at the Races

Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, CA
By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright, 2010

While it doesn’t look like a scene from an old Marx Brothers movie anymore, a day at the races is still a fun enterprise, whether you know the score or not. Recently a group of school chums from Chicago wanted to try their luck. We spent a pleasurable few hours in the grandstands trying to figure out betting techniques, while discussing long-ago prom dates. Some were more successful than others in both the racing results and prom picks. Nothing to be done about the long-past prom, but it may be worthwhile to attend the free classes offered at the track for some assistance.

Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California, is approximately 14 miles Northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and about an hour from Orange County (location of Disneyland) and is noted for its picturesque mountain view setting. The current racing schedule runs from Wednesdays through Sundays with varied times for the first race. It’s best to check the day you want to go for the starting times. The first race can be noon, 12:30 or 1:00 p.m.

Good to know: on Thursdays seniors are admitted for free and on Fridays everyone is admitted for free – general admission - with the added incentives of $1 hot dogs, beer, soda, popcorn and coffee. There is a fee for parking.

The Park is a beauty and there’s plenty to see and do besides the actual races. The free Seabiscuit Tram Tour, which I took some years ago, was fascinating. It starts early – 8:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. – but is worth the effort. Reservations are required: (626) 574-6677. Tram pick up is at Clocker’s Corner and takes visitors to the stable area, receiving barn and paddock gardens. There’s a look at what is said to be racehorse Seabiscuit’s original stall and barn, and some areas used during the filming of the movie, Seabiscuit. I found the look inside the jockey’s room and silks room
fascinating as “backstage” insights are always revealing. Locker rooms for any
sport are utilitarian places giving a view of the working world of the athletes, not always a glamorous place.

For those who want to have a leg up on how the race track betting operates there are some free classes. On the day I recently visited there was “Beginners’ Seminar” at noon. The class was a 45-minute presentation covering the basics of using the facilities of the park. The class took place at the East Paddock Gardens. Weather permitting the class takes place every race day at Santa Anita.

Jim Guinn’s “Simple Techniques” classes are held every Sunday in the Baldwin Terrace from11:30 a.m. until the feature race of the day. The program includes early speed, current form, Beyer speed pars & Beyer figures, late speed on the grass, and much more. Extensive materials and free track programs are provided.Sessions are free.

“Big ‘CapDay” is Saturday, March 6, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the race track. All fans, with paid admission, while supplies last, will receive a free 75th anniversary wall clock. There is a $500,000 guaranteed pick 4, which is billed as the payoff of a lifetime.

Santa Anita Park is a pretty place - good for reminiscing or dreaming of creating tomorrow's fortune...good luck.


Santa Anita Park
285 W. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA91007
www.oaktreeracing.com
www.santaanita.com

"Last Supper"

by Angela Rocco DeCarlo
copyright 2009

I'm the baby.

So, of course, I never sat at the head of my parents' heavily carved walnut dining room table in our Chicago house.

Until now.

My husband Dan and I have returned with our three grown sons - Mark, Michael and Danny - to my family's house to have a last time together in the place that holds so many precious memories for us all.

We're in my former Rocco family home - an iconic bungalow, on Honorary Pete Rocco Dr., in a once solidly Italian neighborhood on the Far West Side of the city known as The Island - where we will have our “Last Supper.”

It is late October. The leaves outside are golden, the air chilly and my entire family has left sunny Southern California to fly thousands of miles to pay homage to the place and the people we love.

The building's sole final resident was my beloved late elder sister, Christine Frances Rocco, and we'd already been back for her funeral months before. This is another sentimental journey: to have one last meal at my mother's table before the house passes out of the family.

If we're fortunate to be born into families that lavish love on us, we treasure those who loved us so. In this house are many memories of family holiday and birthday celebrations. This is the place where I grew up, where my then-boyfriend Dan sat with me at this table as my family looked him over. Later on, his parents often joined us, as his family lived on the next block.

This neighborly arrangement made it possible for our young sons to have four grandparents - Peter and Della Rocco and Mary and Michael DeCarlo - sitting with them at that table on Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving along with uncles and aunts and cousins.

Since 1990, when my father passed on, my mother having gone before him in 1985, my sister updated the house while still keeping some of the family furnishings. Our boys loved visiting their beloved Aunt Cookie whenever we were in Chicago, often bringing friends along. It is a great gift to be able to go back home and find the love that was always there.

During our son Michael's senior year in optometric college, he lived in the bungalow with my father and sister. Before he moved in, my sister made my father promise he would not sit at the window each night waiting for Michael to come home. My father was known as a worrier, and not a quiet one, but a rather noisy dramatic one, given to fuming loudly while pacing wildly. However, he'd calm down somewhat in later years, and as a widowed man he astounded us all by learning how to cook and take care of the house as my sister continued to work. He loved to make Michael breakfast before he headed off to school. It was a very happy time for them all.

For all our children and grandchildren, it was a second home. With Auntie's passing, Danny was devastated, not only at the loss of her, but also the happy times to which he looked forward when he would visit Chicago with his family.

We all lull ourselves into thinking that things will stay the same forever. Our parents will always be there, and our siblings will, too. We can go visit them whenever we find the time. Then life takes over and we don't have as much time as we wish … and things change, whether we're prepared for it or not.

First times are often fun, and those wonderful firsts are legend in our lives. First love. First kiss. First date. Indelible memories we carry always.

But last times are rarely so easy, especially when we don't realize it's the last.

We kiss a sister good-bye at the airport, already planning her next visit to California. Only it never happens. I often worried about her falling down the basement steps. But never, not once, did it cross my mind that she might die. So that airport kiss was the last time we embraced.

I miss her daily and long for her return in that way people talk about after losing a loved one, especially suddenly. After a certain length of time, when we're trying to be brave and go on with life, we get annoyed, frustrated, thinking. “OK, this is long enough, I want you back right now,” I would dream of her and scold. “Where have you been? I've missed you so much.”

Of course, life is full of lasts.

Surely, there's a last time we bend over to pick up a child's toy. Or the last time we are needed to tie his shoe laces. The last time he willingly climbs on our lap to be rocked to sleep. Life is so busy, lasts often go by silently, lingering only as footnotes.

I suppose it was this sense of lost lasts that prompted the idea of making this pilgrimage back home.

Our three sons knew this house as well as their own growing up, for it contained people who adored them. But today, seated at my mother's splendid table, we are anything but festive. The house is going to be sold, the furnishings dispersed: it is the end.

So we're seated at the table, on the matching upholstered chairs, not knowing what to say or do. It's so odd. If we were Irish we might be telling funny stories, drinking and laughing. They seem to have that gift.

Alas, Italians are not inclined in that direction. We carry that ancient Mediterranean pagan gloom in our blood and people dying is not a time for revelry or funny stories. No matter how modern we might try to be, we can't quite pull it off. We're miserable.

Eldest son, Mark DeCarlo, is sitting with his arms tightly folded across his chest, his handsome face contorted in a heart-wrenching crunch. “All the people who sat here … all gone,” he laments with a croak.

Middle son Michael sits, teary-eyed but silent.

The baby of our family, Danny, and his wife, Laurie, have instinctively seated themselves and their two babies, Sam and Serritella, in my spot - the baby's place at the end of the table nearest the kitchen.

I feel out of place at the head of my mother's table. I look around at my grown sons and see the baby faces they once had as they sat eating my mother's homemade ravioli, a treat served only on special holidays. Now we're all California “no carbs” people and we do not eat ravioli at our holiday dinners. But at this Last Supper at our Chicago bungalow, we cheat and have take-out pasta. I hoped my mother doesn't know.

Silently, we're all wondering what it will be like to have no home in Chicago to return to. We'll go back to California and this house and all it contained and represented will stay in our hearts and memories. We have other family that will welcome us when we come back.

Suddenly, Mark says, “I'd like Nani's table if no one else wants it.”

What? Mark wants his grandparents' old furniture?

“I'd like their bedroom set, too, if no one wants that,” he adds.

And just like that, there's a future to plan. Perhaps we can keep alive our connection to our Chicago bungalow and beloved family in a tangible way.

When the dinner is over, we hurry outside to rake leaves with the kids. We make piles for them to jump into. We let leaves rain down upon them. Then, finally, we set off to drive them all to the airport. With tears, they take one last look back at their Chicago home.

Dan and I stay to deal with the house and the furnishing.

It's a hard thing. But we feel better knowing that Mark's request has changed things. He couldn't bear to part with this place, where his crib for overnights was cheek to jowl against Nani and Papa's rosewood double bed. And so, he decides to take some of it with him to California. He wants to continue to have family dinners around his grandparents' walnut dining table.

As I write this, the furniture is being refinished and the dining room chairs recovered. Curiously Mark selected a dark burgundy colored fabric. If I remember correctly, it is the color the chairs were when I was a child. He thinks he remembers the color. But he wasn't born yet.

When Mark places his grandparents' walnut dining set in his newly rehabbed house, it will be as it was when Peter Rocco and Della Serritella became husband and wife in 1926. Now the table will serve those of us here, those to come, and those in our hearts.

That walnut table was built to last, and I know it will. As family does.
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Angela Rocco DeCarlo, a former Chicago journalist, resides in Orange, CA, with Dan; Mark lives in LA, Michael and Danny moved from Chicago after college to keep the family together. They are our heros for doing that.

Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” at Movie Theaters

Via Metropolitan Opera ED Broadcast

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright, 2010

There is one more opportunity to experience the thrill of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of George Bizet’s incendiary entertainment, “Carmen,” in a repeat broadcast to movie houses around the world, Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 6:30 p.m. local time.

I saw the show in my neighborhood movie theater, Saturday, January 16, 2010, and would have sat through another performance immediately. This presentation is marvelously entertaining with behind-the-scenes interviews and other sidebars at the Metropolitan Opera house.

“Carmen,” is one of a handful (others are “Tosca,” “Butterfly,” and “Traviata”) of perfect operas for those who have not yet seen an opera, but think they should. It has everything: iconic characters, memorable music and explosive passions. No novice will be disappointed in this show.

Pity Georges Bizet, composer of this blockbuster opera, fourth on the opera “hit parade” of the 20 most performed. He was hoping for success with the debut of “Carmen” at the Opera Comique, Paris, March 3, 1875, but audiences were flummoxed by the departure from the usual shows at that venue and completely rejected the opera. It closed soon after opening and sadly Bizet died, at age 37, shortly thereafter, never knowing he had created one of the most successful and enduring operas ever written.

Thanks to liberal use of Bizet’s fiery music in popular culture, even those who never sat in an opera house have a humming acquaintance with Bizet’s exuberant creations for “Carmen” – the "Habanera"; the "Toreador" aria; the "Sequidilla" and more. The librettists, Henri Meilac and Ludovic Halévy, based their work upon the 1845 Prosper Mérimée’s novella of the same name. Their tautly focused script allows even a newcomer to grasp the subtle points of the characters, social references and the logical action of the opera.

As is the fashion these days, the production tinkers with the opera’s time setting, “updating” the scenes from early 19th century to the early 20th century Spanish Civil War. Fortunately, the costume changes make little difference, as the main characters are gypsies and soldiers – their attire remains as expected.

The story takes place in the 2,000 year-old Roman city of Seville, Spain, focusing on the tensions of gypsy women workers in the government monopoly cigarette factory and the military men, presumably guarding the crown’s interests. The soldiers are depicted as uniformed vultures eyeing their prey –the sultry gypsies. The most beautiful of the women is Carmen - Carmenita, as she tells the men. Played by extraordinary mezzo soprano, Elina Garanca, Carmen is nearly masculine in her swagger of independence, yet certain of her dazzling feminine allure. She infuses the character with something more than mere sex. Garanca’s Carmen has gravitas in her insistence on living without restraints, no matter the consequences. Clearly, she is the “general” among the army men with only her beauty and promise of love as her authority.

The story is simple, – Carmen sets her sights and a flower on Corporal Don Jose, sung by tenor, Roberto Alagna, the only soldier who pays her no attention, preferring his finance, sweet Micaela, (Barbara Frittoli), who has delivered a message from Jose’s mother. Despite maternal concern, Jose’s fate is sealed. Too soon, love for Carmen destroys his career, his honor and more. Of course, elitist Lieutenant Zuniga, (Keith Miller) Jose’s commanding officer, thinks Carmen should be his; officers’ privilege. A ruckus among the cigarette women lands Carmen in trouble, but Jose, quickly under her spell, allows her to escape jail, with disastrous results for him.

The opera, sung in French with English supertitles, is in four acts, runs about three and one half hours, and has one intermission, As is traditional with French operas there is plenty of dance, including two pas a duex before the opening curtains, depicting the lovers’ happiness. That's a brilliant touch, as happiness is mostly absent within the story.

The action moves quickly from the opening scenes to a barroom gypsy dance and the electrifying entrance of matador Escamillo, the epitome of manly perfection. Played by Teddy Tadu Rhodes, a 6’5’ baritone, Spain's cultural star trails women into the tavern like so many kite tails. He, too, falls in love with Carmen and the rest of the story does not go well for poor soldier Don Jose.

We’ll leave the plot unrevealed for those who wish to experience it for themselves. However, it’s no surprise Jose ends up with Carmen and her outlaw friends as they plan smuggling operations in the mountains outside Seville. While it is never stated what the smuggled goods are, with the Spanish Crown’s tobacco monopoly, established in 1637, it’s not much of a mystery that cigarette workers are involved.

Roberto Alagna’s Jose is a marvelous match for Elina Garanca’s Carmen. While Carmen is overtly dynamic, Jose’s character only catches fire when ignited by Carmen’s passions. Supporting actors, smugglers Elizabeth Caballero, Sandra Piques Eddy, Earle Patriarco and Keith Jameson do not fade into stock figures, but are individuals with beautiful voices and particular personalities which add color and energy to the action. Conductor Yannick Nezef-Seguin moved the orchestra to match the passions seen on stage, in this enthralling production by Richard Eyre.

In the final act, the noisy crowds outside the bullring, relish seeing the country’s heroes, matadors, as they make their grand approach and entrance into the arena They are arrayed in the most colorful and beautiful costumes seen in the show. Their whip-thin bodies encased in sparkling satins, they command the cynosure their courage demands. It is a telling scene which speaks to the perennial human desire to create and adore superheros appropriate to the culture. Escamillo controls his image and accepts the worship. His character is a worthy consort to now-regal Carmen, which contrasts to poor Jose’s tragic loss of dignity and honor for the sake of lust.

The final scene, inside the bullring, was lost on the audience in my theater as the lighting was so dim it was impossible to discern details. This has been an on-going problem with the MetHD broadcasts - very dark stages with loss of visuals of supporting actors.

Bizet's "Carmen" is a timeless story of passion, a tale of a female Don Juan, told with gorgeous music and superlative talent. Anyone who attends the next Met broadcast will count themselves fortunate to have seen this production.

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For information: http://www.metroperafamily.org/HDLive

Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright 2010.
Angela Rocco DeCarlo, is a veteran journalist, covering travel, culture and entertainment, originally in Chicago, currently based in Southern California. She served as an opera docent for nearly 20 years with the late Opera Pacific, Santa Ana, CA.