Poi Dog teams up with the Chicago Sinfonietta for ‘Carmen’

Chicago Tribune
By Michael Cameron
Special to the Tribune
Published June 7, 2007
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MUSIC REVIEW

George Bizet’s “Carmen” has cast its spell over more than just generations of opera-goers since its Paris premiere in 1875. Composers have been similarly smitten — one could fill weeks of programs with suites, fantasies and variations hewn from the opera’s string of infectious tunes.

For the final program of its 20th anniversary season, the Chicago Sinfonietta gave listeners a sample of these homages, including a newcomer from an unlikely source.

Shifting the opera to the realm of pop music might seem unpromising, but it is not unprecedented. “Carmen Jones” was a 1943 Broadway musical from Oscar Hammerstein II, and featured a score tightly bound to the original. In another version with an African-American setting, Robert Townsend directed a 2001 MTV production of “Carmen — A Hip Hopera” starring Beyonce Knowles. Here the original melodies were heard only sporadically — most were jettisoned in favor of an original rap score.

In their second major collaboration Sunday at Orchestra Hall, the Sinfonietta joined with rock group Poi Dog Pondering in a 30-minute reduction of the drama. Band vocalist Charlette Wortham assumed the title role, and founder Frank Orrall was the smitten Don Jose. Orrall was also the chief creative force behind the enterprise, and one could sense at least two critical ways in which his musical background transformed the classic.

Poi Dog’s original songs follow consistent patterns. Though residents of Chicago for more than a decade, their artistic roots are firmly planted in their native Austin — upbeat alternative folk-rock built from two- or four-bar patterns repeated top to bottom, stocked with snatches of catchy tunes and gently orchestrated peaks and valleys.

This formula suited the operatic score surprisingly well in at least one regard. The opera brims with rhythmic hooks that were morphed into repetitive ostinati, usually retaining the original tunes but often snapped into fragments.

Less convincing was the dramatic shift, one that oddly enough mirrored the view of Bizet’s contemporary critics. Instead of a headlong rush into a tragic and violent denouement, Orrall rescues his heroine, concluding the story with a wedding between Carmen and the bullfighter Escamillo. Don Jose is the sole penitent, left to wander aimlessly in a desert underworld.

One can understand the reluctance to shoehorn the tragedy into the band’s relentlessly upbeat idiom, but the conclusion seemed rushed, forced and ultimately unsatisfying. The action was split (sometimes awkwardly) between limited live stage movements and video projections.

Wortham sang convincingly, and Orrall was effective, in spite of a costume unfortunately redolent of stock Quixote garb. Additional arrangements were provided by Susan Voelz and Paul Von Mertens.

Filling in for an indisposed Paul Freeman, conductor Andre Raphael Smith led a secure premiere, as well as a brisk account of excerpts of Bizet’s original in the form of five excerpts from Suites Nos. 1 and 2. Filling out the Bizet-fest were excerpts from Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin’s ballet “Carmen Suite.”

Respite from Carmen fatigue came via five of the band’s songs (including two from their upcoming release) and a vibrant account of “Farandole” from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne.”