Tenor Brendan Boyle learned how to die to end the Toledo Opera’s 2024-2025 season in his first Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca.
To open the 2025-26 season, Boyle learned how to kill for his first Don Jose in Georges Bizet’s Carmen.
The tenor, to use today’s parlance, slayed. But then so did Lisa Marie Rogali as the Roma woman, as well as the direction of Jeffry Buchman, the chorus and the rest of the cast.
Carmen, 150 years old as of March 3, is a staple in most opera companies. It didn’t start out that way; poor Bizet didn’t live long enough to see its acceptance. Parisians were shocked at its raw sexuality, sin, and murder.
Bizet, who died in June, 1875, would have been shocked at its success too.
I was shocked, pleasantly, at how much this production spoke to me. Busy. Colorful. And Rogali is perhaps the best Carmen I have heard and seen.
I grew up listening to my mother’s Carmen recording with Maria Callas. Mother played that album all the time. Though Callas never played the role but recorded it. La Callas’ voice had the quality needed; was sultry, taunting, and sincere when she needed.
Rogali’s mere appearance on the stage was a jolt, not merely a burst, of fresh air. She owned the stage as any good Carmen should, but she didn’t ham it up. A touch. A smile. A mere brush against an ogling male. Her mellow mezzo dripped with disdain, desire, and dread while accepting the fate she knew was coming.
She didn’t need to wear revealing costumes to show she was sexy: a smile, a laugh, and body language was all she needed.
Obsession started slowly with Boyle’s Don Jose. Resistant to Carmen’s charm at first, you watched as this obedient soldier who loved his mother and the sweet Micaela became someone unrecognizable. He begins to visibly snap in Act II, and it’s all downhill from there.
Boyle’s good looks and tall stature make him a perfect hero. But it’s his voice, of course, that will win you over. His tenor is robust, able to reach the high notes without a struggle, and smooth. As a resident artist with Toledo Opera, he wowed the audience with his Nessun Dorma from Turandot, and with returns as Mario Cavaradossi and Father in Ragtime, has become a Toledo favorite. And rightfully so.
Also returning from Ragtime in 2024 is Joshua Jermiah as Escamillo. Combining brashness and bravado, Escamillo gets to sing the arguably most recognizable aria in opera, the Toreador Song (Votre toast, je peux vous le render) featured in commercials, movies, and the 1960s series Gilligan’s Island. Jeremiah’s performance was stunning, yet it exploded with color, music, and life from the Toledo Opera Chorus and the choreography by Rosa Mercedes. Recent resident artist Sarah Rachel Bacani made her mark as Micaela – sans blond wig – with a soaring soprano, who showed strength in her sweetness.
Mentions must be made for recent resident artists Sarah Rachel Bacani as
Micaëla, Sara Mortensen, Brady DelVecchio, Robbie Raso, and Rick Hale and favorites Jason Budd, director Jeffrey Buchman, and conductor Adam Turner.
Funny how I can’t remember the other singers who performed Carmens in past TOA productions.
But this is one I won’t forget.
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