Way before Lady Gaga, and way before Madonna, there was Carmen. And, according to Dennis Garnhum, the artistic director of a production of the age-old opera about the gypsy girl, Carmen was a true outsider.
“Everybody loves the outsider, everybody hates the outsider, and everybody wants to be, at some point in their lives, the outsider; the person everyone is looking towards,” says Garnhum. “Carmen is every pop-star version; she’s the Lady Gaga of her time. She truly is. And love her or hate her, you can’t help but be excited by the craziness that is someone like a Lady Gaga.”
Garnhum believes there are many parallels between the political correctness of our generation and his newest opera production of Carmen. Garnhum says Generation X is marked with upheavals of political censorship and technological transition from the previous generations. He believes there are many parallels between the trials of his generation and his newest opera production.
“There’s kind of a loss of innocence, right? I mean, Gen X is a little faster and smarter; one of the ways it relates to Carmen is that Carmen is enduring,” he says. “She’s a woman in 1820, a woman from another time, the epitome of political incorrectness. Surprisingly enough that’s what makes her so attractive, that she goes against what we think we believe we should behave like.”
Garnhum studied theatre direction in Victoria before transferring to UBC to complete his MFA. He fondly remembers the culture here, and also the isolation he felt from his hometown of Ontario, which he believes was critical in growing as a person and pursuing his career aspirations in theatre.
This presentation of Carmen is Garnhum’s second foray into the opera genre, and he’s excited to be back in Victoria.
“My goal, my challenge is to connect, to make it matter for today. It’s insane! That’s my word of the year: it’s insane,” he says. “Last night we had 65 people running around a church hall, singing their guts out, and it’s insane. You kind of give the instructions and they just go.”
By no means a veteran to opera, Garnhum is taking this massive project in stride. Managing so many people, the responsibility for the entire production is at once overwhelming, exhausting, terrifying, and exhilarating.
“Isn’t that what life should be?” he says. “Always?”
Carmen
February 16, 18, 22, 24, 28 at 8pm; February 26 at 2:30pm
Royal Theatre, $37.50-$132
pov.bc.ca