{"id":2181,"date":"2012-02-07T12:33:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T20:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2181"},"modified":"2012-02-21T10:39:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:39:14","slug":"garnhum-re-imagines-carmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/02\/07\/garnhum-re-imagines-carmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Garnhum re-imagines Carmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dennis Garnhum draws connections between Generation X and Carmen (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEverybody 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,\u201d says Garnhum. \u201cCarmen is every pop-star version; she\u2019s the Lady Gaga of her time. She truly is. And love her or hate her, you can\u2019t help but be excited by the craziness that is someone like a Lady Gaga.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garnhum believes there are many parallels between the political correctness of our generation and his newest opera production of Carmen<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s a woman in 1820, a woman from another time, the epitome of political incorrectness. Surprisingly enough that\u2019s what makes her so attractive, that she goes against what we think we believe we should behave like.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This presentation of Carmen<\/em> is Garnhum\u2019s second foray into the opera genre, and he\u2019s excited to be back in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal, my challenge is to connect, to make it matter for today. It\u2019s insane! That\u2019s my word of the year: it\u2019s insane,\u201d he says. \u201cLast night we had 65 people running around a church hall, singing their guts out, and it\u2019s insane. You kind of give the instructions and they just go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t that what life should be?\u201d he says. \u201cAlways?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmen<\/strong>
\nFebruary 16, 18, 22, 24, 28 at 8pm; February 26 at 2:30pm
\nRoyal Theatre, $37.50-$132
\npov.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u201cEverybody loves the outsider, everybody hates the outsider, and everybody wants to be, at some point in their lives, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-8-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2364,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}