3-D brings 'Carmen' nicely close

Georges Bizet, the composer of

Carmen

, died at 36, three months to the day after his 1875 opera about the free spirit (or femme fatale, depending how you see things) was almost universally denounced upon its Paris premiere.

He would have been surprised to see his critical failure become one of the most-performed works in the opera repertory. And even more surprised that this much-filmed work, inspiration to filmmakers as diverse as Otto Preminger (Carmen Jones), Jean-Luc Godard (First Name: Carmen), and Carlos Saura (Carmen), would become the first opera filmed in 3-D. It creates an immersive experience for multiplex operagoers.

Carmen in 3D, filmed by Julian Napier from Francesca Zambello's stage production at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House last summer, is a you-are-there experience, one of the more successful applications of 3-D filmmaking.

Avatar it is not. Rather than transport you to a new world, it collapses the space between the viewer and the stage, breaking the fourth wall (which other filmed operas also do). But beyond that, it thrusts the moviegoer into the thick of the action and song outside Seville's storied cigarette factory.

The 3-D technology enables Napier to establish audience rapport with the principals who literally emerge from the stage. It is a remarkably intimate experience.

The one drawback of the 3-D effect is that when Napier pans from the left to the right of the stage there is an abrupt change of cameras, resulting in a jumpy edit that takes the audience out of the moment.

It helps that the principals are excellent actors. As Carmen, Christine Rice, a smoky-voiced mezzo, has the commanding physicality and world-weariness of Marlene Dietrich. Not only does Bryan Hymel's Don José, the by-the-book corporal bewitched by Carmen's gypsy soul, have a passing resemblance to Seth Rogen, he also has that actor's puppyish optimism.

The subtler aspects of their performances would not be discernible from the balcony seats. Here, the 3-D glasses are like opera glasses.

Equally striking is Tanya McCallin's production design, which owes a debt to the panoramic composition, dramatic lighting, and startling color accents of John Singer Sargent's dance painting, El Jaleo.