Galloping realism but no horse voices

Opera Australia's new production of Carmen takes its bullfighter star on an unexpected ride.

REALISM takes centre stage in the new production of Bizet's Carmen that opens Opera Australia's Melbourne season today. Not only does Joshua Bloom, who plays the bullfighter Escamillo, wear a matador costume specially made for him in Spain; he makes his entrance riding a horse.
"It's the first time I've ever ridden a horse on stage before," he says. "In fact, it's the first time I've ever ridden."
The opera's tale of a tragic love triangle in which a soldier and a bullfighter vie for the affections of the strong-willed gypsy who epitomises freedom is one of the most popular in the repertoire.
American director Francesco Zambello, who also directed the Disney production of The Little Mermaid on Broadway this year, uses two horses, a donkey and chickens to convey the atmosphere of 19th-century Spain.
The opera's theme of free spirit versus duty and its exploration of class and the social position of women created a furore when the work was first performed in Paris in 1875.
Bloom, who graduated from the University of Melbourne before he joined Opera Australia's young artists program in Sydney in 1999 and is now based in the US, says he found the production very confronting.
"It's incredible to have a horse on stage and my first reaction was, 'they couldn't be serious'," he says.
But he knew the production was a hit when it was first presented at London's Covent Garden in 2006. "Opera is incredibly expensive and it's now rare for a production to be conceived for only one house."
Bloom had extensive training at the stables where the horses are based before beginning rehearsals. "They have to get used to us and we have to get used to them," he says.
Steven Jefferys, who was the Lone Rider who cracked the whip to start the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony, is the trainer of the horses, Jamieson and Drummer, used in the show.
He is on stage dressed as a toreador riding the second horse, with Carmen (played by English mezzo-soprano Pamela Helen Stephen) sitting behind him.
He jokes that the extensive training involved for the animals did not extend to teaching them to sing. "But horses are very big animals that can move very quickly, which is why we had to desensitise them to the stage environment," Jefferys says.
"They had to learn to be relaxed in the space and the sudden sounds and lights. They had to become familiar to everything that can happen."
The animals wear special rubber shoes so they do not slip and are exercised at a property near Pakenham to rid them of excess energy before they make their appearances. He says bowel and bladder functions are also encouraged on the property.
"Horses are creatures of habit and we just hope there is nothing left by the time they get on stage. This is work for them, so the urge to go to the toilet would only come up if they became frightened or nervous."
Jefferys says he has become a specialist in training horses for shows. He has worked on a military tattoo in Sydney and Melbourne's Equitana and last year spent six months preparing for the Asian Games in Doha.
But he describes his experience on the opera stage as "pretty special" because audiences are so surprised by the animals' entrances. "Even horse people can't believe how well behaved the animals are."
Learning to ride was not the only skill Bloom had to master for the production. "It has been more physical than most," he says, referring to the choreographed knife fight he has with Rosario La Spina's Don Jose, his rival for Carmen's attentions.
Bloom, who has been based in San Francisco since he joined a young opera program there in 2001, will make his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera later this year as Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Carmen at the State Theatre from tonight until May 10. For bookings go to opera-australia.org.au or call 1300 136 166.