Perhaps the most famous opera in history, Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen remains one of the most exciting and popular works in the repertoire. And now, nearly 150 years later, the story of Carmen is being adapted again — this time as CARMEN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, written by opera singer and director Alek Shrader and illustrated by legendary artist P. Craig Russell and Aneke, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Arizona Opera is launching a Kickstarter campaign for this ambitious adaptation later this month.
And becasue I am a lucky, lucky lady, I got a chance to talk to Alex Shrader about the upcoming project!
Of all the opera’s you could have picked, why Carmen?
CARMEN is the story of a young woman with a sharp wit who faces challenges to her autonomy from society, misogyny, and men who won’t take “no” for an answer. Nevertheless, she insists on freedom, and values that over her own life. A story like that speaks loudly to modern audiences, and it’s a story we still need to hear. And the music is gorgeous– there’s good reason that for over 150 years, CARMEN has been among the most popular operas ever created. But there is no recent graphic adaptation, even with the huge trend (and audience) for graphic adaptations. All of that! AND it was scheduled to be performed in Arizona Opera’s upcoming season when we were choosing which one to adapt!
How hard was it to turn the opera into a graphic novel?
It was very hard. I’m a writer, but had never written (adapted) a comic script. Pacing was a hugely important formula, and breaking action into panels was a learning process to say the least. At first I was way over-detailed in my panel descriptions. But I got better, thanks in very large part to P. Craig Russell, who guided me to a better, leaner comic script that gave the artists room to create. We’re here for the art, after all! It was also helpful that he was doing the layouts! 🙂
What sort of roadblocks did you hit during the adaptation?
I’m a completist, so I wanted every little detail from the original novella in our adaptation. And I wanted both versions of the libretto in there, too, even when those stories disagree! I WANTED IT ALL. In the end, we didn’t have the pages for a few minor things. We served the drama first, and then crammed as much extra stuff as the page allowed. The biggest loss is a character called Garcia who is this huge bandit with an eyepatch. He’s not even in the opera (except that one version IYKYK), but he appears in the novella. I would have loved to see Craig and Aneke draw him. Maybe I’ll commission them!
What is next for you?
Next for me are performances as Dan White in HARVEY MILK with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, followed by a concert of Handel’s THEODORA in NYC, and then performances as Iago in Rossini’s OTELLO with Opera Philadelphia. I also recently directed a film of Menotti’s THE MEDIUM with the Curtis Institute– that comes out this fall.
