Although new operas have a special place in my new-music-hankering heart, I'm also excited by Seattle Opera's production of Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875). Most operas spawn few, if any, big hits, but Bizet packed this repertory staple with a ton of hummable tunes. If you grew up watching Bugs Bunny, you already know the music. The amorous adventures of Carmen, a fiery and independent woman in 1820s Seville, will resonate with anyone fighting on today's bleak battlefields of love and other sexual adventurism.
My third opera has already happened. If you missed Nicholas Isherwood's vocal concert last May, I highly recommend his new recording of Mauricio Kagel's Phonophonie (Mode), the piece that concluded that unforgettable tour de force performance. While female singers seeking innovative ancestors can investigate Joan La Barbara (especially the recent reissue of her seminal Voice Is the Original Instrument on Lovely), Meredith Monk, Cathy Berberian, Diamanda Galas, and a host of others, few male singers tackle avant vocal music. Isherwood's recording of Phonophonie, a staged, schizophrenic, hyperverbal deconstruction of singing, does what all singers must do: dazzle the ear. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI
Catch Dream of Zeus on Jan 16, 17, 19, 22, 24, or 25 (ConWorks, 500 Boren Ave N, 325-6500), 8 pm, $22/$20/$15/$13.
Carmen runs through Jan 30. See www.seattleopera. org for days and times (McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, 389-7676), 7:30 pm (matinees at 2 pm), $37-$125.
