Divaria Productions, whose mission is to make opera accessible to new audiences while supporting emerging artists, will return to Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theater for the 10th time on Saturday at 8 p.m. with the world premiere of "We Are Carmen," a multidisciplinary performance celebrating the 150th anniversary of the premiere of Bizet's "Carmen."
The production emerged from a meeting in Spain between Ashley Galvani Bell, a soprano and the founder of Divaria Productions, and Anna Goma, a Spanish mezzo-soprano known for her interpretation of "Carmen." The two, who have done several productions together, were playing sisters in a Bilbao Opera production of Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte."
"We wanted to do some kind of project with 'Carmen,' especially since this is the anniversary of not only its premiere but also Bizet's death," Ms. Bell said during a phone conversation. Bizet died shortly after the premiere, which was such a failure that some people attributed his demise to that.
"We applied for a grant from the Spanish government so that Anna could come here. We thought it would be really interesting not only to incorporate music from 'Carmen' but also this art form zarzuela, which is more like operetta in Spanish. It incorporates a lot of different rhythms that are very Spanish, but it has also expanded to Latin America." The production includes one piece from a Cuban zarzuela.
"We Are Carmen" also incorporates Spanish dance, with four dancers from Sol y Sombra Dance Company, which is based on Long Island, and a solo performance by Paloma de Vega, a Spanish dancer known for her performance in flamenco and other traditional Spanish dances. In addition, music will be by a string quartet and pianist from the New Asia Chamber Music Society.
Ms. Goma plays Carmen and Ms. Bell plays Micaela, the two main women in the production. It is directed by Richard Stafford, who has not only choreographed musicals on Broadway and off and internationally, but also regularly directs and choreographs for the New York City Opera. Musical direction is by Sergio Martinez Zangroniz, who will conduct the chamber musicians from the piano.
"The way we are framing the story is we have a wonderful actress, Debra Cardona, who is playing a grandmother who used to be a friend of Carmen when she was young and tells the story to her granddaughter," hoping it might be relevant to what she is going through as a teenager.
While the company always tries to include emerging artists in its productions, it recently began to work with younger performers. Last year, high school musicians and vocalists from the Suffolk Symphonic Choir sang choral music from "Madama Butterfly."
"This year we did a vocal workshop with Loreen Enright, a Southampton educator. We had a master class in Spanish and French songs, and the students will participate in one of the production's choral pieces." The participating students, Hannah Pak, Emma McGonegal, Charlotte Egerton-Warburton, and Jessica Berger, are all part of the Cantabile Youth Chorus of the Hamptons.
"We Are Carmen" includes 17 or 18 musical selections, not all from the Bizet opera. Approximately 90 minutes long, the production is accessible not only because of its length but "the way we've written the script, it doesn't include anything that would be inappropriate for teenagers. It's really introducing audiences to the story of 'Carmen' without having the full opera and all the characters."
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale University, Ms. Bell has performed as a soloist in the United States, Italy, Spain, France, Denmark, and Russia. This year alone she has debuted as Leonora in "Il Trovatore" with Boheme Opera New Jersey, in Denmark with Operaen i Midten and Germany with RheinVokal as the title role in "Klara," and she returned to her signature role of Cio-Cio-San in "Madama Butterfly" at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, Calif.
"My parents said I was singing in my stroller before I was talking. When I was about 9 I started taking voice lessons, and I had a teacher at school who encouraged me to apply to the Metropolitan Opera children's chorus. I did that until I was too big for the costumes."
While it was Ms. Bell's first exposure to opera, she loved Broadway and musical theater as well. It wasn't until she went to a festival in Northern Italy when she was 16 that she decided to pursue opera full time. But because she wanted a liberal arts education, she went to Yale, where she majored in Italian. She also studied French, Spanish, and German. "It has helped me a lot. Because we do operas entirely in other languages, if I already know the language it saves me a step."
Before founding Divaria in 2011, her grandmother had dementia, and Ms. Bell started doing performances for the people in her residence for memory care. "One of the residents used to be a composer but could no longer speak. When I asked if he enjoyed the music, he was able to say yes. That inspired me to do something to help make opera accessible to people."
She added that she was at a point in her career where it was difficult in the opera world to get certain roles unless you already had them on your resume. "Where were you going to get those roles? I knew there were a lot of emerging artists in that position, so one of the elements of my mission was to try to get emerging artists a platform to perform."
Ms. Bell has been in all of Divaria's productions at Bay Street, and has performed and taught workshops at other East End venues, including the Leiber Collection in Springs and the Montauk Library. "I love the Hamptons and I feel very connected," she said.
She grew up spending summers in Southampton, where her grandparents had a house until she was 14 years old. "When I was 9, I had my first experience as a cantor at the Basilica Parish of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Southampton." She has returned to perform there often over the years.
Tickets to "We Are Carmen" are $25 to $50.
