Also this issue: Is There a Left Left? Finding a place for liberalism in the new America. -Sam Adams Making the Video Doug Aitken's work mixes film, art, social commentary and a dash of MTV. -Robin Rice More Than Words -Sam Adams Wares House -Diane Eacret History Lessons -Elisa Ludwig Sets and Lucia -Steve Cohen Run and Hyde -Toby Zinman Noir Gold -David Anthony Fox

November 7-13, 2002

theater

Carmen, and All the Rest!

by Howard Altman

To some, the connection between Georges Bizet's wondrous opera Carmen and Sherwood Schwartz's silly sitcom Gilligan's Island might seem a strange one. But, for the generation that grew up on those '60s and '70s shows, there is an important link between Bizet's story of lust, betrayal and heartbreak and Schwartz's ditty about seven castaways stranded on a desert island.

Harold Hecuba.

Ask any Gilligan's Island fan what his or her favorite episodes are and, most likely, the choices will include a third-season episode called "The Producer" in which Phil Silvers plays a fictitious Broadway producer named Hecuba who washes onto the island and stages a musical version of Hamlet.

That this episode should be among the top GI picks is no surprise, not with Silvers' over-the-top performance and not with the music.

The music Hecuba uses to score his musical is from Carmen, most notably the impassioned (and infinitely catchy) "Toreador Song," one of the most famous and best loved arias ever written.

"The Producer" is one of those chicken-and-egg conjunctions of classical and pop cultures. The beauty of the original work made the sitcom a success, and the sitcom did what Warner Brothers' cartoons did for classical and jazz. It made opera -- often considered the stuffiest of musical forms -- not only accessible, but an important part of the cultural lives of millions.

Not that Bizet necessarily needed goofy Gilligan's help.

His story of hotsy-totsy Carmen's seduction and ultimate betrayal of a young corporal named Don José -- told via some of the most moving music ever scored -- makes the opera not just an aural feast, but a sumptuous banquet for all the senses.

While it can be said that Carmen ultimately killed Bizet -- it opened to horrendous reviews in 1875, a reaction that fueled Bizet's rapid physical decay and eventual death, some months later -- today it is killing audiences. On Nov. 8, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brings Carmen back for the first time in a decade, starring Russian mezzo-soprano Marina Domashenko in the title role and Hugh Smith as Don José.

Carmen, Nov. 8-24, call for times, $10-$130, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999.