N.Y. CITY OPERA PRODUCTION : TWO CARMENS SING CORSARO’S PRAISES

No rose-in-the-teeth Spanish cliches are required for Frank Corsaro’s staging of Bizet’s “Carmen,” opening the New York City Opera’s 13-performance run tonight at Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The two singers who take the title role--both native Californians--couldn’t be happier.

“I absolutely adore this production,” says mezzo-soprano Susanne Marsee, who sings the title role tonight. “There’s never a moment when I don’t have a purpose on the stage. In (other productions), I feel myself endlessly walking around, vamping whoever happens to be in the neighborhood.”

Janis Eckhart, who will be heard in the role on Thursday, agrees: “This is a great acting challenge because it gives Carmen more than just the usual sex attraction and feminine lure. It gives her a cause.”

Corsaro sets the story in the Spanish Civil War, with Carmen a member of a Loyalist guerrilla band fighting Franco’s Fascist forces and Don Jose a munitions officer in Franco’s army. Carmen seduces Jose so that the rebels can steal the ammunition. She goes off with the toreador Escamillo as part of a plan to assassinate the mayor of Seville.

“Controversy about the production doesn’t surprise me,” Marsee said. “Whenever you take something out of its time frame, you’re going to have trouble.

“But it’s such a blessing to have a clear-cut idea of where you’re going mentally. So many times in opera, directors don’t seem to have the wherewithal to give you reasons for moving so that you don’t just stand there and sing.”

Marsee worked with Corsaro during the City Opera production in 1984 (it was created for the Opera Company of Philadelphia in 1982) and for two weeks last June for the revival, inheriting the role from Victoria Vergara in a rotation of casts.

“In the beginning, as a second performer, you think, ‘How am I going to make this my own?’

“You steal a lot,” Marsee said, laughing. “But you discard a lot of things only (other singers) can do because they belong to their real personality. It has taken me a year and a half to find my own character. It would be dishonest to say otherwise.”

Marsee described her Carmen as “a thinking, conniving--I don’t want to say that, but, yes--a conniving person. But I have to ease into the role. If I try to find (Carmen) too quickly, I just imitate old sensations.”

A native of San Diego, Marsee attended UCLA, majoring in history and began her musical studies in her senior year. (“At that time I was a very high soprano,” she said; “In about two years my voice dropped.”)

She made her debut with New York City Opera as Sara in Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” in 1970 and has been a regular member ever since, as well as guesting with many other companies.

She was terrified of “Carmen” at the start of her career, she said.

“It’s so very hard on the voice. All these chest tones would scare the life out of me. I was singing very high repertoire. Now, the role is one of the easiest I sing. My voice has grown over the years.

“My career moved very fast, then kind of leveled out,” Marsee said. “Now it’s become exactly what I wanted it to. I have many opportunities to sing here in New York and in the states. I like to stay at home. I don’t like to live out of a bag.”

Eckhart, who was born in Long Beach and also attended UCLA, had no direct contact with Corsaro. “By the time I got to (the opera), it was in its third season. The director likes to hand it over (by then),” she said.

But she did receive “personalized help from (his) aides who took very detailed notes” because “Corsaro is very explicit about everything.”

Still, other than a rehearsal with the soloists, Eckhart “had no stage rehearsal, no orchestra rehearsal and no chorus rehearsal. Ever. I just went on, in September.”

Eckhart said that she has no qualms about Corsaro’s interpretation. “He’s created a play, not a collection of favorite tunes. And the music supports it real well. It’s not just, ‘It’s time for my aria now and I’m going downstage to sing it.’ ”

She feels that there are major differences between her interpretation and Marsee’s or Vergara’s. “Strength of character is what I like to project. I always feel (Carmen) is the first feminist. She does have feelings for Jose, but it’s harder to make that apparent in this production. But you see the attraction.”

Eckhart views Carmen’s death as “almost a noble act. Basically, I sacrifice myself for the cause.”

“This is my 30th Cramen,” says Eckhart, who has sung the role with the opera companies of Seattle, Cincinnati, Connecticut and Miami, among others. “Those were normal, traditional Gypsy-hoopla Carmens. This works really well.

“Ever since I arrived in New York City 10 years ago, one of my major goals was to sing Carmen with City Opera,” she says. “(But) I didn’t think it would take me 10 years.”