Creepy, yes, but in a good way

“Orfeo ed Euridice,” the last production this season for Chicago’s Lyric Opera, is a dark, starkly solemn, minimalist show. Emotion is not kept out of Gluck’s mannerly opera, but it is kept in check. The understated modern-dress staging is beautiful to witness. The singing displays elegance. And even if the Civic Opera House, which seats more than 3,500, is too large for early Classic period opera and the characters felt distant, Robert Carsen’s production, which I saw Wednesday night, left me uneasy.

In fact, the work of the Canadian director, who has become prominent in Europe and whose efforts can be seen on three new DVDs of opera productions from Venice, Barcelona and Paris, usually strikes me as intriguingly creepy, no matter how much he tones it down, as he does in this “Orfeo.”

And he seldom tones it down. His flashy, purposely Euro-trashy “La Traviata,” which opened Venice’s rebuilt opera house, La Fenice, two years ago, is as hot as the “Orfeo” is cool. Violetta shoots up and dies with her hooker high heels on. The gypsy party dancers appear to be auditioning for “Debbie Does Dallas.” Such sordid surroundings may now be cliche in some operatic circles, but there is nothing worse than the typically tame “Traviata.” In the end, Carsen’s damaged Violetta shocks, which is exactly what Verdi intended.

In the other two new DVDs, Carsen proves an addictively -- if alarmingly -- watchable director. One is a loopy, lovable collaboration with British choreographer Matthew Bourne in Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that is full of fun. It might not even be disturbing were it not for Oberon being painted a sickly shade of green, beard and all.

From the Paris National Opera comes an electrifying, twitch-fest version of Rameau’s “Les Boreades,” which includes the jerky postmodern Canadian dance troupe, La La La Human Steps, and the superb conducting of William Christie.

Carsen’s flamboyance would probably suit American opera audiences just fine were it not for his disconcerting edge. San Francisco Opera helped launch his career with a lurid, visually effusive production of Boito’s “Mefistofele” that starred Samuel Ramey. The Metropolitan Opera staged a handsome Carsen “Eugene Onegin” nearly as stark as the “Orfeo,” but New Yorkers mostly hated this radical take on Tchaikovsky.

Chicago is the one American city where Carsen has managed to have the most repeat business. Lyric has mounted the San Francisco “Mefistofele” twice as well as a Carsen production of Handel’s “Alcina.” Next season it has two Carsens: Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride” and Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”

But the Windy City may have to work hard to keep Carsen from blowing all around America. The “Iphigenie,” which will star Susan Graham, is a co-production with San Francisco. The Met is bringing back “Onegin” next season, and the company’s soon-to-be general manager, Peter Gelb, has been seen checking out Carsen productions.

Nor would it be surprising to find Carsen in L.A. sooner rather than later. James Conlon, who begins as Los Angeles Opera’s new music director in the fall, has worked with Carsen, including on a stunning staging of Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” starring Renee Fleming, also on DVD.

Carsen is so in demand, however, that he is also in danger of spreading himself too thin. He had to leave Chicago before “Orfeo” opened to be at La Scala, where he is mounting Janacek’s “Kat’a Kabanova.” And he will likely want to check in on Cologne, where his cycle of Wagner’s “Ring” operas is being mounted.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the “Orfeo” demonstrated many of the Canadian director’s raw strengths. The austere setting was a desolate stage of sand and a shimmering white background. Everyone wore fashionably severe black.

In the second scene, where Orfeo approaches Hades in search of his dead lover, Euridice, he is confronted by rows of bodies in shrouds, almost as if he had wandered into the killing fields of Iraq. In a startling chorus, the bodies turn and sing.

Carsen opted for the original 1762 version of the opera that Gluck created for Vienna with an Italian-language text and none of the dances that were added later. There is but a cast of three. Presented without intermission and briskly conducted by Harry Bicket, it lasted only 82 minutes.

The countertenor David Daniels sang the title role with care and stamina (he was on stage the whole time) but without inhabiting the character. That for me was part of the creepiness; he was clearly trying but somehow seemed to be there and not there at the same time. Isabel Bayrakdarian, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more flesh and blood, although she is mostly dead or in limbo, as Orfeo attempts to lead her from the Underworld. Ofelia Sala was Amor, a small role sweetly sung.

It turns out that Daniels and Sala are Oberon and Tytania on the DVD of the Barcelona “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which is also conducted by Bicket, and all here are fine. But truer examples of Carsen’s ability to inspire gripping interpretations from singers are found in the “Traviata” and “Boreades.”

Patrizia Ciofi is a particularly tragic Violetta, a life of prostitution and drugs having hardened all of the character’s edges. Placed in the disco era of the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, she becomes a devastating example of someone who tries to break out of her destructive lifestyle but ultimately is a product of her situation.

In “Boreades,” the standout is soprano Barbara Bonney as the mythological queen Alphise, who must choose between a loveless marriage with a son of the god of the North Wind, Boreas, or slavery. Amid some of the most gorgeous French music of the 18th century, a colorful set of bright flowers and falling fall leaves -- and in the delirious company of all those convulsing La La La Human Steppers -- Bonney delivers a radiantly human performance.

Indeed, this is opera as miracle, made by many hands but overseen by Carsen’s. So what if he can be creepy? Would you prefer bland?