Marina Domashenko Withdraws From San Francisco Opera's Carmen, Replaced by Hadar Halévy

By Matthew Westphal
November 20, 2006

The Russian mezzo Marina Domashenko has withdrawn from the San Francisco Opera revival of Bizet's Carmen which begins its run tomorrow night. A statement released by the company last Friday afternoon (November 17) said that Domashenko's cancellation was for health reasons.

Performing the opera's title role in tomorrow's opening night performance will be Hadar Halévy, making her San Francisco Opera debut. Halévy was already engaged to sing Carmen in the production's alternate cast, and she will perform with that cast as originally scheduled on November 25, December 2 and December 8. (Her colleagues for those performances include Stuart Skelton as Don José, Kristopher Irmiter as Escamillo and Adrienne Danrich as Micaëla; George Cleve, in his house debut, will conduct.)

A graduate of Tel Aviv University and the Juilliard School, Hadar Halévy has previously sung the role of Carmen at the New Israeli Opera, New York City Opera, the Saxon State Opera in Dresden (at the SemperOper), and the Teatro Politeama in Palermo. Other recent roles include Malcolm (in Donizetti's La donna del lago) and Adalgisa (in Bellini's Norma) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and the title roles in Handel's Ariodante (in Frankfurt) and Giulio Cesare (in Hamburg).

The replacement Carmen for Domashenko's remaining scheduled performances (November 24 and 29, December 3, 6 and 9) will be announced later. Others in that cast include Marco Berti as Don José, Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo, and Ana María Martínez as Micaëla; conducting will be Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

San Francisco Opera's current production of Carmen is by the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; the current revival is directed by Laurie Feldman Santoliquido. Information and tickets are available at www.sfopera.org.