Two Sarahs arrive in Tacoma this weekend with a mighty tough assignment: trying to capture one of the greatest icons of female sexuality ever created — Carmen.



Massachusetts native Sarah Heltzel, who spent the last two seasons with Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program, performed her first Carmen this fall at Skagit Opera — but not before some arduous soul-searching.



“I would lie awake nights,” she says, “wondering and worrying, ‘Am I doing this character justice? What makes me think I can play the sexiest woman in the world?’ So many great singers have portrayed her, and there seems to be a prevailing expectation about her in recent years of a certain look and sound to which I don’t necessarily correspond.”

Heltzel found her way in as she listened to recordings of the role.



“I was completely taken aback by how incredibly different every single recording and video was,” she says. “Tempi, colors, phrasing, character choices, physique, movement — I realized that, to a certain extent … each Carmen must be as individual as every woman who portrays her.



“I think the most radical way for a woman to be truly sexy and appealing is to be comfortable in her own skin and to know herself. The unsuccessful Carmens I have seen are those who are trying very hard to act like a sexy woman of destiny rather than find out how to be Carmen, a real person, honestly, and in their own bodies.”



Sarah Mattox, a Northwest native who’s also sung with Seattle Opera, sees the key to Carmen as a sort of hyper-awareness.



“Carmen is so alive in every moment,” she says. “For me, it’s like being completely aware of my body at every moment. Every brush of fabric, the floor against my feet — it’s so self-indulgent and hedonistic! She is impetuous, sensual and strong-willed with a mercurial temperament. She exudes self-confidence and that edge of danger that makes her an utterly irresistible challenge. It’s exhilarating to discover those facets of my own personality and use them in such an unrestrained way.”



Not that finding the “inner Carmen” is all psychology. Heltzel studied flamenco with Sara Erde, a dancer who had lived for six years with gypsies in Seville (Carmen’s hometown), and studies with a vocal coach, Mignon Dunn, who performed the role 400 times.  Dunn’s greatest concern was that Heltzel not fall into the clichés associated with the role.



“She threatened that if I ever stood around with my hands generically on my hips,” she says, “she would know and would come get me!”



[Pantages Theater, Bizet’s “Carmen,” Tacoma Opera, sung in French with English supertitles, March 9-10 8 p.m., March 11 2 p.m., $24-$75, 901 Broadway, 253.627.7789, www.tacomaopera.com (Mattox sings March 9 and 11; Heltzel sings March 10]