By Kate Elizabeth Queram   kqueram@dnronline.com

JMU students Randall Ball (left) and Sarah Heisler rehearse “Carmen,” presented by JMU’s Opera Theater at 8 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 7 and 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 at Wilson Hall. Photo by Nikki Fox

When the average theatergoer thinks of opera, words such as “boring” or “hard to understand” may spring to mind. With the fall production of “Carmen,” Don Rierson, director of the James Madison University Opera Theater, aims to change that.

For starters, he’s cut the opera’s runtime from more than three hours down to two, and has translated the bulk of the songs from French to English. The goal, he said, is to maintain the opera’s integrity while allowing a larger group of people to enjoy it.

“We’ve cut the arias down so a lot of the length is shortened. They’re shorter and tunier and more like musical theater pieces,” Rierson said. “We want everyone to come and enjoy the show like they would with a musical theater piece. We’ve taken the capital O out of opera.”

Which wasn’t difficult, because according to Rierson, traditional operas such as “Carmen” offer themes familiar to all moviegoers — lust, envy and, of course, love.

“In directing the show, it keeps reminding me of one of those old Westerns where John Wayne is in love with this woman, and someone gets jealous, and there’s a gun fight,” he said. “We have fighting and dueling and jealousy and murder, all those things that people like in the theater. There’s something for everyone.”

Though the story may seem familiar, it also has its twists. “Carmen” focuses on a soldier named Don José, who’s involved with his childhood sweetheart, Micaela, when he meets a gypsy woman named Carmen.

“She’s kind of like that dirty girl that everybody wants to be with but doesn’t want to say that you’re with them,” said Randall Ball, a tenor who plays Don José. “So he’s fighting with that inner struggle all the way through Act One. He’s like, ‘She’s so hot and she’s so amazing but no, I’m this nice guy, I promised to marry Micaela, I love Micaela.’ ”

Eventually, Don José succumbs to his feelings for Carmen, and the two enjoy a brief affair before she falls in love with another man, Ball said. When Micaela hears about it, she no longer wants anything to do with him, and Don José ends up alone and distraught before confronting Carmen in the final act.

“I basically have nothing but Carmen, and that’s basically the only reason why I go back to find her, to tell her ‘I love you, I have nothing else, basically it’s your fault that I’m this way,’ ” Ball said. “And she basically denies that and says, ‘I’m not coming with you, I’d rather die than be with you because I’m with another man,’ so … I kill her.”

Ball added that talking about the ending isn’t really giving anything away, because most titular female opera roles are usually doomed from the beginning anyway.

“When it’s the title role, you know she’s going to die,” he said.

But knowing how it ends shouldn’t make “Carmen” any less enjoyable, for opera aficionados and neophytes alike.

“We’re trying to do it like a ’50s or ’60s movie, so it’s very accessible,” Rierson said. “It’s like a musical theater piece … so [people] can just enjoy the music.”

The JMU Opera Theater presents “Carmen” at 8 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 7 and at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 in Wilson Hall. For ticket reservations and information, call 568-7000. Tickets are $12 for general admission, $8 for seniors, students and JAC card holders.