CARMEN

Reviews

The Champion

SPANISH flags and a beautiful orange tree set the scene for this vibrant performance of Bizet’s Carmen – surely one of the most popular and best-loved operas in the world – set in nineteenth century Seville.

Directors David Palmer and Vivienne Sharp had expertly woven their magic over this gripping storyline. It was a well-cast, colourful production in four acts which drew the audience into its passion, romance, jealousy and violence.

Musical Director John Flood and pianist Robert Chesters did full justice to the dramatic score and all the cast were on excellent form.

In her first full role for the society, Isobel Jenkins sang the title role with a voice as clear as summer rain and with all the passion required of a sultry gypsy temptress.

Marie Williams and Valerie Watts were charming as her gypsy friends Mercedes and Frasquita.

Carmen flirts with young Don Jose – a handsome soldier played by Anthony Seaman – who, although resisting her charms initially eventually gives in to her flirtations. Carmen accepts his ring, swearing they will be together forever.

Innocent village girl with a sweet voice, Micaela (Louise Geatch), is heartbroken to find that Don Jose, no longer wishes to marry her.

However it isn’t long before Carmen transfers her affections from Don Jose to handsome toreador Escamillio. David Palmer’s rich baritone voice together with his vast stage presence was perfect for this part as he brought the well-known Toreador’s Song to life.

The entire cast had a wonderful collection of voices that were a joy to listen to. Other principal parts were played by Peter McColgan, Steve Riordan, Horris Willett, Jan Monkley and Robert West and it is a pleasure to pay tribute to the ladies and gentlemen of the chorus who were delightful.

NODA

Carmen is an opera written in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet and is one of the world’s best known and most successful operas. It was first performed in Paris on the 3rd March 1875 and. initially was not well received. Bizet suddenly died at the age of 36years, just three months after its premier so he did not live to see its success.  Carmen is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue. The music of Carmen has been acclaimed for its melody, harmony, atmosphere and orchestration, and for the way which Bizet represented, musically, the emotions and suffering of his characters. The version performed by Opera Viva was spoken and sung in English.

In this production Staging was very simple with a minimalistic open set in a studio style theatre which was very effective for this type of production. There was no special lighting or sound; however there was some very efficient changing of props between acts

There were some very nice performances in this production, well done to Isobel Jenkins for her portrayal of Carmen, her character is involved in allot of the action in this opera  and she kept up her characterisation and sang well throughout. Robert Driver sang nicely and gave a confident performance as the lovesick Don Jose’ and David Palmer was in admirable voice as Escamillo a Toreador, I really enjoyed the Toreador’s Song. Louise Geatch sang and acted beautifully as Micaela, her rendition of ‘All Alone in this desolate Place’ was particularly enjoyable. Mercedes and Frasquita were played and sung well by Clare Hyams and Pam Ashcroft, their rendition of the Card Trio along with Isobel as Carmen was also very pleasurable. Peter McColgan who played Morales as well as Remendado and Steve Riordan as Zuniga both gave solid supportive performances. There were other supportive performances by Horris Willet as Doncaire, Robert West as Lillas Pastia and Jan Monkley as Manuelita

The chorus sung enthusiastically and appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely. The result was some good choral sounds during the ensemble pieces. Although on a few occasions there was a little too much action from the chorus which did detract a little from the principles.

Musical Director was John Flood and well done to the accompanist Robert Chesters who was outstanding supporting the cast admirably throughout the performance. There were a few occasions when performers were noticeably watching the musical director very closely for cues and timing which should have been a little less obvious. Not sure the reasoning behind this, although it did not detract from our enjoyment.

Costumes were very colourful and appeared to fit the needs of the production very well. It was obvious some thought had gone into getting the costumes together.

Overall this was a very enjoyable  energetic production, so well done to Producer David Palmer and Assistant Producer Vivienne Sharp for a very enjoyable evening., Well done to all involved  both front and back stage and thank you for making me welcome. I hope to see you again for your next production.