Here’s LLLC’s monthly guide to some of the best theatre openings in February 2019.
‘Fresh & mostly effective production’: CARMEN – Royal Opera House ★★★
Twisting Carmen on its head, the Royal Opera House’s revival of Barrie Kosky’s production brings modernity, a narrator, simplicity and vibrancy together to create a fresh and mostly effective production.
‘A beautifully compact version of a well-known opera’: LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN – Touring ★★★★
A beautifully compact version of a well-known opera, La Tragedie de Carmen is backed by stunning historic surroundings – the vocals and performances are impressive.
‘Huge potential of this idea needs to be realised’: TRIOPERAS – Peacock Theatre ★★★
I would recommend seeing TriOperas as an introduction to opera as it offers a good night out but would hope at some point in the future the score can be given the overhaul it desperately needs to realise the huge potential of this idea.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Carmen at the Royal Opera House
Barrie Kosky directs this new production of Bizet’s opera with Anna Goryachova and Gaëlle Arquez in the title role. Carmen continues at the Royal Opera House until 16 March. Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews here.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Carmen at the Royal Opera House
Barrie Kosky directs this new production of Bizet’s opera with Anna Goryachova and Gaëlle Arquez in the title role. Carmen continues at the Royal Opera House until 16 March. Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews here.
‘An ever-cresting wave of invention’: CARMEN – Royal Opera House ★★★★
The gilt and red velvet box of Covent Garden, the austerity of the set, the wit of the production and the clarity of the voiceover narration clash magnificently with the romantic music to make this Carmen a fresh and thrilling evening.
NEWS: Phil Willmott returns to Union Theatre with Essential Classics season
The Phil Willmott Company returns to the Union Theatre in the new year with its third annual season. The focus of 2018’s Essential Classics programme is on “great playwrights and composers of the past who have reflected on issues we face today”.
FROM DOWN UNDER: Carmen
Emotionally sharp, gorgeously sung and spectacular to behold, Opera Australia’s new Carmen is a production to be treasured. The second collaboration between Opera Australia and veteran director John Bell, the opera benefits immensely both from Bell’s heightened theatricality and his finely honed emotional acuity.
INTERVIEW: Spotlight On…Flora McIntosh in Carmen
Mezzo Soprano Flora chatted to Break A Leg about Carmen and what it means to be playing the title role.
FROM DOWN UNDER: Opera Australia’s Carmen
Veteran stage director John Bell helms an emotionally taut new production of Carmen, contrasting the savage drama with the gaudy frivolity of everyday life. This premiere season is set apart by an extraordinary pair of lead performances from French soprano Clémentine Margaine and South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee.
CARMEN – Edinburgh
For their first production in the Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Studio Opera set Bizet’s opera of love, lust and death during the Spanish Civil War.
CARMEN – Edinburgh
For their first production in the Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Studio Opera set Bizet’s opera of love, lust and death during the Spanish Civil War.
CARMEN – Edinburgh
It may be a slow starter, but there’s no shortage of drama at the Festival Theatre this fortnight with Scottish Opera’s production of Carmen.
Set in 19th Century Seville, Georges Bizet’s opera is one of the most popular in the world. This Scottish Opera production, first performed in 1999, is both absorbing and emotive. And yet, despite compelling performances, it’s difficult to relate or really empathise with the main characters.
CARMEN – Soho Theatre
There is a simplistic charm to Carmen from Opera Up Close that see’s Bizet’s classic stripped down to a talented cast of nine and an orchestra reduced to the most elegant of quartets. One of the most popular works in the classical canon, Carmen makes for a great introduction for those just dipping a toe into the opera genre. With a musical score that alone could fill a Now That’s What I Call Classics compilation, the melodies are familiar and the story offers a parable that is, sadly, as timely today as at its 1875 premiere.
MATTHEW BOURNE’S THE CAR MAN – Touring
Accomplished, athletic dancing and clever staging are present and correct in The Car Man. However, it lacks the emotional punch to be an unqualified success.
Despite using Bizet’s music, there is no real connection other than thematic with Carmen in Matthew Bourne’s award winning creation.
Review: Carmen (London Coliseum)
If you saw the header ‘Opera Review’ and thought ‘not for me’, stick with us for a moment. We’ve always thought Carmen was the crossover vehicle for people who don’t think they like opera: it has lots of recognisable songs, an easy-to-follow story and it’s a landmark piece of social propaganda since, although written in […]
The post Review: Carmen (London Coliseum) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
Review: Carmen (London Coliseum)
If you saw the header ‘Opera Review’ and thought ‘not for me’, stick with us for a moment. We’ve always thought Carmen was the crossover vehicle for people who don’t think they like opera: it has lots of recognisable songs, an easy-to-follow story and it’s a landmark piece of social propaganda since, although written in […]
The post Review: Carmen (London Coliseum) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
Review: Carmen (King’s Head Islington)
We have been here before. Many times, it feels: ‘stripped-down’ pub opera featuring the concomitant apparatus of skinny jeans, transfer tattoos, funky tights, DMs, bad haircuts, jazz beards and studentish ensembles. With its garret-full of debris, vodka bottles, cellphones, laptops and fairy lights, Carmen at the King’s Head does not disappoint. The chaise-longue on which […]
The post Review: Carmen (King’s Head Islington) appeared first on JohnnyFox.
Review: Carmen (Wilton’s Music Hall)
At Londonist Towers, our fondness for Wilton’s – the last surviving ‘grand musical hall’ in the country – knows few bounds. We love its raffish ‘beautiful state of disrepair’ auditorium, its varied repertoire and its super nice cheap bar. The shabby chic auditorium is so adaptable and for this week’s performances of Carmen it could […]
The post Review: Carmen (Wilton’s Music Hall) appeared first on JohnnyFox.