BIZETness As Usual – Carmen

As a relative opera novice, what I have come to love about Ellen Kent’s touring productions is very simple: they do exactly what they say on the tin!

I have seen her Carmen several times now and can almost claim to ‘know it’ if that does not sound overly churlish, however, musical score to one side (sacrilege I know), the ‘setting’ is always traditional: the costumes, the scenery, the place.

And that is what opera newbies need and traditionalists expect: Kent never fails to deliver which is why the theatre is always full, usually with grey haired 60 somethings, keen to see a production that has not been interfered with by an overly zealous director keen to try out a new idea!

Gathering her players from a variety of eastern Europe’s finest opera companies – the Armenian National Opera, the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Moldova and the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Armenia, to name just a few – Kent has assembled some of the world’s finest voices into one touring company.

And they return to the UK year after year, until now that is. The sinister phrase ‘The Farewell Tour’ has crept to the top of Ellen Kent’s programme implying that Ms Kent’s 33 years at the opera helm is about to end.

But, despite this – and I have known popstars to retire many times with multiple comebacks – this lady of the stage delivered the bizetness last night at Bradford’s Alhambra, with her homage to Georges Bizet under the baton of the physically enthusiastic Vasyl Vasylenko, a veteran of Ukraine’s Odessa’s Opera House.

It was as I had expected, a copycat of the 2024 production; even the faces were familiar. But, more an observation than a criticism, because repetition embeds knowledge and, for this writer, the chance to see the tried and tested repeatedly allows you to learn without too many distractions.

This time I was able to appreciate Vasylenko’s strict musicianship in the pit, the quality of the stagecraft and even the lesser roles – Carmen’s companions Frasquita (Anastasiia Blokha) and Mercedes (Liuciia Dun), all bolstered by the powerful voices of diva Mariia Davydova as Carmen and tenor Hovhannes Andreasyan as Don Jose, consumed with passion for his gypsy love.

The original 1875 premier of Carmen at Paris’ Opera-Comique Theatre, ended in a fiasco with people walking out before the final curtain; three months later the great man was dead at just 36 and it was several years before his progressive ideas were accepted by the mainstream.

Soprano Matveeva was Bizet’s famous femme fatale, an operatic creation delivered by the 19th century composer after he took inspiration from Merimee’s famous 1845 novella. She had a wonderful voice and the undoubted beauty and figure to carry off the part of a stunning, black-haired, gypsy girl, who has a part time job as a man eater!

Tonight, it is back to the Alhambra for another dose of opera, this time Madama Butterly where, if I was a guessing man, Korean soprano Elena Dee will be leading the troops.

It may be the last opportunity I have to see one of Ellen Kent’s operas but, rest assured, I shall sit in the dark and quietly enjoy the opera that launched a new thousand theatre goeers as one of the principal inspirations for the Schönberg Boublil tour de force, Miss Saigon.

Carmen
Alhambra, Bradford
TONIGHT ONLY
Madama Butterly