Carmen

When: Friday 1^st March

Where: Albert Hall

Why: My mum found a special offer in the M&S magazine…

Other than a few hours sat in Durham castle’s great hall supporting my singing housemate at an ‘Opera favourites’ showcase, I don’t have any great experience of opera. I’ve seen the Phantom of it (film version) and obviously the classic ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’ (kill the wabbit!), but never a proper opera. And the only other show I’ve seen in the Albert Hall was John Barrowman a few years ago (sitting at the back screaming ‘nooooooooo!’ when he started to sing ‘Memory’…), so I thought I’d balance that out with something a bit classier.

Firstly, I have to point out that it took me a WHILE to realise that the cast were actually singing in English. I had expected it to be in French like the original (just assumed that you go to the opera and don’t understand what’s going on, standard), but even once I realised this it didn’t help much as it’s pretty hard to hear what they’re saying. Add in the fact that it’s set in Seville so they all have Spanish names and you don’t have a clue where you are. Some lines were all too clear however, which really led me to think that English is not a natural language for opera… At one point the mean lieutenant enters the bar room scene and exclaims “I let myself in!” which left mum and I in a prolonged fit of the giggles.  

The story is basically about a capricious and gutsy gypsy (Carmen, obv) who does some mega flirting with a soldier (Don Jose) who then abandons his childhood sweetheart for her. Things get a bit complicated when he kills his lieutenant in a bar, so he has to run away with Carmen who pretty much instantly gets bored of him. She then falls in love with a fit toreador (Escamillo – great casting, my mum was VERY impressed…), Don Jose is not happy about the situation and kills Carmen while she’s watching the toreador fight. Basically like a normal week on Spanish Eastenders. The actors/singers were all very accomplished and I thought Carmen’s voice was really brilliant, and managed to hold their own against the enthusiastic playing of the Royal Philharmonic.

The space did look great and the staging was inventive and worked well with all the crowd scenes – it was performed more or less in the round, as per the Albert Hall’s shape, and there was a raised platform snaking up to the main stage which was an effective device for all the approaching that went on… We were sitting quite high up and I had noticed that there were trees hanging amongst the Albert Hall’s famous ceiling smarties (that’s what people call them, right?), which were down on the stage after the interval for the scene where they’re all in the woods. The moment the scene changed and the trees rose slowwwwly and spookily back up into the heavens was another cause for hilarity; I couldn’t tell you why but maybe I was reacting to all the serious singing that was going on.

There were points especially at the beginning where I had no idea who was singing or where they were, as there was a lot of crowd action and vigorous milling around, and I thought Carmen was someone totally different for quite a long time, until it became really obvious. But the large scale action was very effective during the climactic bull-fight carnival scene, which was full of colour and action, acrobatics and flames and stilt-walkers… which kind of left the actual finale point of Carmen’s death feeling a bit flat, because after all the verve and bounce of the scene before, one sneaky struggle and stabbing which should have been intense and dramatic just felt a bit forced and uninteresting. I think this was because the show had been all about big scenes and spectacle and so you hadn’t invested so much in the individual characters or got to know them that well, so it was harder to switch over to that mode in the only scene which involved just two people. In general though, the singing and spectacle were pleasing and in parts quite gripping, and I think it was quite a good first opera to have experienced as it’s quite accessible.

I also noticed that the lyrics had been translated by Amanda Holden which caused a huge moment of confusion until I investigated. It’s a different Amanda Holden, obviously.

All in all, I’m not totally put off opera but think next time I’d go for something foreign language and on a smaller scale. Or just stick with Bugs Bunny.

Brixpig x