Last night Stuart and I went to see Calixto Bieito‘s glorious and much admired staging of Carmen performed by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in London's glitzy West End.
A story of a woman consumed by passion, and the men who let their emotions overcome them – Bizet’s Carmen is one of the first titles to come to mind when we think of opera, and with good reason. If you love a romantic story with a twist, I think you’ll love Carmen.
Army Corporal Don JosĂ© finds himself unable to resist cigarette worker and femme fatale Carmen’s charm, even when he is supposed to be guarding her prison cell. The tumultuous affair that begins between the pair comes to an abrupt halt when Carmen turns her attention to bullfighter Escamillo. Don JosĂ©’s love for the femme fatale soon turns to jealousy and violence.
Ginger Costa-Jackson plays a magnificent Carmen - canny, wild, and wilful, she knows her own mind and belters out emotions to the rafters. Sean Panikkar plays the hunky, love-torn Don José with a sexy magnetism which makes his acts of violence both shocking and heart-wrenching.
Directed here by Jamie Manton, the action has been transported from the original nineteenth century Seville to the tail end of Franco’s regime in the 1970s, a period in which women’s rights were called into question.
Show stoppers Habanera and the Toreador Song had the audience clapping their hands and tapping their feet.
A great night out. Ole!
PS: the full-frontal male nudity didn't go unnoticed either ;-)
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