by Georges Bizet
seen by live streaming from the Coliseum on 1 July 2015
This is a revival of ENO's 2012 production which was directed by Calixto Bieito with sets designed by Alfons Flores. The revival is directed by Joan Anton Rechi and features Justina Gringyte as Carmen, Eric Cutler as Don José, Leigh Melrose as Escamillo and Eleanor Dennis as Micaëla. The conductor is Richard Armstrong.
The setting is modern and the opening emphasises a military presence on the verge of outright oppression. The soldiers are bored, the officers probably corrupt or bullying (there is a hapless near-naked soldier running to the point of exhaustion as some sort of punishment), the heat adding to a sense of torpor and danger. Naturally the sultry Carmen thrives in this atmosphere and for the impressionable Don José she is just a disaster waiting to happen. The rather gauche Micaëla can be no serious competition; indeed José's sentimental attachment to his mother is an awkward barrier to the development of anything between him and her emissary.
In these conditions, the flirtations between the soldiers and the girls from the cigarette factory are anything but decorous; the soldiers even regard Micaëla as fair game. In the second act, Lillas Pastia's bar has become an open air rendezvous reached by a car driven onto the stage; in the third act four or five cars loaded with contraband are on the stage, and there is a gigantic model of a bull silhouetted at the back. This is brought down with a crash and dismantled before the fourth act when the crowd greets the cuadrilla with all the enthusiasm one might expect these days - cheering, flash photographs and selfies. But the crowd has of course disappeared by the time of the final confrontation between Carmen and Don José; he cuts her throat while they are inside a large chalk circle, correlating her death with the bullfight taking place nerby.
This is an exciting and earthy production; the principals were excellent, and the chorus provided solid backup as military men, townsfolk and gypsy renegades. The great and familiar music just pours out, and Justina Gringyte gave marvellous expression to Carmen's famous arias. Clearly the conception was not universally approved - a couple near us in the cinema said to an attendant in the interval that they were not enjoying themselves at all, and at least two members of the audience left during the first half. However, I had seen the original production in 2012 or early 2013, and was very pleased to see it again in this revival.
In these conditions, the flirtations between the soldiers and the girls from the cigarette factory are anything but decorous; the soldiers even regard Micaëla as fair game. In the second act, Lillas Pastia's bar has become an open air rendezvous reached by a car driven onto the stage; in the third act four or five cars loaded with contraband are on the stage, and there is a gigantic model of a bull silhouetted at the back. This is brought down with a crash and dismantled before the fourth act when the crowd greets the cuadrilla with all the enthusiasm one might expect these days - cheering, flash photographs and selfies. But the crowd has of course disappeared by the time of the final confrontation between Carmen and Don José; he cuts her throat while they are inside a large chalk circle, correlating her death with the bullfight taking place nerby.
This is an exciting and earthy production; the principals were excellent, and the chorus provided solid backup as military men, townsfolk and gypsy renegades. The great and familiar music just pours out, and Justina Gringyte gave marvellous expression to Carmen's famous arias. Clearly the conception was not universally approved - a couple near us in the cinema said to an attendant in the interval that they were not enjoying themselves at all, and at least two members of the audience left during the first half. However, I had seen the original production in 2012 or early 2013, and was very pleased to see it again in this revival.
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