Gscene News Archive

Carmen at the theatre Royal is a fun night out for all the family (putting aside the murder, jealousy, hatred, thieving, fighting, robbery, slappers, smuggling and bad flamenco dancing) and the Theater was filled with folk who all seemed to be having a wonderful night out.

Ellen Kent’s production of Carmen, like all her productions, is huge and magnificent and fun fun fun.

Who cares if the cigarettes are never lit in the cigarette factory and the fight scene looks like a Dynasty cat fight?

This production with its lavish costumes -all trying very hard to be as authentically Spanish as you could possibly be, and mostly succeeding is a glossy thing to watch, with sur-titles if you wanna follow the action.

The signature tight choral pieces that sometimes overshadowed the soloists were very well done and the 'extra' Ellen Kent bits and bobs just seem to add to the show, like Carmen’s ‘funeral’ and lets not forget that this is a SHOW after all.

I could moan, about the less than enthusiastic bullring scene, or the over fast - frankly rushed- quintet from Fransquita, Mercedes and their men friends, which no one else seemed to notice.

The famous Toreador’s song was hardly rousing and the contrast between Igor Sviridov's Escamillio and Grigali's Jose was noticeable.

Carmen is about passion, lust, desire and betrayal, it says a lot that I fell asleep during the seduction scene and was only woken by the booming, but beautiful tones of Irakli Grigali's ‘Don Jose’, his voice was a delight as was his acting.

Zarui Vardanean's ‘Carmen’ was ok, but Carmen should never be ok, she should be a rush of Spanish passion, a strike of Latin lightening, a mad rush of blood and kisses wrapped up in petticoats, jet black hair and the fierce need for freedom. Perhaps playing three heroines in three nights takes it out of a diva, but there was the occasional genuine flash of the real Carmen, her eyes flashing, voice trilling and sardonic laughter shining through.

But you know what, apart from me (and two or three other opera snobs) everyone else in the packed theatre seemed to love it, people were singing along (the horror!), humming the tunes as we left, buzzing with the pure spectacle of it, and that kind of sums up Ellen Kent’s approach to opera, to allow as many people as possible see a good show, full of colour, live orchestral music and a banging good story.

So the French accents were cod-soviet and over fancy flamenco fingers were lifted from ‘ello ello’, so what!

The full house loved her and there was a real hush as poor Carmen got stabbed for wanting to be free. I was wondering where the blood was, and also why poor poor Carmen had to take it in the neck in the first place, just for changing boyfriends every six months, but that's nothing to do with Ellen, I’ll have to take that up with Bizet.

This is, as they say, Ellen Kent’s farewell tour, so catch these productions while you can, they tour till the end of the year and at least it does what is says on the tin. We'll miss ya Ellen.

Carmen plays at the Theatre Royal on Sat 30th May 7.30pm

For more information view:
www.ambassadortickets.com/Theatre-Royal-Brighton