Friday, November 22

Tag: Edward Dick

Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry
North West

Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry

Carmen is stuffed full of well-known arias and melodies, or as one audience member put it as she left the theatre, “I was surprised by how many songs I already knew.” From the Toreador’s song to the Habanera and the Seguidilla the music is easily recognisable by most people even if they have never been to an opera. This boisterous production by Opera North updated events from 19th century Sevilla to a border town in the late 1950s early 1960s. This was a clever idea as this was a time of rebellion, of counter-culture, where young people wanted to be free and do their own thing. To live and love on their own terms. For the character of Carmen love is transitory. She is open and honest in saying that she falls in and out of love with ease. She just wants freedom and is unconcerned with...
Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry
North West

Opera North: Carmen – The Lowry

Hard on the heels of 'Waitress' at the Opera House this week, another musical tale of female lust and empowerment comes to Manchester, with the arrival of Georges Bizet's 'Carmen' from Opera North playing at The Lowry. Unfortunately, whilst this production promises 'desire and hot-blooded passion', what we are served is a reheated dish that attempts to be innovative and succeeds only in being lacklustre and imitative. Carmen was hugely controversial upon its initial staging in 1875 with its story of immorality amongst the proletarian class of Andalucia; the eponymous heroine being both lawless, amoral and (spoiler alert) suffering a brutal on stage death at the denouement. Bizet died less than three months after the premiere of his final work, never getting to see it staged to internati...