EIF 2024 Carmen Festival Theatre 4th August Review
Image Carmen © Andrew Perry
Carmen, Bizet’s ever popular opera at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh tonight was a little bit different from other productions that I have seen over the years and, as always, any change to a much loved work provokes different opinions.
This Carmen was a UK production premiere and came direct to the Edinburgh International Festival from Opéra-Comique – the Parisian opera house where it all began on 3 March 1875. To celebrate this long history of Carmen, director Andreas Homoki has chosen to add a few twists to the opera that many of us are used to and weaves into the story the history of the opera itself and also celebrates the many people over time who have seen it performed whilst staying true to Bizet’s original score. To achieve this a series of carefully designed period costume changes take this story through time and the end result will be to some people a work of inspired creativity, to others a bit of a jig-saw puzzle. I am deliberately giving little away about all of this in this review as I want these new ideas to be experienced first-hand by people still to see this production (ends 8 August).
What is unchanging here is the genius of Bizet’s original score which is performed by the Scottish National Orchestra who, as always, never fail to breathe life and energy into any music that they play. The original libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy is here too.
Carmen is always a little different from any other opera because Carmen herself is so different from any other female operatic role, and it is this striking powerful woman who first shocked Opéra-Comique audiences nearly 150 years ago, outraging so many people with her perceived lack of morals. Despite very unpopular revues and audience responses at the time, so many of us have come to love Carmen and prove Bizet right in his choices for his new opera. It is always sad to think that his all too early death at only 36 years of age made it impossible to see Carmen’s massive success during his lifetime.
To perform the role of Carmen must be a dream of so many opera singers, but it is also a role that few seem to be able to do convincingly as the character is actually very difficult to get just right. If for some reason you do not get that delicate balance of the person that audiences expect Carmen to be in the first few minutes of her appearance on stage, then this opera can be lost from the very beginning.
Tonight though there was no fear of that ever happening as Gaëlle Arquez as Carmen made this role hers from her very opening moment on stage. This was a woman confident of herself and her ability to get what she wanted from everyone around her, particularly men who were to her so often little more than playthings. There is also another side to Carmen which Gaëlle Arquez balanced perfectly, a woman who could not afford to let her guard down for a moment in case it exposed any weaknesses in her, particularly, in her opinion, falling in love with someone. Whether it be dramatically or vocally, Gaëlle Arquez was the perfect Carmen.
A great character like Carmen so often needs an adversary, a mirror self almost to fully bring out all of their strengths and Saimir Pirgu as Don José also gave a fine performance tonight of a man who slowly lost his heart, mind and soul to Carmen. Together Gaëlle Arquez and Saimir Pirgu were a powerful combination on-stage as Carmen and Don José. There were solid performances also from the two other main characters in this story with Elbenita Kajtazi as Micaëla and Jean-Fernand Setti as Escamillo, making it impossible not to like this production of Carmen on a purely performance level. Somehow the minimalist set worked here allowing the visual focus to be so heavily on the performers and the music.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www,artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This Carmen was a UK production premiere and came direct to the Edinburgh International Festival from Opéra-Comique – the Parisian opera house where it all began on 3 March 1875. To celebrate this long history of Carmen, director Andreas Homoki has chosen to add a few twists to the opera that many of us are used to and weaves into the story the history of the opera itself and also celebrates the many people over time who have seen it performed whilst staying true to Bizet’s original score. To achieve this a series of carefully designed period costume changes take this story through time and the end result will be to some people a work of inspired creativity, to others a bit of a jig-saw puzzle. I am deliberately giving little away about all of this in this review as I want these new ideas to be experienced first-hand by people still to see this production (ends 8 August).
What is unchanging here is the genius of Bizet’s original score which is performed by the Scottish National Orchestra who, as always, never fail to breathe life and energy into any music that they play. The original libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy is here too.
Carmen is always a little different from any other opera because Carmen herself is so different from any other female operatic role, and it is this striking powerful woman who first shocked Opéra-Comique audiences nearly 150 years ago, outraging so many people with her perceived lack of morals. Despite very unpopular revues and audience responses at the time, so many of us have come to love Carmen and prove Bizet right in his choices for his new opera. It is always sad to think that his all too early death at only 36 years of age made it impossible to see Carmen’s massive success during his lifetime.
To perform the role of Carmen must be a dream of so many opera singers, but it is also a role that few seem to be able to do convincingly as the character is actually very difficult to get just right. If for some reason you do not get that delicate balance of the person that audiences expect Carmen to be in the first few minutes of her appearance on stage, then this opera can be lost from the very beginning.
Tonight though there was no fear of that ever happening as Gaëlle Arquez as Carmen made this role hers from her very opening moment on stage. This was a woman confident of herself and her ability to get what she wanted from everyone around her, particularly men who were to her so often little more than playthings. There is also another side to Carmen which Gaëlle Arquez balanced perfectly, a woman who could not afford to let her guard down for a moment in case it exposed any weaknesses in her, particularly, in her opinion, falling in love with someone. Whether it be dramatically or vocally, Gaëlle Arquez was the perfect Carmen.
A great character like Carmen so often needs an adversary, a mirror self almost to fully bring out all of their strengths and Saimir Pirgu as Don José also gave a fine performance tonight of a man who slowly lost his heart, mind and soul to Carmen. Together Gaëlle Arquez and Saimir Pirgu were a powerful combination on-stage as Carmen and Don José. There were solid performances also from the two other main characters in this story with Elbenita Kajtazi as Micaëla and Jean-Fernand Setti as Escamillo, making it impossible not to like this production of Carmen on a purely performance level. Somehow the minimalist set worked here allowing the visual focus to be so heavily on the performers and the music.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www,artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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