When six out of 10 of the principal cast find themselves Covid-positive on the day your new production is due to open, it might seem like curtains. But Longborough festival opera chutzpah made this show go on: cover singers took their place, with Linda Richardson nobly stepping in as Micaëla. In true theatre tradition, the production became an ensemble effort, with many performers making their mark on what they will remember as a lucky night. What the audience got was a concert performance, although the full staging will return.
The setting is modern-day Andalucía, where Carmen works in a meat-packaging factory (with the obvious implication of women viewed as slabs of meat); legs of smoked jamón hang down, interspersed with religious images of Madonna and child and pictures of a golden-haired boy. Don José’s mother-fixation and the mother’s clinging to him are central to director Mathilde López’s view of Bizet’s opera.
She also chooses not to ignore the fact that José is already a killer before becoming a dragoon: in Prosper Mérimée’s novella, on which the libretto was based, he murders three people before Carmen becomes his fourth victim. This gives him a ruthless edge, a slight weirdness and an awkward inadequacy. Peter Gijsbertsen’s portrayal is of a tortured soul, his fervour in the last scene when driven to the crime passionnel showing most effectively his mix of baritonal colour along with the tenor highs.
His Carmen, Bernadette Johns, coming on in place of Margaret Plummer, showed a remarkable possession from the moment she peeled off bits of her factory worker’s uniform, capturing the insouciance of her character as well as her sense of an unalienable right to be herself. Johns’ mezzo was well focused, capable of sultry warmth and a fiery edge at the top.
Conductor Jeremy Silver kept a tight rein on the ensemble writing: choruses, together with Longborough’s youth singers, were fresh and bright, notable for the clarity of their diction, underlining the apposite English translation of Amanda Holden. Of course, there was inevitably an element of compromise, but this evening was also a small triumph over adversity.
In rep at Longborough, Moreton-in-Marsh, until 19 July. Details: lfo.org.uk