Opera, Carmen, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Four stars
Sexual harassment, domestic violence and a stage full of children smoking are just some of the elements of Scottish Opera’s revival of this spare staging of Bizet’s masterpiece first seen in Glasgow in 1999.
But if there has been some change in our attitudes to those over the intervening years, it is also true that this revival of Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s original production by Benjamin Davis brings out other more contemporary themes of self-determination and what constitutes honest work. With the Orchestra of Scottish Opera under David Parry playing the familiar overture in a light, swift and breezily theatrical fashion, the narrative flow of the tragic tale of love, fate and duty could hardly be bettered, but there is still time to admire some impressive stage pictures in the movement of the chorus and the lighting design, recreated here by Robert B Dickson.
They culminate in the impressively painterly start of Act 4, the company clad in colourful costumes for the Seville bullfight and bowls of oranges arrayed diagonally across the stage.
Mostly, however, the heavy lifting is left to Bizet and his score of well-known tunes and less-celebrated poignancy. This cast mixes company favourites Roland Wood (Escamilo), Nadine Livingston (a beautifully sung Micaela), Andrew McTaggart and Marie Claire Breen – the last three all graduates of Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists programme – with impressive company debuts from Noah Stewart as Don Jose and Justin Gringyte in the title role. Characterisation is solid throughout and if Stewart was not as sure-footed musically from the start as the Lithuanian soprano on the opening night, he was in commanding form by his second act declaration of love. Whether from the Upper East Side or more locally sourced, the cast’s French diction is impressive across the board.
Keith Bruce
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