Last night we were transported away from cold January and delivered into the steamy world of Seville with a performance of Carmen at the Theatre Royal, Brighton. We are still humming the tunes this morning.
Carmen is a firm favourite. The story focuses around a young woman from the local tobacco factory who’s fiesty spirit attracts attention wherever she goes. A natural leader, she is embroiled in various plots with a strong sense of who she is and how her destiny will shape itself.
In this production, the lead was taken by Mariia Davydova and as soon as she arrived on the stage, she lit it up, driving the narrative and commanding the stage. Her mezzo-soprano voice had great clarity and she effortlessly produced sound quality whilst paying close attention to her acting style and persona. Her performance of the classic ‘Habanera’ in the first act brought out all the playfulness the character needs to express. Davydova is the ideal Carmen, a part almost made for her, and whenever she was on the stage, we were drawn to her.
The other lead, Don Jose, was played by Hovhannes Andreasyan who’s tenor voice was the perfect response to Carmen. He showed a great deal of passion and range, his voice towering at times and also tender at others. It was the relationship between this two leads that made this performance authentic and brought the storyline directly the audience.
This production is billed as a fairwell tour for Ellen Kent and features Senbla, by arrangement with Opera International. Many of the actors on stage are from Ukraine and it’s vacinity, but we also saw supporting cast members from Brighton’s Theatre Workshop take to the stage. With a full orchestra and live music throughout, this is an impressive performance which aims to make opera really accessible. The music is sung in French, but the clear screen gave a simple and easy to follow translation which didn’t detract from the musical performance.
The piece really sparkles when the stage is emptier, with the duets, trios and quintets the highlights of the evening. Act two sees an intenses exchange between the two main characters where they were given the space to use their full range of emotions and move in the set freely. We were also impressed by Viktoriia Melnyk playing Micaela who confidently delivered a long section alone with a great clarity in her voice. The surrounding cast could have been more animated throughout, and there were times when the orchestra could have provided a more rousing accompaniament, but the set pieces were all delivered with confidence.
Carmen is a great opera for people who wouldn’t normally classify themselves as an opera buff. The well known tunes, intrigue from the characters and charisma from the leads made this a confident performance leaving us with a hankering for the sunshine.
