Festival Theatre, Edinburgh – until 17th June 2023
REVIEWED BY RACHEL FARRIER
5*****
This Scottish Opera production of Bizet’s Carmen, sung in English and directed by John Fulljames, is innovative and captivating from the moment the curtain is raised – the set itself, and the framing of the tale as a murder investigation, lets the audience know the tragic ending from the outset. This is an audacious conceit, but one that works to brilliant effect.
The Opera opens with a distinctly Glaswegian detective (played perfectly by Carmen Pieraccini) sifting through articles of evidence for the investigation into (spoiler alert) Carmen’s tragic death, as she interviews her prime suspect, Don José. The entire Opera unfolds through this lens, with the detective effectively playing the role of a chorus as she stands to one side to observe the story unfolding, periodically asking probing questions and making observations that articulate those in the minds of the audience. The genius projection design by Will Duke and set design by Sarah Beaton, sees the contents of the evidence table projected across the full back of the set throughout the show, and the story is revealed as much by the additions to the table, and their re-shuffling, as is provided by action and story-telling before us.
The Lithuanian Soprano Justina Gringytė is a mesmerising Carmen, holding her surrounding characters and the audience spell-bound as she struts across the stage whilst seducing and abandoning a succession of men with a knowing frivolity and heartlessness that descends into a morbid certainty of her impending fate. The pairing of this Carmen with Phillip Rhodes’ Escamillo (the Toreador) is electric, and the power, intensity and effortless range of both voices is seen at its finest in their scenes together.
Alok Kumar brilliantly portrays Don José as both a heart-broken wretch and (by modern standards) sinister obsessive and his voice has a richness of tone which belies the misery on his face. The ragged disbelief and intensity with which he tries to justify his actions in the face of the unsentimental questioning by the detective is by turns sympathetic and disturbing.
The highly enjoyable 70s-styled pairing of Colin Murray as Dancaïre and Osian Wyn Bowen as Remendado brought some welcome light relief as the intensity and passion of the Opera mounted. It was, however, Hy-Yoon Lee as Micaëla, the spurned childhood sweetheart of Don José who managed to steal the show last night – although she has only brief scenes on stage, her soaring arias were a spine-tingling perfection which was rewarded with the loudest cheer of the night from the seemingly full-capacity audience at the curtain call.
This is a sublime, clever and completely fresh production of Carmen, get along if you can get your hands on a ticket.