Opera review: Scottish Opera- Carmen

Published on Wednesday 8 September 2010 19:51

Scottish Opera: Carmen **** Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow

CUT down Bizet's Carmen, as Ashley Dean's slimline touring production for Scottish Opera does, and interesting things happen. There are no crowd scenes, which cancels out those famous moments of opulent colour. And forget the boys' chorus, which becomes an instrumental scene-setter after the interval.

Instead, hemmed in by the rusting corrugated iron set, Dean's concept paints a more intimate and gritty picture of the gypsy girl, her self-destruct button, and all those affected by her magnetism. Only the principal characters are used, the bare minimum required, all dressed in a utilitarian drabness intended to transport us to Franco's Spain of the 1960s.

What it lacks in prettiness is made up for by a uniformly convincing cast. In Tuesday's opening performance, Rebecca Afonwy-Jones's Carmen was both dark and manipulative, with enough seductive fruitiness in her voice to sustain complete plausibility. Robyn Lyn Evans brought passion to the role of Don Jos. The young Brazilian baritone Michel de Souza filled the boots of bullfighter Escamillo with flamboyance.

As the sensible Micala, Claire Watkins is hugely endearing, especially in her final attempt to knock sense into Don Jos. Caroline MacPhie (Frasquita) and Katherine Allen (Mercds) do a sterling job as factory girls, as do Francis Church and Patrick Ashcroft, as what amounts to the entire army regiment. Francisco Javier Borda's Zuniga is a mean, towering presence, physically and vocally.

To facilitate the touring of this production to medium-scale venues, the minimalist theatrical approach is matched by a 16-piece instrumental pit ensemble playing a skilfully reduced orchestration by Scottish Opera's head of music, Derek Clark, who also conducts it with unflinching efficiency. It's a Carmen with enough attitude to overcome the dearth of human resources.