This year marks Carmen’s 150th birthday. When it first premiered at the Opera-Comique in March 1875, the audience were primed for a masterpiece. However, as the show wore on, the toffee-nosed Parisians scoffed at Georges Bizet’s opera. They claimed Prosper Mérimée’s short story, written just 30 years before, had been bastardised. Here was too much passion, too much eroticism, and – even more scandalously – there was on-stage death. While there are many moments of thrilling pleasure in the English National Opera’s latest outing of Calixto Bieito’s 2012 production, which returns for the fourth time, the soaring passions that assaulted the original audience weren’t consistently on display.
Transplanted to Spain of the 1970s, Bieito’s Carmen unfolds in the shadows of Franco’s fascist regime, drawing a parallel between political and romantic tyranny. The titular femme fatale is a Byronic lover par excellence. Elusive, skittish and wildly sexy, all the boys at the barracks want her. (She’s opera’s equivalent to the Stones’ Ruby Tuesday.) Yet, as Christopher Cowell’s slightly clunky English translation reminds us, ‘true love is borne of fiery blood,’ and Carmen’s incandescent allure soon sparks raging flames. An already betrothed soldier Don José and a virile bullfighter, Escamillo, are caught within her web of gypsy charms. The consequences are predictably tragic.
Mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan’s Carmen is a novel piece of casting. Gone is the swarthy, dark-eyed vixen; instead, we are given a blonde bombshell of the Marilyn Monroe mould. She has a childlike sense of playfulness and drapes herself around the stage for lust-struck men in much the same way a bullfighter wields a red flag. But it’s not long before she’s slipping away, weasel-like, to embark on other misadventures. O’Sullivan’s liquid voice was excellent in her deliciously flirtatious rendition of the habanera; the higher notes, however, lacked power, and, more generally, volume was a problem given the London Coliseum’s cavernous playing space.
As for her lovers, Don José, played by John Findon produced a full-bodied sound. Plaintive implorations and moments of romantic longing were very well done, although in the later acts he needed to bring out his character’s love-induced madness and obsession. This would have made the opera’s dark turn plausible as opposed to laughable (there was an unfortunate crackle of snickering at the opera’s tragic denouement). The dashing Escamillo was a swaggering Cory McGee, full of precision and power in his vocals, yet without a clearly developed psychology to underpin all the spectacular posturing.
These singers occupied a scant set, which induced opera-going novices to reach for the plot summary in their programmes. Arbitrarily made up of a single flagpole and a telephone box, there was little to help the narrative along in the opening acts. After the interval, a huge bronze bull lurked ominously at the back of the stage only to crash down as the bullfight ensued. What was most effective in establishing mood, in fact, was Bruno Poet’s gorgeous lighting design. Pools of golden yellow light were diffused around the stage, potently conjuring hot summer nights and forbidden desires.
Throughout, the ENO’s orchestra was commandeered to musical excellence by conductor Clelia Cafiero. The overture was high-octane and exhilarating, containing all the central musical motifs and thus establishing the opera’s tragic fatalism. A sense of frivolity and caprice – the defining features of Bizet’s heroine – was suggested by the swung rhythms of the score, dramatically alternating between long and short notes. Unfortunately, at some moments the vocals and orchestration were not synchronised, but this was most likely the result of first-night jitters.
Despite the flaws of the ENO’s production, it’s impossible to criticise the imaginative vision and daring behind this take on a much-sung classic. The 1970s concept doesn’t feel awkward, nor does the Hollywood-esque Carmen at its centre. Furthermore, the ENO are doing much impressive work to keep opera alive for younger generations: an eager bunch of school children from Kensington filled out the chorus, and free tickets for performances are available to anyone under 21. Certainly, in its active promotion of freedom and passion, this show embodies the spirit of Bizet’s Carmen.
Music: Georges Bizet
Libretto: Christopher Cowell (translator)
Conductor: Clelia Cafiero
Photo credits: Ellie Kurttz
Cast includes: Niamh O’Sullivan; John Findon; Freddie Tong; Ava Dodd; Cory McGee.
Until: Wednesday 5th November 2025
Running Time: 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
Review by Olivia Hurton