OperaUpClose to Present Bizet's CARMEN at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre

Following the success of La Boheme, La Traviata and The Marriage of Figaro, Olivier Award-winning OperaUpClose return to the Belgrade Theatre stage with their new English version of Bizet's wildly popular opera on Tues 19 Jan.

Carmen captivates and provokes, disturbing the composure of everyone she encounters. Sparks fly when she meets José, but as her passion cools, his turns to obsession. Unable to control his feelings or the woman who inspired them, he descends into violence. But Carmen will not give up her freedom for anyone. This tantalizing new production takes place in a torrid South American landscape of dust and concrete, where small-town boredom and machismo can turn nasty.

This tantalising new production takes place in a torrid South American landscape of dust and concrete, where small-town boredom and machismo can turn nasty.

Bizet's powerful melodies are orchestrated for a quartet of strings, woodwind and percussion by composer Harry Blake (OperaUpClose's La Traviata and Don Giovanni). This new English version is directed by Robin Norton-Hale.

Artistic Director of OperaUpClose Robin Norton-Hale said: Perhaps it the fact that Carmen is neither easily intimidated or a saint which has meant that the narrative of the opera is often viewed as a story of two equally flawed protagonists careering towards a so-called 'crime of passion', rather than one in which Carmen is a victim of an escalating cycle of abuse. While a sexually confident female lead is undeniably appealing (witness the enormous popularity of Bizet's opera), to maintain that it is not Carmen's own choices which lead to her death, but Jose's, should not diminish her. Carmen is murdered by her ex-partner. She has this in common with more than two women a week in England and Wales who are killed by a current or former partner. What she also has in common with these women is that she does not deserve to die.'

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