Carmen

One of the things we fitted in along with the trip to Huddersfield for the dyeing course was a performance of Scottish Opera's Carmen at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.

Now I love Carmen, and we are huge supporters of Scottish Opera, but it has to be said that this Carmen was problematic.

As a plus the female singing was all of a very high standard. Everyone raved about the Carmen herself, perhaps a little over enthusiastically to our mind, but she was very good indeed. The Micaela was excellent. I remember someone once telling me what a thankless part Micaela is - you get a Big Tune in Act 1 then have to go backstage and fill in time until your second Big Tune which isn't until Act 3 and then you're done, but you can't go home early because you have to be there at the end of Act 4 for the curtain calls.....

 

Having said that, well,  the men were a bit lacklustre in the vocal department, except for the tenor who certainly had  a Big Voice. It was not a particularly beautiful voice, but it certainly was Big. Nor, unless you were wanting someone to impersonate middle stump, could he act. Wooden really doesn't cover it.

 

The big problem though was with the production. Minimalist I can do, and let's be honest, no-one expects that when the curtain goes up on Act 1 that the audience will see a meticulous recreation of the old cigarette factory in Seville ( now part of the university and well worth a look, should you be in that neck of the woods) . However given that it is supposedly midday in that most sunny of Spanish cities what you also do not expect to see is a three sided black box. The same three sided box that subsequently does duty for the tavern of Lillas Pastia in Act 2 and the mountain side in Act 3. Admittedly some light was shed in Act 3 by the presence on stage of what looked very much like a real camp fire, but can't have been.

 

It was not an overwhelming evening. For the first time ever I understood what Carmen's original, and highly dissatisfied, audience meant when they wrote the opera off as sordid. It was sordid and uninvolving and actually  a huge disappointment. And it gives me no pleasure to say that.

 

There was a funny moment though. There was a couple to my left and before the performance began the female half was craning her neck and looking all around her. She then turned to her male companion and said 'I was looking for the xs, but I can't see them. Maybe they're sitting in the cheap seats'.

 

Which goes to show that there are still people who can give opera audiences a bad name!