IT was bad enough that we had Stannington Brass Band (no disrespect) tacked on as prologue before Bizet's opera began and for act two to be held up from starting while a flamenco dancer strutted her stuff, but the added 'epilogue' was an abomination.
One of opera's great finales ruined by a directorial whim – a funeral cortege carrying the dead Carmen off to a voiceless flamenco chant and a death knell being sounded on tubular bells.
What went before wasn't terribly inspiring. It was much the
same Carmen as trotted out by Ellen Kent's company many times in the past, except it had the coliseum façade backdrop.
Among the cast, Irina Vinogradova was again a standout as Micaela followed by the Don José of Nicolae Busiouc, not the subtlest of performers, vocally or dramatically, but he tries hard and latterly got a fair amount of intensity into his performance.
The stand-in Carmen and obviously well practised in role, Gabriella Hazarean played her as sexual predator, while vocally being very much an East European (Romanian) Carmen.
For the record, Igor Sviridov was a dry-voiced Escamillo.
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