Carmen is reportedly one of the most performed operas in the world but I wonder for how long.
Watching the Opera North production of Georges Bizet's work at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle was a bit of an uncomfortable experience for me. Women seen as playthings for disagreeable blokes.
While the vocal performances were strong and the orchestra first rate, at the end I was left feeling maybe 150 years after it was written it's reached its sell by date.
Read more: Alcina cast bring Handel's magical tale to life at Newcastle's Theatre Royal
Director Edward Dick said in an interview last year: “I am very aware that this is an opera written by a male composer together with male librettists, based on a novella by a male author, about a man, Don Jose, who is telling his story of an encounter with a woman, Carmen.
“So our intention is to construct a world which contextualises Carmen and paints a clear picture of who she is and why she makes the choices she makes.”
It sees Bizet's Opera transferred from the original Spain to a seedy US club dominated by a huge neon 'Girls' sign frequented by the local army garrison.
Enter 'La Carmencita' - the excellent Chrystal E Williams - to 'entertain them', dressed as a sort of scarlet bunny girl, and surrounded by fluttering ostrich feathers.
She is quickly the centre of attention, pawed and propositioned by the army lechers, before she chooses one of them, Don Jose, another (not so) paragon of male virtue, being on the run from his heavily pregnant wife, Micaëla.
He becomes obsessed with Carmen, deserting the army to be with her and her criminal friends. Later she falls for Escamillo, a Toreador in the original, but in the updated version a rodeo rider I presumed.
Heartbroken and having lost everything, Don Jose exacts a terrible price on Carmen. If he can't have her, no-one can.
Bizet's famous melodies including the ‘Habanera’ and Toreador Song were very well received by a sell out audience who didn't on the face of it seem to have the qualms I did.
And it should be noted that while Covid played havoc with the cast with four roles including that of Don Jose, Escamillo, Mercedes and Morales being taken on by understudies, the show proceeded faultlessly.
But like I said there was no faulting the effort and technical expertise of the cast and production team, it was just the details of the story that weren't to my taste.
