Carmen: An atmosphere filled with dust and testosterone

By Mark Pullinger, 21 May 2015

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“unlikely to do anything for the Spanish tourist trade”

Reviewed at The London Coliseum, London on 20 May 2015

Bizet, Carmen

English National Opera

Sir Richard Armstrong, Conductor

Calixto Bieito, Director

Mercè Paloma, Costume Designer

Alfons Flores, Set Designer

Eleanor Dennis, Micaëla

Justina Gringytė, Carmen

Eric Cutler, Don José

Leigh Melrose, Escamillo

Rhian Lois, Frasquita

Clare Presland, Mercédès

Alun Rhys-Jenkins, Le Remendado

Geoffrey Dolton, Le Dancaïre

George Humphreys, Moralès

Graeme Danby, Zuniga

English National Opera Chorus

English National Opera Orchestra

Joan Antón Rechi, Revival Director

ENO’s Mahagonny: biting, bleak, brilliantly executed satire

David Karlin, 16th February

Never has Brecht and Weill’s satire on the inhumanity of man to man been render with such utter darkness; Simon O’Neill heads up a superb cast.

*****

Taken for a ride: an energetic revival of Così fan tutte at ENO

Dominic Lowe, 6th February

English National Opera's revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular production is a blend of spectacle with some first-class singing, with Lucy Crowe emphasising her Mozartian credentials.

****1

Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to ENO

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Christopher Alden’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel’s Partenope returns to the Coliseum, but it's the singing that earns the plaudits.

****1

Dead Man Walking at English National Opera: a superb execution

David Karlin, 1st November

Anneliese Miskimmon's ENO production of Jake Heggie and Terence McNally's tale of crime, repentance, compassion and redemption compels from start to finish.

*****

Comedy falls flat in ENO's season opening Cinderella

Mark Valencia, 27th September

Julia Burbach and her designer, Herbert Murauer, are defeated by the wide canyons of the Coliseum stage in their modern-dress Cinderella.

**111

ENO gives Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots a worthy performance

Nick Boston, 15th February

Musgrave's powerful depiction of a powerful woman at the mercy of male manipulation receives a strong staging from at ENO.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

An atmosphere filled with dust and testosterone: Bieito’s Carmen returns to ENO