Red dresses and a green balloon: Carmen in Philadelphia

By Hilary Stroh, 28 April 2018

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“Wasn’t it Virginia Woolf who talked about “frock consciousness”?”

Reviewed at Academy of Music, Philadelphia on 27 April 2018

Bizet, Carmen

Opera Philadelphia

Yves Abel, Conductor

Paul Curran, Director

Gary McCann, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Daniela Mack, Carmen

Evan LeRoy Johnson, Don José

Adrian Timpau, Escamillo

Kirsten MacKinnon, Micaëla

Musa Ngqungwana, Zuniga

Johnathan McCullough, Moralès

Emily Pogorelc, Frasquita

Anastasiia Sidorova, Mercédès

Dogukan Kuran, Le Dancaïre

Daniel Taylor, Le Remendado

Opera by committee: Opera Philadelphia premieres Complications in Sue

Cameron Kelsall, 4th February

Opera Philadelphia commissions ten composers to tell the story of an ordinary woman's idiosyncratic march from cradle to tomb.

****1

A didactic Decameron: The Seasons at Opera Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 20th December

Conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Sarah Ruhl, this high-handed pasticcio sets the climate crisis to a soundtrack of Vivaldi.

***11

A long, strange trip: Opera Philadelphia’s Il viaggio a Reims

Cameron Kelsall, 19th September

The intrepid company brings Damiano Michieletto’s well-traveled production of a Rossini rarity to the US for the first time.

***11

The Listeners: daring psychological thriller at Opera Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 25th September

The new opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek draws on cult mindsets and conspiracy theories but smartly avoids sensationalism.

****1

Opera Philadelphia's Unholy Wars creates a dialogue with Monteverdi

Cameron Kelsall, 23rd September

Arab-American tenor Karim Sulayman devises a thoughtful pastiche that centers the perspective omitted from Early Modern depictions of the Middle East in music.

****1

Quinn Kelsey triumphs in Opera Philadelphia's Simon Boccanegra

Cameron Kelsall, 22nd September

In his role debut as the Genoan Doge, the American baritone continues to burnish his bona fides as the premier Verdi baritone of his generation.

****1

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Hilary Stroh

Hilary is an independent scholar and academic historian, based in DC. She has a background in violin, piano and ballet. Educated at Dublin and Cambridge, she has recently published her first two books.

Billboards, red dresses and a green balloon: Carmen in Philadelphia