Press Comments
THE TIMES First Night reviews, Carmen, Regent's Park, London 6th July 2003 by Robert Thicknesse ****
When you're in despair about the state of opera in this country it's nice to be reminded that there's Another Way. Thanks to the combination of insane enthusiasm, numbers of spare singers and meanness of the Arts Council, we are well provided with shoestring travelling companies which remind you what it's really all about. None more than Peter Bridge's Lorca-inspired gang of Garden Opera, who are taking this double-cast show around a fairly extraordinary 50 or so open - air venues from now until September. So far they have stuck to comedy - last summer's Barber of Seville remains one of the year's more stubbornly memorable experiences - so I was curious to see how they'd tackle something lighter on the laughs.

This is a Carmen with no chorus, no overture, a band of six, a cast of eight and a rudimentary amplification system, quite handy for the last half-hour when mopping up the Sugarbabes riot in neighbouring Hyde Park necessitated an attack-force of police choppers. And it is one of the most vivid and direct shows, with all its rough edges, that you'll find in this or any other summer.

Bridges and the director, Martin Lloyd-Evans, have pared back the (English) text and added such titbits from Mérimérimée's original as Don José's past as priest and successful killer - something that makes Philip Slane's maestro of neurosis more creepily sinister than usual, particularly his suspect relationship with his old Ma. He is provided with a Micaela far from the usual mumsy drip, the extremely accomplished Anne Bourne, whose combination of strength and purity really makes her a proper alternative to the tricky cigarette girl.

Not that anyone in their right mind would, would want to mix it with Zoë Todd's Carmen, a Molotov cocktail of needy psychopathy whose only real kicks come from beating the solids out of the chaps. It is the most unstinting performance by a singer unafraid to do unusual things with her voice, a completely individual all-round performer who makes you wish casting directors would bestir themselves. Her brilliantly sluttish get-togethers with pals Frasquita (Bourne again) and Mercedes (Saffron von Zwanenberg) occasionally stray closer to Pontypridd than Seville.

The incorrigible Ian Jervis plays Zuniga as Billy Connolly playing Mr Mackay from Porridge and there is a terrific amount of flamenco stamping and shouting and violence and general mayhem, often controlled. The band is tight, vibrant and incredibly versatile. Catch this show and remind yourself why you liked opera in the first place.