When six out of 10 of the principal cast find themselves Covid-positive on the day your new production is due to open, it might seem like curtains. But Longborough festival opera chutzpah made this show go on: cover singers took their place, with Linda Richardson nobly stepping in as Micaëla. In true theatre tradition, the production became an ensemble effort, with many performers making their mark on what they will remember as a lucky night. What the audience got was a concert performance, although the full staging will return.
The setting is modern-day Andalucía, where Carmen works in a meat-packaging factory (with the obvious implication of women viewed as slabs of meat); legs of smoked jamón hang down, interspersed with religious images of Madonna and child and pictures of a golden-haired boy. Don José’s mother-fixation and the mother’s clinging to him are central to director Mathilde López’s view of Bizet’s opera.
