Carmen (2014)
Sheffield City Opera & Sheffield Symphony Orchestra joined together to produce a fantastic concert of Carmen in March 2014.
This concert featured a full sized orchestra – a rare treat, as this hardly ever happens outside of productions at the great opera houses.
Carmen has a suite of well know songs such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song and we have a brilliant set of principals with Heather Ireson playing Carmen, Nick Hardy as Don José, Nigel Rothery as Escamillo, and Chloe Saywell as Frasquita. The music director is Gavin Usher with artistic direction from Gareth Lloyd and, of course, the excellent chorus to provide the back drop to this most passionate of operas!
Music Director and Conductor:
Artistic Director:
Gareth Lloyd
Principals:
Carmen is one of the most popular operas in the world and we are delighted to welcome you to the Victoria Hall for our concert version of this passionate and tragic story.
Our cast of principal singers includes three new faces. Heather Ireson is the beguiling Carmen, Nick Hardy plays the love-struck Don José and Daniel Sumner has stepped up as Morales, Corporal of Dragoons. All three have busy schedules and we are very grateful for their time and contributions.
Lorraine Webb played the principal role of Micaëla – you may remember Lorraine as the Queen of the Night in our 2011 production of The Magic Flute. We are also very pleased to welcome back Chloe Saywell as Frasquita – Chloe appeared as Margarita in SCO’s Faust in 2012. Frasquita’s companion, Mercedes, is played by our own Rebecca Lambert who featured strongly in our last production, as did Nigel Rothery who is the dashing toreador, Escamillo.
Our Artistic Director for the concert was Gareth Lloyd. Gareth is a multi-talented tenor who also sings in the role of the smuggler, Le Remendado. His smuggling companion in the opera, Le Dancaïre, was played by Mike Willis. Finally, Jeremy Craven sang the commanding role of Zuniga who is Lieutenant of Dragoons.
A special thank you went to Robert Webb, Musical Director of SCO, for his enthusiasm and enduring patience in helping to prepare the chorus for this performance.