U-Carmen Details

Wonderful

One of the best productions of Carmen I have seen. Very poignant and moving.

I enjoyed it enormously

[Highly rated reviewer]

Vibrant and interesting

Bizet's opera 'Carmen', translated into Xhosa (clicks and all), and with most of the story intact. Actually, it will help a good deal if you already know the plot, since the necessities of squeezing the narrative down into feature length mean that certain things, especially secondary characterisations, have been a little scamped. Escamillo the bullfighter, for instance, has become Lucamile, who is now some sort of charismatic stage performer, although it's not clear exactly what sort - and anyone who is unfamiliar with the story will probably get lost whenever he turns up. Otherwise, the singing is first-rate (genuinely first-rate), and the acting of the main parts very good - although, again, a change has been made here: Carmen is no longer a sexual predetress, but much more preyed upon by the succession of men in her life. Around the edges there's some obvious uncertainty and naivete, and the director could have pushed things along with a bit more passion, but, for the most part, this is good stuff, an interesting re-working of a familiar classic.