We look on while acrobats perform in the neon-red Spanish bull’s ring and listen to the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra play the Chorus of Soldiers from somewhere underneath. The Australian Opera’s production of Carmen is a floating stage on the Harbour of dreams. The time is the present and the place is one of an open-air theatre de-luxe. From the cushioned crate scat of an opera bar chair in an outdoor playhouse resplendent under a myriad of electric lights, we turn our eyes toward a formidably appointed stage. Bizet flows in the ripples of time longed between the many stagings of his passionate and much loved operatic tale. The show’s spotlight is on Milijana Nikolic, who gives a commanding and seductive performance as Carmen. Still drifting from chiffon party dresses, wild hair, square uniforms, trobadourian flags and a wind whiff of the vaudeville, I take with me Carmen for my everyday. (AS)
Until Apr 12, Sydney Harbour, Fleet Steps, Royal Botanic Garden, $79-325, (02) 9318 8300, opera-australia.org.au
BY ANGELA STRETCH
