Tag: Carmen

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 17, from The York Press

Eileen Walsh in rehearsal for her lead role as Sheila Gold in the world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan

DYSON and Nyman’s world premiere dark thriller and women sporting Holmes & Watson waxed moustaches tickle Charles Hutchinson’s fancy in his recommendations for the week ahead.

World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, until May 23

“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.

When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed, leading her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Writer-directors Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in the rehearsal room for The Psychic. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Cutting-edge music and art collaboration of the week: York Late Music presents Late Music Ensemble: Picture This!, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate York, tonight, 7.30pm

INSPIRED by the relationship between visual art and music, Picture This! explores how composers have responded to artworks across time, from Modest Mussorgsky to the present day.

Today’s audience is invited on a promenade through an imagined exhibition, where works by Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and John Martin, alongside sculpture by Alexander Calder, are reflected in a musical programme featuring a new arrangement of Pictures At An Exhibition, Igor Stravinsky’s miniature tribute to Pablo Picasso, songs by Don van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and David Byrne, plus new works. Nick Williams gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.  

Feeling his collar: Tom Davis in Spudgun, full of freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics

Comedy gig of the week: Tom Davis in Spudgun, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

CROYDON comedy turn, actor and podcaster Tom Davis is back on the road, firing out his freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics. Co-host of the Wolf And Owl podcast with Romesh Ranganathan, star of BAFTA and Royal Television Society award-winning comedy series Murder In Successville and BBC One comedy King Gary, he also has his own Sky and NOW TV special, Underdog.  “Get ready,” he says. “This one is fully loaded.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Hank, Pattie & The Current: Innovative twist on traditional bluegrass at Selby Town Hall

Bluegrass gig of the week: Hank, Pattie & The Current, Selby Town Hall, tonight, 7.30pm

HARD-HITTING bluegrass pickers who moonlight as symphonic classical musicians, Hank, Pattie & The Current approach their string band much as they would a string quartet. The Raleigh, North Carolina four-piece are led by Hank Smith’s banjo and Pattie Hopkins Kinlaw’s fiddle in an innovative twist on traditional bluegrass flavoured with classical, Motown,  jazz and pop. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

Steve Cassidy: Leading his band through rock and country numbers at the JoRo

Vintage performance of the week: Steve Cassidy Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Steve Cassidy Band return to their favourite home-city venue with guests in tow for a night of rock and country music chosen to appeal to all age groups. Steve, a three-time winner on New Faces, recorded with John Barry as a teenager and performed on shows with legends of the music industry. His line-up features John Lewis, guitar, George Hall, keyboards, Mick Hull, bass, guitar and ukulele, and Brian Thomson, percussion. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Katherine Priddy: Showcasing new album These Frightening Machines at Pocklington Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Katherine Priddy, Pocklington Arts Centre, Sunday, 8pm

AFTER writing and recording two songs with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and appearing on Later…With Jools Holland, Birmingham folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy released her third album, These Frightening Machines, in March on Cooking Vinyl.

Priddy’s new compositions explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold on to connections in a world that sometimes divides and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves confronting. Northallerton singer-songwriter George Boomsma supports. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Farewell tour for opera impresario and director Ellen Kent

Exit stage left: Ellen Kent, The Farewell Tour, Madama Butterfly, May 3, 7.30pm, and Carmen, May 4, 7.30pm, both at Grand Opera House, York

OPERA impresario and director Ellen Kent is on the road with her farewell tour, presented by Senbla, featuring Opera International Kyiv, from Ukraine, in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s Carmen.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles, Madama Butterfly’s heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant will be led by sopranos Elena Dee and Viktoria Melnyk, mezzo-soprano Yelyzaveta Bielous and tenors Oleksii Srebnytskyi and Hovhannes Andreasyan. Sung in French with English surtitles, Carmen promises passion, sexual jealousy, death and unforgettable arias, performed by Dee, Melynk and Mariia Davydova. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson, left, and Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskerville

Mystery thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

JOIN York company Neon Crypt for side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror in Jamie McKeller’s staging of Peepolykus co-artistic director John Nicholson’s incredibly high-brow adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery The Hound Of The Baskervilles.

Sherlock Holmes (Laura McKeller) and Dr Watson (Laura Castle) must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body. Look out for Michael Cornell popping up as Sir Henry and Sir Charles Baskerville and Yokel 2. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster artwork for K-Pop All Stars, bound for Grand Opera House, York

Tribute gig of the week: K-Pop All Stars, Grand Opera House, York, May 6, 7pm

RIDE the global K-pop wave with K-Pop All Stars’ explosive live celebration of the music, artists and Korean culture that is taking over the pop world. Feel the power of stadium-sized anthems, razor-sharp choreography and a cast that delivers every beat with precision and passion, performing hits by Blackpink, NewJeans, Katseye, BTS, Itzy, Stray Kids, Twice, Jung Kook and more. Cue light sticks glowing in the crowd. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Dervish: Traditional Irish folk music at National Centre for Early Music. Picture: Tim Jarvis

Recommended but sold out already: Dervish, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, May 6, 7.30pm

LEGENDARY Irish traditional folk music band Dervish, recipients of a BBC lifetime achievement award in 2019, have recorded and performed all over the world, playing at festivals from Rio to Glastonbury. Fronted by singer Cathy Jordan. the line-up of fiery fiddle, flute, bouzouki, mandola, bodhran and accordion delivers vibrant sets of tunes and compelling songs. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York & beyond as greatest showman shows up & abbey lights up. Hutch’s List No. 7, from The York Press

Child’s play: Andrew Renn, Jon Cook and Jess Murray, back row, with Mark Simmonds and Victoria Delaney in York Settlement Community Players’ Blue Remembered Hills. Picture: John Saunders

FROM Dennis Potter to Stephen Sondheim, showman  P.T. Barnum to Selby Abbey’s light installation, Charles Hutchinson is spoilt for cultural choice.

Play of the week: York Settlement Community Players in Blue Remembered Hills, York Theatre Royal Studio, until February 28, 7.45pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2pm Saturday matinees

FLEUR Hebditch, former Stephen Joseph Theatre dramaturg for a decade, makes her Settlement Players directorial debut with Dennis Potter’s stage adaptation of his 1979 BBC Play For Today drama.

Seven children are playing in the Forest of Dean countryside on a hot summer’s day in 1943. Each aged seven, they mimic and reflect the adult world at war around them, but their innocence is short lived as reality hits. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Cole Stacey’s social media posting for his Rise@Bluebird Bakery gig

Folk gig of the week: Cole Stacey, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York tonight, doors 7.30pm

VISCERAL singer-songwriter Cole Stacey weaves together British folk, 1980s’ pop, spoken word and ambient electronics, as heard on last February’s debut album with its symbiosis of “lost” places and forgotten words, stretching back to the 13th century, paired with his lyrical songwriting and field recordings.

“I’d like to invite you to come along with me on the next chapter as I head out to share Postcards From Lost Places in some unique and inspiring settings, beginning in York tonight,” says Stacey. “I loved my time and bread last year playing at Bluebird Bakery, so I’m very delighted to be invited back for an intimate gig in their fully working bakery. It’s a special setting and one I’m thoroughly looking forward to!” Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk.

Dnipro Opera in Carmen, on tour at York Barbican

Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera (Ukrainian National Opera) in Carmen, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Dnipro Opera, from Ukraine, performs Georges Bizet’s Carmen in French with English surtitles, accompanied by an orchestra numbering more than 30 musicians. 

Feel the thrill of fiery passion, jealousy, and violence of 19th century Seville in Carmen’s story of the downfall of naive soldier Don José,  who falls head over heels in love with seductive, free-spirited femme fatale Carmen. Whereupon he abandons his childhood sweetheart and neglects his military duties, only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Showman extraordinaire: Lee Mead’s P. T. Barnum in Barnum: The Circus Musical at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Pamela Raith

Touring musical of the week: Bill Kenwright Ltd in Barnum: The Circus Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

MUSICALS leading man Lee Mead plays the most challenging role of his career, stepping into P. T. Barnum’s shoes and on to the tightrope as the legendary circus showman, businessman and politician in Jonathan O’Boyle’s touring production of the Broadway musical.

Mead leads the cast of more than 20 actor-musicians (playing 150 instruments), acrobats and international circus acts as, hand in hand with wife Charity, Barnum finds his life and career twisting and turning the more he schemes and dreams his way to headier heights. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Alexandra Mather’s Anne Egerman and Jason Weightman’s Fredrick Egerman in rehearsal for Wharfemede Productions’ A Little Night Music

Sondheim show of the week: Wharfemede Productions in A Little Night Music, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

SET in turn-of-the-20th century Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of love, desire, and regret through Stephen Sondheim’s signature blend of sophistication, humour and hauntingly beautiful music, not least the timeless Send In The Clowns.

Directed by Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ show combines the North Yorkshire company’s hallmark attention to emotional depth, musical high quality and character-driven ensemble storytelling. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, celebrating music from Walt Disney’s animated films at York Barbican

Movie music of the week: Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic, York Barbican, February 25, 7.30pm

THE Novello Orchestra’s Disney In Concert: The Sound Of Magic performance is a symphonic celebration of Disney music, animation and memories, a century in the making, under the direction of creative director Amy Tinkham, music director Giles Martin and arranger and orchestrator Ben Foster. 

Favourite characters and music from across the Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue come to life on the concert hall stage and screen in new medleys and suites on a magic carpet ride through Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Moana, Alice In Wonderland, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Frozen, The Lion King, Fantasia, Encanto, Beauty And The Beast and more. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Homeward bound for Selby Abbey: Imitating The Dog’s large-scale installation

Installation of the week: Selby Light 2026, Selby Abbey, February 26 to 28, 6pm to 9pm

SELBY Abbey will be the setting for Homeward, Leeds company Imitating The Dog’s  large-scale installation celebrating our different stories and the unified feeling of finding home, framed by the question How Did You Get Here?

Inside, the installation continues as a walk-through experience, complemented by Jazmin Morris’s Through The Liquid Crystal Display, a series of visual code illustrations inspired by Selby Abbey. The trail then extends into the town centre with works by Selby College students. Admission is free.

Phoenix Dance Theatre in Interplay: World premiere opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday. Picture: Drew Forsyth

Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre, Interplay, York Theatre Royal, February 27, 7.30pm; February 28, 2pm, 7.30pm

LEEDS company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s world premiere tour of Interplay opens at York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday, featuring dynamic works by Travis Knight and James Pett (Small Talk), Ed Myhill (Why Are People Clapping?!), Yusha-Marie Sorzano & Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis (Suite Release) and Willis’s Next Of Kin. 

Across duet and ensemble works, Interplay explores themes of duality and shared authorship, revealing how distinct artistic voices can intersect to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Each piece offers a unique perspective, united by a bold physicality and a deep curiosity about human relationships, rhythm and collective experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Levellers: Levelling The Land anew at York Barbican this autumn

Gig announcement of the week: Levellers, York Barbican, October 29

BRIGHTON folk-rockers Levellers have been among Britain’s most enduring and best-loved bands for nearly 40 years, their success in part built on the anthems that comprised their platinum-selling second album Levelling The Land, whose 35th anniversary falls on October 7.

To mark the occasion, Levellers will head out on a UK and European tour from October 16 to November 21, playing many songs from that album, alongside fan favourites from their extensive catalogue. Hotly tipped Essex punk duo The Meffs will support. Box office: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/levellers-2026/.

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York Opera head to sea in Gilbert and Sullivan’s love-struck HMS Pinafore at York Theatre Royal from November 16 to 19

Madly in love but kept apart by social hierarchy: Lovesick sailor Ralph (Jack Storey-Hunter) and the Captain’s daughter, Josephine (Alexandra Mather), in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore

YORK Opera will set sail at York Theatre Royal with Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta HMS Pinafore or The Lass That Loved A Sailor from November 16, steered by a new production team of Annabel van Griethuysen and Tim Selman.

Stage director Annabel and conductor Tim will be at the helm of a production at the Theatre Royal for the first time.

HMS Pinafore was G&S’s first big success, both in Great Britain and the United States, establishing their still undiminished position at the pinnacle of light opera in this country.

Although they had had significant success with Trial By Jury and The Sorcerer, the world of light opera in the 1850s and 1860s was dominated by the works of Jacques Offenbach, full of catchy tunes and brilliantly orchestrated. 

Breaking into this field of theatre and dominating it across the English-speaking world must be due greatly to the witty and topical libretti by W.S. Gilbert. In conjunction with Sullivan’s sparkling and tuneful musical settings, HMS Pinafore established the rock on which all the subsequent G&S repertoire would be founded.

Annabel van Griethuysen’s Carmen in York Opera’s Carmen at York Theatre Royal in October 2018. Now dietician Annabel switches from mezzo-soprano singing to stage directing HMS Pinafore

The story follows Ralph, a lovesick sailor, and Josephine, the Captain’s daughter, who are madly in love but kept apart by social hierarchy. The musical numbers, loved by young and old alike, include We Sail The Ocean Blue, Never Mind The Why And Wherefore and When I Was A Lad.

As usual with York Opera’s G & S productions, a healthy mix of youth and experience combines in the cast. New to the company are Jack Storey-Hunter in the leading tenor role of Ralph Rackstraw and Polina Bielova as Cousin Hebe. 

Well-known cast members in the line-up include Alexandra Mather in the leading soprano role of Josephine; John Soper as Sir Joseph Porter; Ian Thomson-Smith as Captain Corcoran; Rebecca Smith as Little Buttercup and Anthony Gardner as Dick Deadeye.

York Opera in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, York Theatre Royal, November 16 to 19, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Sea-bound: Jack Storey-Hunter’s Ralph and Alexandra Mather’s Josephine in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in Carmen, Leeds Grand Theatre

Chrystal E. Williams in the title role in Opera North’s Carmen. Picture: Tristram Kenton

OPERA North was riding high coming into this new Edward Dick production.

Buoyant through lockdown with multiple streamed events via its own digital platform ON Demand, its backstage efforts were centred on a huge Music Works development.

The outcome of this is the new Howard Opera Centre, named after its principal benefactor Dr Keith Howard, who contributed some 60 per cent of the £18.5 million cost. It will house management and rehearsal studios for the company itself, while providing educational spaces for youngsters to explore their potential.

Within months, a new bar and restaurant with public access will open next to the Howard Assembly Room (now freed exclusively for smaller-scale events), the result of imaginative enclosure of a former Victorian street.

Camila Titinger as Micaëla and Erin Caves as Don José in Opera North’s Carmen. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Sadly, all this excitement did not generate a Carmen to do it justice. It is a besetting sin of Carmen producers that they feel the need to re-interpret Bizet, not to say Mérimée, in tune with modern attitudes.

This runs a serious risk of dumbing down, even presumption: this show’s Carmen, Chrystal E. Williams, was quoted in the programme as declaring that “it would be easy just to do a conventional Carmen”, as if convention were a dirty word – or easy.

It is hard to portray an incorrigible man-eater as a saint, albeit one who is the figment of solely male imaginations. Indeed, after Opera North’s last attempt at the work, Daniel Kramer’s brutalist affair ten years ago, no-one would have been surprised if the company had played this one straight down the middle.

Instead, what we have is a good night out, but with little relevance to the original. Time and place are not identified in Colin Richmond’s sets, but we can tell that this is a border town. Since the smugglers are dealing in drugs, we have every reason to assume that we are on the United States-Mexico border.

Phillip Rhodes as Escamillo with members of the Chorus of Opera North. Picture: Tristram Kenton

The action opens in a bordello masquerading as a night-club, whose clientele is mainly in uniform, doubtless drawn by the illuminated ‘GIRLS’ on scaffolding dominating the scenario. Not exactly an advertisement for women’s lib, especially given female staff sashaying around in flimsy underwear, to the designs of Laura Hopkins.

If these girls are smoking anything, it is coke, not cigarettes. Still, it has to be said, the ladies of the chorus bravely put their best foot forward; if they feel uncomfortable, it certainly does not show.

Immediately noticeable is the sparkling form of the orchestra, with Garry Walker at the helm for the first time as music director, a year later than planned. Theirs is much the most positive contribution to the evening.

Walker keeps rhythms consistently crisp but is equally alive to atmosphere: nerve-jangling chromatics in the card scene, for example, and velvet horns in Micaela’s song a little later. His tenure is off to a cracking start.

Nando Messias as Lillas Pastia: “Makes several androgynous incursions during the second half”. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Neither of the principal pair is vocally quick out of the blocks and he has to gentle them into the fray. Williams is lowered on a swing onto the night-club stage, to be embroiled at once in a fan-dance: it is an eye-catching entrance, in keeping with her charm.

When the stage swivels and we see the ‘real’ Carmen – at her make-up table, wig removed, cuddling what we assume is her daughter – her mezzo, although still light, begins to bite. But it is not until Act 3 that we hear what might have been: genuine passion.

The same applies to Don José. Erin Caves only joined the cast five days ahead of curtain-up, Covid having effectively removed two previous candidates. His safely surly opening is understandable, but does little to convince of his interest in Carmen or offer any reason for her pursuit of him.

If there is any electricity at their first encounter, it is low-voltage, like Caves’ tenor. It is only when his bile is up, much later, that he finds real resonance. His eventual throttling of Carmen prolongs her agony unjustifiably.

Erin Caves as Don José and Chrystal E. Williams as Carmen. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Phillip Rhodes’ Escamillo arrives on an electrically-powered bucking bronco, a cowboy not a toreador; there is no hint of the bull-ring. The swagger of his ‘Toreador’ song certainly raises the vocal temperature but thereafter gradually dissipates, lessening the likelihood that he would offer José any real threat. So when José chases him across the scaffolding that now stands in for a mountain fortress, we are entitled to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Camila Titinger gives an engaging Micaela, whose aria is a touch short on warmth; she is mistakenly encouraged to make much of her pregnancy. Amy Freston’s Frasquita and Helen Évora’s Mercedes are tirelessly flighty, raising everyone’s spirits, while the spivvy smugglers of Dean Robinson and Stuart Laing bring an element of light relief. Matthew Stiff is a firm if stolid Zuniga.

With the Lillas Pastia of Nando Messias making several androgynous incursions during the second half, there is no end to the mixed messages of this ill-focused production. Thank heaven we have five children who know exactly what they have to do, working with a chorus that does its level best to sound persuasive. But the saving grace is the orchestra – focused on unvarnished Bizet.

Martin Dreyer

Further performances on October 26 and 28, then on tour until November 19, returning to Leeds in February 2022.