Performed by the Sydney Opera
No matter how well you know an animal, no matter how well you read its moves, it is still an animal: wild, unpredictable and dangerous. A bit like love and fate. A bit like Carmen. The ultimate femme fatale is back to stamp her feet, toss her hair and dance. Will she love Don José? Maybe. Will you fall for her sultry Habanera? Definitely.
Dark, beautiful and a little bit dangerous, the vivacious gypsy girl Carmen has been captivating hearts for nearly 150 years. Every so often, a mezzo-soprano emerges who can do more than just sing the role – she can inhabit it.
It takes a certain fire, certain physicality, and a certain throatiness to really sell the feisty Carmen to an audience. As she draws Escamillo and Don Josè to her flame, the audience needs to cheer for this provocative woman from the wrong side of the tracks.
Spanish Mezzo Nancy Fabiola Herrera is emerging as the Carmen-of-the-moment. With her dark hair, a Latin temperament and an alluring physicality on stage, Herrera is in demand around the world to sing Bizet’s lead, travelling from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Deutsche Opera Berlin to the Sydney Opera House in 2014.
She shares the role with Milijana Nikolic, who performed Carmen so spectacularly at Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour last year.