NB This is NOT the same show as "A Pocket Opera". For Creating Carmen, CarmenCo is joined by two actors and a lighting designer, and the actors do all the speaking while CarmenCo provide the music. The script is written by Clare Norburn, and the storyline is totally different, focussing on Merimee rather than Carmen. Creating Carmen is more than a concert. It occupies the borders between a play and a concert, with 60/40 music to spoken word. It is a fully staged, costumed and professionally lit show for 3 musicians and two actors. The main characters are Prosper Merimée, writer of the novella on which Bizet’s Carmen was based, and Carmen herself as imagined by Merimée. Prosper Merimée is struggling with his latest novella, when his leading character - Carmen - turns up in his study, larger than life, with a band of musicians in tow and chaos in her wake. Which one of them controls the narrative? And what happen when Carmen discovers the nasty ending Mérimée has planned for her? A fun-filled evening of fantasy, comedy, drama and tremendous music arranged from Bizet’s Carmen and Spanish and Spanish-inspired music by Boccherini, da Falla, Garcia - Lorca, Granados, Ravel and Albeniz, all arranged by the musicians for guitars and flute / voice. The author, Clare Norburn, also had a piece about the show published in Gramophone, which you can read here - it's a very interesting discussion about the process of creativity: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/gramophone-guest-blog/creating-m%C3%A9rim%C3%A9e-%E2%80%93-the-man-who-made-carmen Creating Carmen as a show is flexible and can be performed in a church, theatre, concert hall or even more unusual performance spaces such as vaults, museum settings etc, to help promoters reach a new kind of audience. To enquire about booking it for your venue, please get in touch directly with Clare Norburn via her website. |