by Warren Wills | Nov 17, 2025 | Ambassador thoughts

Opera Australia | Carmen
November 15, 2025, Regent Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
The Occasion

A Saturday night opening of Bizet’s timeless, steamy Spanish masterpiece Carmen at Melbourne’s glorious Regent Theatre, presented by Opera Australia. Arriving in the same week that beloved septuagenarian rockers AC/DC pack the MCG, on the eve of the much-vaunted Ashes series, and amidst both the British and Jewish Film Festivals, the peerless Habanera, Seguidilla, and more are perfectly poised to arouse our senses. And so, from the tuxedoed & high heeled upper set bringing champagne buckets to the stalls, to opera groundlings inevitably singing the Roller-Door jingle that stole Bizet’s Toreador theme for a memorable yet best forgotten ad some 50 years ago.

The Venue — Regent Theatre

Melbourne’s Regent Theatre opened in 1929 as a lavish “picture palace,” renowned for its grand staircase, crystal chandeliers and opulent Spanish-Baroque style. After a devastating fire in 1945, it was rebuilt and continued operating until dwindling attendance forced its closure in 1970. Threatened with demolition for years, the Regent was ultimately saved through public campaigns and council intervention. A major restoration returned it to splendour, and in 1996 it reopened as one of the city’s premier venues for major musicals and live performance.

The Performers — Opera Australia

Opera Australia began in 1956 with the formation of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Opera Company, aiming to bring world-class opera to Australian audiences. In 1970 it became known as The Australian Opera, growing rapidly in scale, ambition, and artistic reputation. The company began performing regularly at the newly opened Sydney Opera House in 1973, soon becoming one of its most iconic residents. Following its 1996 merger with the Victoria State Opera, it adopted the name Opera Australia. Today, the company stands as the nation’s largest performing arts organisation, celebrated for traditional masterpieces, bold contemporary productions, and innovative outdoor spectacles such as Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.

Conductor – Clelia Cafiero: conductor for the November 2025 Melbourne performances. A masterful, energetic, vigorous, and seductive interpretation.

Director – Anne-Louise Sarks: director of the 2025 production, which premiered in Sydney and toured to Melbourne. Driving. Modern. Relevant. “Me Too” sentiment.

Set Designer – Marg Horwell: a stellar performance. A standout set and costume design was crafted by our world famous Marg Horwell, who recently won a Best Costume Tony Award and was nominated for Best Scenic Design, for The Picture of Dorian Grey, which is yet to be witnessed outside of America.

Principals: Carmen – Danielle de Niese, Don José – Abraham Bretón, Escamillo – Phillip Rhodes, Micaëla – Jennifer Black

A Potted History (in Rhyming Couplets)

Carmen’s a story set long ago,
In sunny Spain where warm winds blow.

Georges Bizet wrote the music bright,
With dancing rhythms full of light.

A factory worker who loves to sing,
Carmen lives life like a fiery spring.

She meets a soldier named Don José,
Their paths collide in a tangled way.

With bold Escamillo, brave and strong,
Their lives twist wildly like a song.

Though Bizet’s opera shocked folks then,
It soon became a hit again.

Now Carmen’s known across the earth—
A tale of music, love, and worth.

Bizet’s World

Bizet is best known as the French creator of two beloved operas: The Pearl Fishers and the omnipresent, indefatigable masterpiece Carmen. Written in 1875, before the great Impressionists such as Debussy, Fauré and Satie emerged from the stellar influence of Maurice Ravel, Bizet had already forged a unique path toward his own musical gold.

Synopsis

In sun-drenched Seville, soldier Don José’s fate unravels the moment Carmen, a fiercely free-spirited factory worker, throws him a flower. Her seduction pulls him from duty into obsession, crime and ruin. As Carmen’s attention shifts to the swaggering bullfighter Escamillo, José’s jealousy spirals. In the final scene outside the bullring, Carmen refuses to return to him, and José, broken, possessive, and unable to let go, kills her as the crowd cheers within.

Highlights

Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”) – Sung by Carmen in Act I; instantly recognisable and embodying her free-spirited, untamed nature.
Toreador Song (“Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre”) – The swaggering Act II aria sung by Escamillo; one of opera’s most iconic melodies.
Seguidilla – Another seductive Act I highlight, revealing Carmen’s playful manipulation and irresistible charm.

The Performance

This modern, gypsy-eclectic take on the most recognisable operas of all time was enhanced by Marg Horwell’s contemporary costumes: from military fatigues for the guards and Huckleberry Finn rags for Opera Australia’s lively and full-throttled kid’s choir, to Day of the Dead masks and skeleton suits contrasting with the funky but punky tavern drinkers, whose fight scenes were light-footedly choreographed for Opera Australia’s dancers.

Though the acting was not particularly discernible from most operatic deliveries, the singers were top notch – most notably, the heavenly Danielle De Niese as Carmen and hellishly good Abraham Bréton as Don José – while Orchestra Victoria delivered the score in a truly triumphant performance that would probably have given Bizet goose bumps.

A driving directorial vision demanding relevance, as the stage of the Romani, Tzigani, Gypsy merged into the campo of the DEI culture which needs applauding not demonising. Sarks compels us to look at control/ power/ consequence/ victimisation with modern eyes in a restless challenging society. The climate of sexual violence pervades and we are left in that odd dichotomy of feeling the age-old smothering of female vibrancy with the Ghislaine Maxwell obscene ‘cannabulism’ where a type or species devours its own.

Carmen. Vamos! Magnifico!

Reviewer Opinion

As with La Bohème, (delving into the Bohemian community), Carmen, exploring the campo duende gypsy feel… there is a striking irony. The very financially downtrodden communities depicted on stage are excluded in the stalls by massive ticketing costs — nowhere more evident than Covent Garden. To keep this art form thriving and reaching important youth demographics, under 30’s and in particular, students, should be subsidised by government schemes to keep admission cost to a bare minimum. This system exists in Spain with wonderful results.