Published: 10 June, 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR

GEORGES Bizet is in town again proving once more he’s a master tune-writer, the John Lennon of the opera world. The Pearl Fishers, his first opera – written when he was 24 – is the subject of a major makeover by the English National Opera at the Coliseum.

Seasoned opera buffs may dismiss the piece, but the ENO’s new production by film and TV director Penny Woodcock does a great job in providing a vehicle for Bizet’s tunes. The set is terrific, an Asian shanty-village on stilts allowing the chorus and soloists to get in and out of boats, and climb up and down ladders to their homes.

The plot is weak, that’s for sure. Two fishermen are in love with the same woman enlisted, unbeknown to them, as the veiled village priestess. 

But the whole piece floats on a parade of tunes, sung particularly well by British tenor Alfie Boe as Nadir and US baritone Quinn Kelsey as Zurga. Their Friendship Duet is one of the most popular in all opera.

Carmen is back at the Royal Opera House in a revival of Francesca Zambello’s splendid 2006 production. Written only 10 years after The Pearl Fishers, Carmen must be the best-known of all operas among people who’ve never been to an opera. 

Bizet’s whistling piccolo tune, the opera’s military pasodoble, is the ring-tone on millions of mobile phones.

The Zambello production provides just the right settings for Bizet’s tunes. 

English mezzo Christine Rice makes for a sultry, sexy Carmen in some bravura singing quite sufficient to entangle Don Jose and Escamillo, both sung admirably by US tenor Bryan Hymel and Greek baritone Aris Argiris respectively.

Outstanding, too, is Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Micaela. Indeed, her aria imploring Don Jose to return to his mother is so well sung that you wonder why he fell for Carmen at all.

• The Pearl Fishers is at ENO till July 8, £16-£78. The Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, WC2, 0871 911 0200, www.eno.org.uk

• Carmen at ROH till June 26, £8-£190. Covent Garden, WC2, 020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk