Acosta's Carmen
- Robert Beale
- Apr 23
- 3 min read
Carlos Acosta
Acosta Danza
Opera House, Manchester
April 22-25, 2026: 1 hr 35 mins
Carlos Acosta’s Carmen is athletically danced and very entertaining, but probably not one for the purists.
Bringing his Cuban-based company, Acosta Danza, to Manchester's Opera House (its only North of England venue) rather than Salford’s Lowry, he is offering a show that is by no means too long and by no means overtaxing for an audience.
There was no printed programme booklet on last night’s first night, so you have to have some idea of the basic story to begin with, but compared with the popular opera, it’s telescoped and simplified, so that is not a big problem.
Plenty of stories are pared down to a fraction of their literary models when adapted for dance (think Coppelia, from ETA Hoffman’s The Sandman; or Don Quixote, from Cervantes’ original), and this can claim to be returning to Prosper Merimee’s original novel, in that it eliminates Micaela, the girl from tragic hero Don Jose’s home town, who was invented for Bizet’s opera. It doesn’t omit the Toreador (another post-Merimee invention), though – in fact he is the third major character in a simple love triangle. It also gives the bull a starring role, as kind of a ghostly presence from start to finish, who dances a pas de deux with Carmen in the second Act. The horns got in the way a bit and eventually dropped off altogether – I’m not sure if that was the intention...
Most of the (recorded) music is from Bizet’s opera, though we are reliably told it’s in the orchestration by Rodion Shchedrin - presumably from his Carmen Suite, a concert piece famous (maybe notorious) for the fact that when it gets to the opening of the familiar Toreador’s Song, he uses only the accompaniment, leaving audiences to remember the tune. In the version here, they give us the tune to begin with and miss it out in part. There is also some Cuban-style music, mainly for the rumbustious tavern scene that opens the second Act (which also pinches a bit of other Bizet, from L’Arlesienne). Credits for additional music are given to Yhovani Duarte, Denis Paralta and Martin Yates.
The set and costume design, by Tim Hatley, with lighting by Peter Mumford, are vivid and colourful, and enhanced by video projection designed by Nina Dunn.
The choreographic style is often traditionally balletic and shows that the small, young company has its classical technique not just highly developed but also made immensely showy. In the later part of the evening the style becomes more individual and the solos more expressive, which may reflect the fact that Acosta has developed this from a shorter form into something that can be called a full-length ballet (just – but I’m not complaining about getting an early night). There was applause both for the succession of pas de deux that essentially make up the story’s progress, but also for the corps de ballet as Carmen’s friends, smugglers and their considerable contribution to the tavern and corrida crowd scenes.
The solo skills of the two male leads, Don Jose (Alejandro Silva) and Escamillo (Paul Brando) were impressive – the former’s tours in particular – but Carmen herself is on stage for virtually the whole piece, and Amisafay Naara showed herself to be untiring and able to portray both youthful passion (a Juliet in the making?) and the harder, sassy defiance of the traditional Carmen.
It’s in the best possible taste, with the tragic pair keeping their clothes on for a bedroom scene – even though that may seem a bit odd when almost all the dancers uninhibitedly throw most of theirs off at other points in the tale. But we all love that from these Latin movers.
More info and tickets here
