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| Bizet: Carmen - Katie Bray, Oliver Johnston - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
Bizet: Carmen; Katie Bray, Oliver Johnston, Meeta Raval, Chuma Sijeqa, director: Harry Fehr, conductor: Christopher Stark, Blackheath Halls Opera; Blackheath Halls
Reviewed 22 September 2026
Blackheath Halls Opera celebrates 20 years by returning to the first opera they performed, Carmen, with Katie Bray making her role debut as terrific, sassy Carmen and Oliver Johnston a powerful Don Jose.
For its 20th anniversary production, Blackheath Halls Opera returned to the work they first started with, Bizet's Carmen. The work has a meaty part for the chorus, but Blackheath has never been lacking in ambition nor the ability to enable amateur chorus members (and orchestral musicians) to rise to the challenge.
The production was directed by Harry Fehr who has a long association with the company [he directed last year's production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Oliver Johnston as Turiddu, see my review]. The conductor was Christopher Stark, the company's musical director. Set designs were by Elliott Squire, with costumes by Alice McNicholas. The movement director was Victoria Newlyn. We caught the second performance at Blackheath Halls on 22 September 2026.
Katie Bray was Carmen, Oliver Johnston was Don Jose, Chuma Sijeqa was Escamillo, Meeta Raval was Micaela, Grant Doyle was Zuniga and Tom Butler was Morales. Frasquita, Mércèdes, Remendado and Dancaire were Clare Mariotti, Ilona Nastase, Jacq Herbots, and Zac Conibear, all vocal students at Trinity Laban. The company was made up of the Blackheath Halls Chorus, Blackheath Halls Orchestra and Blackheah Halls Opera Youth Company, all three community enterprises.
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| Bizet: Carmen - Meeta Raval - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
The opera was sung in Christopher Cowell's English translation first produced for ENO (for Calixto Bieito's production). Rhyming yet with plenty of demotic elements, the language proved to be direct and not too contrived. All concerned seemed to project the words admirably.
The opera comique version was used, so Guiraud recitatives, though Fehr had cut the dialogue to the bone (as often happens). Instead, there had clearly been a lot of work with the singers on interaction and body language. When Katie Bray's Carmen threw the flower at Oliver Johnston's Don Jose there was none of the usual flirty language, and instead it was all in the eyes and body language. Similarly Grant Doyle's Zuniga used his body to impress himself on all and sundry.
The orchestra was place on the hall's stage and was beautifully lit by Malcolm Richards so that they formed a lovely backdrop to the action. The main set was an amphitheatre with colonnade around the top, yet any element of grandeur was undercut by the profusion of street art covering it, including Carmen's name and we learned during the production that Don Jose was responsible for this. The fixed set formed a flexible setting for all the opera and allowed Fehr space for the chorus. At the end of Act Four they remained on-stage to sing the off-stage choruses whilst Don Jose and Carmen had their final confrontation. A challenge that the chorus members did not all quite manage to bring off.
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| Bizet: Carmen - Oliver Johnston, Meeta Raval - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
In many ways it was a spare production, without an excess of props and scene setting. It was more about people and things. Costumes were largely modern day and the soldiers were in uniforms that suggested the setting was Spain rather than the UK, but the Spanish elements were played down except for Chuma Sijeqa's Escamillo and that is something hard to avoid. Fehr very effectively transferred the action to the modern day without any particular violence to the drama, and some of his details were very effective. The soldiers in Act One were distinctly violent with the populace and the factory workers were hardly different. As I have seen in other productions recently, the opening chorus from Act Four was omitted jumping straight to the chorus reacting to the parade.
The choreography by Victoria Newlyn avoided hackneyed Spanishism but there was dance when needed in Act Two. The three women successfully suggested movement and the need to dance to the music, developing into an expressive solo for Katie Bray where movement and music mixed.
Katie Bray made a rather sassy Carmen. Elegant yet feisty, there was something controlled about her. Bray's use of body language and stillness was striking and you felt that this Carmen enjoyed disconcerting people and watching. For instance in moments such as her initial (wordless) encounter with Oliver Johnston's Don Jose was telling. Fehr and Bray sidestepped the issue of the character's projection of rampant sexuality by bringing into the mix the idea that Carmen is a singer. There was something performative about the Habanera, whilst the opening of Act Two was done as a cabaret number. Yet, Bray sang with such elegance and passion that this hardly mattered. Whilst her Carmen was feisty and fought when necessary, I was also reminded of a description of Victoria de los Angeles in the role, that she was wonderfully elegant but you knew she had a stilletto concealed in her garter. The card scene was done completely seriously, yet you never felt a lurch in atmosphere, it was all part of the same character arc.
We saw Oliver Johnston as Don Jose at Opera Holland Park in 2022 [see my review] and his traversal of the role remains powerful and highly musical. Johnston has the heft in his voice to encompass the role's big moments, and the climaxes were indeed terrific, but he can also fine his tone down. Perhaps lacking a little in subtlety but that is the point, this Don Jose is an ordinary (and rather dim) man who gets caught up. What Johnston projected was the way Don Jose was ill equipped to deal with complex emotions. This Don Jose was rarely violent but given Johnston's stature and the difference in size to Katie Bray's Carmen and you had a potent force. Their confrontation in Act Three was powerful, though perhaps not gut wrenching, whilst Fehr staged the opera's final scene with maximum and shocking violence. This Carmen really fought back.
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| Bizet: Carmen - Chuma Sijeqa - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
Chuma Sijeqa made an engaging Escamillo, this character radiated bonhomie and clearly loved the attention his celebrity brought him. It helps that Sijeqa has the voice for the role with a vibrant yet flexible top and a lower register that does not disappear. Ideal in many ways and very much part of the drama. Meeta Raval was a demure Micaela, yet with a sense of innate strength underneath which was underlined but the power in her voice. For much of the time, this Micaela was wound up tight as a string. Raval and Johnston made the Act One duet rather less tentative than usual and in Act Three Raval's demeanour seemed slightly at odds with the intensity of her voice.
In some productions, Zuniga barely contributes to the drama but Grant Doyle made him vividly alive and definitely something of a boor. Body language alone ensured that we understood Zuniga's fixation with Carmen and her disinterest. Something that made the events of Act Two more obvious. Tom Butler's Morales was a similarly strong presence, made all the more significant as Butler sang in Blackheath's youth chorus as a boy.
Frasquita, Mércèdes, Remendado and Dancaire were all played by Trinity Laban Vocal Students - Clare Mariotti, Ilona Nastase, Jacq Herbots, Zac Conibear - which meant that they looked significantly younger than the principal characters and Fehr's production really leaned into this. Mariotti and Nastase made a terrific double act as Carmen's friends, looking up to her, and then in the card scene their engaging chatter made just the right contrast with Bray's serious drama. Herbots and Conibear played the smugglers with dead-pan seriousness. There was no hint of Opera Comique comedy here and no silly accents though their dialogue still felt as if it needed a bit of work.
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| Bizet: Carmen - Chuma Sijeqa, Katie Bray - Blackheath Halls Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) |
The chorus part was challenging not so much for the music as for the way the chorus has to play multiple roles. The Blackheath chorus grasped all this with vivid enthusiasm, and made a distinctly strong presence. There was some fine singing, and I was particularly taken with the men's incarnation of the soldiers in Act One. There were two women tenors who formed very effective guards in Act One, and a male alto who proved to be the factory women's gay best friend.
The youth chorus was equally engaging, and in Act One they were just as badly behaved as the adult characters, to great effect. There were roles for individual chorus members too. Stella Paskins was Lillas Pastia who got to shoot Grant Doyle's Zuniga (off stage). Carolyn Williamson was Manuelita, the factory worker fighting with Carmen, and Philippa Keogh was Micaela's guide.
If Christopher Stark's speeds sometimes felt a tad steady, then this was understandable. The orchestra entered into the music with a will and there were some fine instrumental solos.
This year marks another watershed for the company as Rose Ballantyne, their long-time producer, is retiring. Blackheath Halls Opera is a community and social enterprise and the celebrations for their 20th anniversary bring home quite what strong affection those involved have for the company. It isn't just about getting people singing, though that is a very big part of what they do, but also the wider company enterprise. But in the theatre, none of this mattered and what the company gave us was a terrific evening in the theatre, showcasing some fine performances from the principals.
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