‘Violence against women is ever-present in opera’ – The Opera Shack explores domestic abuse in their pocket-size Carmen

A bar, alcohol, cigarettes, a group of young people joking and singing joyfully…We are not in the Northern Quarter on a Saturday night; it is Sunday morning, and the singers of The Opera Shack are rehearsing a scene of their new show, an adaptation of Carmen for the King’s Arms. 

 

Created in 2016 by four music students from the University of Manchester, The Opera Shack is an opera collective who perform in unusual places to make the genre more accessible to all. “The idea is to take opera out of the concert hall to bring it to new audiences,” explains artistic director Emma Doherty. In the past two years, this has taken them from pubs to museums, and their pocket-size performances attract more and more people – all of their three shows at the Kings’ Arms in Salford are sold-out.  

 

This time, Emma wanted to bring the show to another level: she worked in collaboration with Manchester Rape Crisis and focussed the story on domestic abuse. “The issue of violence against women is ever-present in opera,” she says. “Women get murdered, it’s always the downfall of the female character. As an opera director recently said, ‘the history of opera is a history of misogyny’. And I thought about it straight away with Carmen. She always appears as a femme fatale, and Don José (the male lead) as a victim who becomes mad for her. But he ends up murdering her, and this is what I want to look at, because no matter how ‘seductive’ you are, no matter what you wear, how drunk you are – violence towards women is never justified.”  

 

The rehearsal takes place in an old abandoned school in Gorton, where the singers are working with the set for the first time. Most of them are students from the Royal Northern College of Music or the University of Manchester. They listen attentively to the instructions of musical director Abigail Kitching: “Keep the clarity in that bit, otherwise we lose you,” she says, “there, somebody was a bit late – just look at me.” And they repeat a few bars. They will be accompanied by a small band for the performances. “We have seven players,” explains Abigail, “a string quartet, a saxophone, a flute and a clarinet. We asked composers from the University and the College to arrange the original music by Georges Bizet for a smaller ensemble, because obviously we cannot fit a full-size orchestra in a pub. It mustn’t be too loud either, as balancing with the singers can be tricky in a small space and we wouldn’t hear them.” Abigail is delighted to conduct the piece: “It’s brilliant music,” she says, “it’s fun, it’s sad, it’s angry: it’s got everything in it.” 

 

For many of the young singers, this is the first time they have had the opportunity to play a big role in an opera. “They are very professional,” says Emma. “Some of them are old friends from University, because Abigail and I just graduated (we are 23). We are all a similar age and there is a mutual respect for what we are trying to do, so people are really on board with both the production and the context.”

 

Instead of 19th-century Seville, the story, after the novella of French author Prosper Mérimée, is set in the 1920s prohibition era. It is also a shorter version of the original, which allows the young singers to have a go at big roles they would otherwise not be able to sing. “You would normally only sing these roles when your voice is completely developed, well into your thirties or forties – this is when your voice is at its peak.” Explains Tom Loughlin, 22, who sings Don José, the male lead. “Singing Don José is very difficult technically, it’s really high and it’s a really big sing. I have to make sure my technique is secure so that I don’t get tired.”

 

Northern Irish soprano Lauren Coulter plays Michaela, Don José’s fiancée. It is the first time she has played a featured role in an opera. “I’m only 23, so still a baby, especially in the soprano world,” she says. “My voice will mature later, so singing this is a challenge, but I do it to the best of my ability. I get to sing her aria, which is really nice.” 

 

Lachlann Lawton, 24, from Perth, Australia, sings Escamillo, the ‘toreador’. “It’s great to work on a role like this,” he says. “Some bits of it are really hard, like the fight between me and Don José, but we’ve cut it down a bit, so we can sing it properly. And singing in a little venue is really nice, because I don’t get as tired as I would if I was singing in an opera house.” He also enjoyed working on the character with Emma: “We’ve changed him from being a bull-fighter to him being a boxer, which fits really well in the 1920s setting. He is not as flamboyant as the original character, he is more like a mob boss. I like that he’s got a soft side as well – he is a very rounded character, more interesting that in most productions.”

 

While the ‘cigarette girls’ are rehearsing their scene with Emma, hopping around in a little Charleston dance while singing at the top of their voices, Tom is restlessly walking around with his score, revising, muttering. He sometimes checks the pronunciation of a word with Emma or Abigail – the opera is in French. “It makes it even harder!” he says. “It’s a big character, especially the way Emma has directed it – he’s the bad guy, he is seen hitting Carmen, he is absolutely vile.” 

 

For Emma, a believable story needs to come from the characters, not only the music. “The very first thing we did with the cast, before any opera work, was visualisation of character – everyone had to come up with a few words to describe their role. We built everything from there.” She did a lot of work with Francesca Letch, who sings Carmen, on how to approach the issue of domestic abuse. “We looked at the way in which she gets manipulated, and the power dynamics between Carmen and Don José. We wanted to do it sensitively.”  

 

The room is now buzzing, with sound and excitement alike. The young team is eager to take to the stage, fearless and passionate. They all have the same words: “It’s a challenge, and we’re ready for it!”

 

The Opera Shack are performing Carmen at the King’s Arms until Saturday 16 June. More information here.