Carmen to be presented at Drumheller’s Amphitheatre
Bizet’s Carmen to be presented on the Badlands Amphitheatre stage August 4 in a co-production by Mercury Opera (Edmonton), Opera Classica Europa (Germany), and the Badlands Amphitheatre (Drumheller).
Carmen is the world's most passionate, beloved and popular opera about the irresistible and tempestuous Carmen and Don José, the soldier who falls for her, and their ill-fated love. Set in 1800s Spain, the plot introduced a style of realism in opera that changed the theatre forever, and remains just as potent and relevant today.
Carmen on Canada's largest outdoor stage features an international cast of rising and established opera stars whose voices will soar above a live orchestra under the great Alberta sky.
Carmen in the Badlands is a long held dream for Mercury Opera’s Darcia Parada who delights in messing with the public’s perception of what opera entails.
Ever since its NYC inception, as described by Opera Canada, the “musically and emotionally intense” Mercury Opera has made opera accessible to the masses by "Blowing away all the pretentious cobwebs of the artform" says the Edmonton Journal and presenting accessible operatic experiences, often to standing room only audiences in unorthodox venues.
Mercury Opera has performed in underground commuter rail platforms, tents, paddle riverboats, circus sideshows, back alleys and fire escapes, Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, Chez Pierre Cabaret, and now the great outdoors with Alberta’s rugged landscape as a backdrop.
Opera Classica Europa, the largest independent opera company in Europe is widely known for turning castles into open air theatres in over a dozen countries and a hundred locations in its 15-year existence. Opera luminaries on their 2018 roster include John Osborn (Met, La Scala), and Marc Heller (Met, Bolshoi). The Badlands Amphitheatre with its natural acoustics and grand, built-in set nestled in the Badlands bowl of sedimentary rock and arid landscape, lends itself perfectly to multiple operatic plots, especially, Carmen.
Vance Neudorf, Executive Director of the Badlands Amphitheatre says, “Our goal is to make opera in the badlands a yearly event for those who love opera on an epic outdoor scale. This is a place of beauty and inspiration, it is a natural fit for an international opera production.”
Tickets for the August 4th presentation are now on sale at www.badlands amp.com and over the phone at 403-823-2001.
• Spanish mezzo soprano: Anna Goma is the lead: Carmen.
Miss Gomà, made her debut as Carmen in 2017 with Orquestra Reino de Aragon and Pilar from Gigantes will sing Carmen with Opera Classica Europa in the summer of 2018 and Carmen in the Badlands. Gomà was born In Barcelona and finished her singing studies at the Conservatorio Superior of Valencia in 2013. She also attended the Accademia lirica of Osimo and has received Masterclasses from Evghenia Dundekova, Maria Bayo, Renato Bruson, Roberto Accurso Rubén Fernández, Richard Barker and Ricardo Estrada. In 2017 she was awarded the opera Saõ Pablo at Concurso de Tenerife Prize (2017), jury Prize at Concours Canari (2017), the first prize in Concorso Elsa Respighi, Premio Mejor intérprete de Zarzuela (2016) and Premio Fundación de la Zarzuela (2014) in Concurso Internacional Ciudad de Logroño and was finalist in Concurso Alfredo Kraus (2017) and also selected for Giannetta in Elisir d’amore at IOS International Opera Studio of Gijón.