Carmen - Bizet
1992-present

I am grateful to each of my wonderful colleagues; conductors and incredible singers, too many to list here, for their collaboration on a project created when I was a young director (I was 30), which is very close to my heart. This much-revived production is now over 3 decades old and, amazingly, while long retired from Opera Australia, it is still performed from time to time in Australia, NZ and at Leipzig Opera, who commissioned their own version in 2018. Much has been written about this production, however Opera Australia’s website feature Opera Through the Years simply notes the production’s place in the company’s history:

“One of Australia’s most influential opera directors in recent decades, Lindy Hume reimagined Carmen in 1992, when she was appointed artistic director of the West Australian Opera. It's since been recognised as her "breakthrough" production and came to Opera Australia in 1995. She took a decidedly feminist view of the story, and critics were impressed by how well her production honoured the score and libretto. Hume focussed on the ways the men in Carmen’s life exert control over her and cast Suzanne Johnston as a ferociously independent Carmen. The production remained in Opera Australia’s repertoire until 2005. ”

Opera Australia

“The most powerfully dramatic production of Carmen in memory. In Hume’s revelatory production Bizet’s masterpiece comes across as never before. The chorus has seldom seemed so important to the drama. Soloists just seem to emerge out of the madding crowd, throwing focus completely on Carmen and Jose. Bizet would have loved it.”

The Bulletin 1995

“Scorching. Lindy Hume’s ruthlessly unromantic and highly charged production makes vivid sense. What we have here is not so much the heart of the matter but the guts of it. This Carmen quivers with sexual energy, female rage and male dependence…you could be reading from a court report on stalking.”

The Australian, January 2000

“Director Lindy Hume's startling Carmen, for New Zealand Opera, captivates and confronts, from the moment its overture accompanies a silent chorus challenging us, eye to eye, from the stage…. This is a cluster of coups de theatre...”

NZ Herald 2017

“Lindy Hume has revived her 1992 production to plunge today's New Zealand audiences into a dark, brutal world of obsessive love, betrayal and violent death… Set in early 20th century Spain, this could be the best Carmen that you will ever see; a gritty production which strips away 140 years of encrusted frippery to reveal something infinitely more disturbing and enduring.”

Stuff (NZ) 2017

“An electrifying Carmen from Oper Leipzig”

Bachtrack, 2019

"Director Lindy Hume brings into sharp focus the more disturbing aspects of Puccini’s opera. … not simply the sexist mores where Cio-Cio-San is a commodity, but the supremacist, imperialist and colonialist attitudes in the characters embodying male entitlement and coercion…Hume’s approach makes for a more disturbing experience than the romantic pull-at-the-heartstrings this work is assumed to be."

The Guardian

"WNO’s intelligent, insightful and, finally, piercingly emotional modern-day interpretation of this squalid story of exploitation and callousness. Tiny details take on epoch-defining significance. As The Star-Spangled Banner sounds in the orchestra, Pinkerton flourishes a credit card to pay for Butterfly."

The Times

"Hume isn’t afraid to press the emotional buttons either. Snipe all you like at Puccini’s ‘manipulative’ score but plenty of handkerchiefs will surely have had a workout when Sorrow added his toy dinosaur to Butterfly’s flower arrangement. No spoilers, but the final minutes were as swift, inexorable and brutal as anything on stage or screen. This might not be the Butterfly you expect, but it hits you where it hurts."

Spectator

"Director Lindy Hume brings into sharp focus the more disturbing aspects of Puccini’s opera. … not simply the sexist mores where Cio-Cio-San is a commodity, but the supremacist, imperialist and colonialist attitudes in the characters embodying male entitlement and coercion…Hume’s approach makes for a more disturbing experience than the romantic pull-at-the-heartstrings this work is assumed to be."

The Guardian

"WNO’s intelligent, insightful and, finally, piercingly emotional modern-day interpretation of this squalid story of exploitation and callousness. Tiny details take on epoch-defining significance. As The Star-Spangled Banner sounds in the orchestra, Pinkerton flourishes a credit card to pay for Butterfly."

The Times

"Hume isn’t afraid to press the emotional buttons either. Snipe all you like at Puccini’s ‘manipulative’ score but plenty of handkerchiefs will surely have had a workout when Sorrow added his toy dinosaur to Butterfly’s flower arrangement. No spoilers, but the final minutes were as swift, inexorable and brutal as anything on stage or screen. This might not be the Butterfly you expect, but it hits you where it hurts."

Spectator

© 2023 Lindy Hume

© 2022 Lindy Hume

© 2022 Lindy Hume

Website justinepowelldesign

Website justinepowelldesign

Website justinepowelldesign