Carmen (Ellen Kent 2026)

Opera producer Ellen Kent has had an illustrious career, taking many different opera and ballet productions around the UK for the past three decades – bringing Eastern European talent over to share their talents. On this farewell tour, she has mounted three different operatic productions with Opera International Kyiv: La traviata, Carmen and Madama Butterfly. From 21 to 23 April 2026 they will play on consecutive nights at Richmond Theatre. The youthful Micaela arrives at a square in Seville, looking for corporal Don José to pass on a letter from his mother; on discovering that he won’t be there until the changing of the guard, she declines to stay and wait for him. He and Zuniga (his superior) arrive not long after, almost coinciding with the cigarette factory girls coming out for their break – the fiery Carmen is part of this group, and is soon causing havoc by trying to seduce the initially uninterested Don José. When she is later apprehended for causing a brawl in the factory, he…