Près des ramparts
Opening tonight at Manhattan’s Film Forum: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, a 2005 film adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen updated to the present and transplanted to an industrial community near Cape Town, South Africa. The score, somewhat abridged but otherwise not altered, is sung in the Xhosa language. The NYT’s reviewer isn’t completely bowled over by the film, but he does admit “the overall conception is so original that even when the movie falters in the moment, it dazzles in the memory.”
Hmmm. Interesting. Most singers who sing opera and songs will, at some point, have to sing in Italian, French, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Swedish, Latin, Czech, and more, but I doubt you will soon see the finest conservatories offering Xhosa diction classes.
saw this film last night. If you are an uptight opera queen and purist you will probably hate it. I loved it for what it is. an adaptation of Bizet’s CARMEN. It is not meant to be the opera proper, It reminds me of Matthew Bourne’s SWAN LAKE. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it thrilling at times. Haven’t spent time in South Africa, I found the setting wildly inventive. It really works. don’t miss it, you will either love it or hate, but do see it
Having spent time in South Africa, not haven’t, spent several months there during three separate visits