Rpo: Bizet’s Carmen Symphony

‘Take me away… I have killed her: Carmen, my beloved!’ Bizet’s Carmen is one of the world’s most popular operas, and with good reason – it’s bursting with melodies that, once heard, are never forgotten. Tonight’s concert climaxes with an orchestral journey through this tale of doomed passion beneath the blazing Spanish sun: from the seductive Habanera to the swaggering Toreador’s Song, it’s just hit after hit after hit.

But then, everything in this colourful programme is charged with drama. Stephanie Childress unleashes a whole evening of operatic passion, from Rossini’s showstopper of an overture (you already know how it goes!) to the imperial splendour of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Who needs singers – especially when we’ve got a soloist as charismatic as cellist Anastasia Kobekina in Tchaikovsky’s delightful Variations on a Rococo Theme?