Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall

I went to watch Carmen Jones at the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall last night. I thought it was very good - both the show and the new auditorium.

Mr K-E had already been to the new hall as his company was involved in the refurbishment. He and his colleagues were invited to an acoustic tuning concert to test the new baffle boards, drapes and other acoustic tweaking devices.

The show is based on Bizet's opera Carmen. It is a Hammerstein musical, with English lyrics set to Bizet's music. Most of the music is really familiar, most people would recognise it if they heard it but the modern twist is refreshing and interesting.

The production was full of energy and the woman who played Carmen - woo hooo! She had long, long legs and boy, could she work a red dress. Her accent was all over the place though.

Another unusual point was that the orchestra was very casually dressed. T-shirts and hoodies! Not even wearing a colour scheme or anything like that. It's very deliberate I'm sure as the orchestra was right in the middle of the stage, and the performers ran around the orchestra.

Highly recommended. Go see.