Theatre Review: Carmen (2026) (Opera) & State Opera SA 2026 Season Wrap-up

Carmen
22 October 2026
Her Majesty's
Adelaide
Opera

I should preface this review by saying that I won tickets to see this performance after completing a survey for the State Opera SA earlier in the year. The prize was a double pass to all five of the city-based main season productions for 2026, and Carmen was the last of those five performances, so below I share my review of Carmen as well as a wrap-up of my thoughts on the 2026 season as a whole.... 

Carmen is, of course, a staple of the opera scene and therefore a work with which I am very familiar. However, I loved the freshness of this production, which is one of the best I have seen of this opera. Charlotte Kelso was dazzling in the title role, with great acting and amazing vocals. Desiree Frahn and Gerard Schneider also sang beautifully as Micaëla and Don José. I was less taken with Samuel Dale Johnson's Escamillo as some of his melismas sounded a little bleat-like, especially in the main Toreador song. The costumes and set were all lovely and I enjoyed the generally blocking and choreography. The ASO were perfection as always. The only downside really was an audience that included a handful of people lacking in proper theatre etiquette. All up, though, this was a perfectly presented and engaging production and a wonderful way to cap off and exquisite 50th anniversary season. It was a 5 star-performance as far as I am concerned.

Looking back on the season as a whole, I feel it was one that went from strength to strength. I enjoyed Cinderalla, but it did feel a little less polished than the productions that followed later in the year, perhaps simply because of the more minimalist approach to the set and presentation. The joint staging of Hansel and Gretel and Into the Woods, with their shared set, worked wonderfully and added that extra visual level I was longing for in Cinderella, and that came to a culmination in the delightful staging of Carmen.

Having won the tickets to the shows this year, I was returning to opera after a break (mostly due to ticket prices climbing and not having the means to go to the theatre as often as I used to) and it was wonderful to immerse myself in that world again. Once more, thanks to State Opera SA for giving me this opportunity to reconnect with opera in 2026.