Music / Carmen, Opera Australia. At Sydney Opera House until September 19. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

These may be Danielle de Niese’s first performances as Carmen in a production of Bizet’s perennial favourite, but it most certainly will not be her last.

From the moment she takes the stage until her inevitable death scene at the hands of Don Jose, she dominates the production in a way very few artists are able.

Obviously relishing this opportunity to direct her first fully staged opera, Anne-Louise Sarks has taken opportunity to again team with set and costume designer Marg Horwell, and lighting designer, Paul Jackson, to create a vibrant, rebellious, slightly surreal, Latin Mardi world for her characters to inhabit.

Horwell has leapt to world attention having won a slew of awards for her designs for The Picture of Dorian Grey including Olivier, Tony, Green Room and Sydney Theatre Awards.

For Carmen she has employed a riotous mixture of glam and grunge for her costumes in which sequins are used in surprising ways. Her costume choices for various of the characters might also raise eyebrows. For instance, Escamillo, (Andrii Kymach) is deprived of any toreador glamour instead costumed in simple shirt and jeans.

Her set designs feature her signature floral motifs teamed with religious iconography but rescued from any hint of drabness by the brilliant lighting design of Paul Jackson.

Among the many reasons why Carmen has retained its popularity is the glorious score packed with instantly recognisable arias, each one exactly right for the moment it exists in the opera. There’s also the haunting incidental music that heralds and highlights critical moments in the story.

Returning to the podium after her triumphant Opera Australia debut last year conducting Il Trittico, Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya knows every one of them. She draws a superbly nuanced reading from the Opera Australia Orchestra which frames the joy and drama inherent in Bizet’s miraculous score.

The timeless libretto also offers fascinating options for the singers and creatives, and is a major reason why audiences are attracted back to the opera to experience how it responds to different interpretations.

Danielle de Niese is incandescent as Carmen. Provocative and playful, sensuous and demanding, blessed with a flexible, creamy soprano, she is also a consummate actress and dancer, all of which she invests in creating an unforgettable Carmen.

De Niese doesn’t just perform Carmen, she becomes her. Watch her response to the moment when Don Jose first threatens her. Just one unforgettable moment in a performance to relish.

Also making his role debut in this production, Abraham Breton as Don Jose is an excellent foil for de Niese’s Carmen. His handsome presence and ringing tenor are major assets in charting Don Jose’s inability to cope with Carmen’s refusal to be tamed.  His singing of The Flower Song was particularly affecting.

Jennifer Black offered a more confident Micaela than many, particularly when dealing with the soldiers’ advances in the opening scene, while Jane Edy and Helen Sherman as Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mercedes, and Luke Gabbedy and Kanen Breen as El Dancairo and El Remendado, were all excellent in their roles making the quintet, We Have a Plan in Mind, another of many highlights.

For this production, which runs until September 19, Opera Australia is offering four Carmens. Danielle de Niese performs the role until August 4. Tunisian Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb will make her Australian debut in the role on August 7, followed by Sian Sharp on September 3 and Angela Hogan on September 13.

De Niese has set a high bar, but no doubt each will bring a uniqueness to her interpretation, therefore providing a dilemma for those opera lovers who would like to see them all.