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ON OUR RADAR

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

Leigh Curtis

Exeter Opera Group is performing Bizet’s Carmen on Saturday 8 November at Exeter Castle and Saturday 22 November at Mary Harris Memorial Chapel of the Holy Trinity.

First staged in 1875, Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas in the classical canon. Set in southern Spain, it recounts the downfall of Don José, a soldier seduced by the fiery Carmen.

In the Exeter Opera Group production, which is performed in French with narration in English, Carmen will be played by Iryna Ilnytska and Don José by Robert Felstead and Thomas Wood.

Supporting roles will be performed by players including Nick Young, Ian Spackman, John Burgoyne, Lee Andreae and Anna Townhill.

Richard Lucas and Tim Laurence-Othen will accompany on piano and Suzanne De Lozey on flute.

The production is directed by Iryna Ilnytska, Nick Lawrence and Lucy Corley.

Carmen by Exeter Opera Group Saturday 8 and 12 November 2025 Exeter Castle Mary Harris Memorial Chapel poster

Exeter Opera Group, comprised of 25 singers from across Devon, gave its first performance in August last year with a staging of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.

The group has since performed works by Mozart, Rossini and Camille Saint-Saëns at venues including Exeter Library and St Nicholas Priory.

In January this year it staged Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas and in July gave a fairy-tale themed concert for children.

Exeter Opera Group was founded by Iryna Ilnytska, a mezzo-soprano from Ukraine, who began studying music aged eight before performing at Kyiv Opera Studio in her teens.

In the UK, she has worked with companies including Red Earth Opera, Staircase Opera and Opera in a Box, and has performed with the Stella Maris Trio at venues in Devon and Oxfordshire.

She has given several charity concerts to raise funds for volunteers who are supporting victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Exeter Opera Group’s Carmen takes place at 1pm on Saturday 8 November at Exeter Castle and 7pm on Saturday 22 November 2025 at the Mary Harris Memorial Chapel of the Holy Trinity.

Tickets cost £14.50 plus booking fee.

Tickets for full-time students and under 16s cost £10 on the door but must be reserved via exeteroperagroup@gmail.com.

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