BACK with a bang - that's OperaUpClose's return to the county later this week.

After their successful performance of The Marriage of Figaro in 2015 they are back at Malvern’s Festival Theatre this Thursday night (7.30pm) with their smash-hit English version of Bizet’s masterpiece, Carmen.

Written and directed by the company’s Olivier Award-winning Artistic Director, Robin Norton-Hale; Carmen is set in a torrid South American landscape of dust and concrete, in the mid-twentieth century, where small-town boredom and machismo can turn nasty.

 Carmen captivates and provokes, disturbing the composure of everyone she encounters. Sparks fly when she meets José, but as her passion cools, his turns to obsession. Unable to control his feelings or the woman who inspired them, he descends into violence. But Carmen will not give up her freedom for anyone.

 Bizet’s powerful melodies are orchestrated for a quartet of strings, woodwind and piano by composer Harry Blake (OperaUpClose’s La Traviata and Don Giovanni, West Yorkshire Playhouse’s resident composer).