The 17th Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival is currently taking place (8th June to 11th July).

A small group of people from Kalkan went to watch Carmen a few days ago. 

As we report below, it was a magical evening.

Aspendos is not far from Antalya.  From Kalkan, it is a 4 hour journey by road.  Our group arranged overnight accommodation in Antalya, so that we did not face a journey back in the middle of the night.

The party of 17 set off on Monday morning at 8.30am, arriving in Antalya at lunch time.  We then had a free afternoon, before setting off to the antique theatre at 7.45 pm.

The antique theatre at Aspendos is a formidable 20,000 capacity stone construction, built almost 2,000 years ago by the Romans.  It was renovated by the Ottomans about 800 years ago.  It's a perfect venue for an opera, with excellent acoustics.

Photo by Ilknur Okan Erdir.

The performance was delayed by 20 minutes by light rain, but spirits were not in the least bit dampened.  When a small army of Turkish cleaning ladies came on stage to wipe away the water, they got a huge cheer and a round of applause, from the 10,000+ audience.

The plastic sheets were removed from the orchestra area in front of the stage, and by 9.20pm the opera was underway.  

Photo by Ilknur Okan Erdir.

Carmen was written by French composer Georges Bizet.  The story is set in Seville, Spain, in the early 19th century.  It's a love story involving the beautiful gypsy Carmen, and her two love interests, Don Jose, a soldier, and Escamillo, a toreador.

The performers were mostly from the Turkish State Opera and Ballet, based in Istanbul, and they were outstanding.  Carmen was performed superbly by talented Serbian mezzo-soprano, Sanja Anastasia (see photo below).

For many of the group it was their first time at the opera - and talk about starting at the top.  I'm not sure how you beat this experience.  Of course we were all mainly looking at, and listening to, the performers on stage, but every now and then your gaze was drawn to the musicians, all dressed smartly in black, who were note perfect all night.  

Then you felt compelled to do a wide angled panorama sweep of the towering auditorium around you, with the upper level archways illuminated with glowing, orange lamps.  And you couldn't help but wonder about the audiences that must have been here before you, over thousands of years.

And finally, you had the amazing sight of countless stars twinkling in the warm Anatolian skies above, (the rain having completely moved on).  A truly memorable experience.

Carmen is an opera in four acts, providing ample opportunity for comfort breaks.  And speaking of comfort, should you decide to go to this festival, we strongly recommend that you take two cushions each - one to sit on and one for your back.

The performance ended shorlty before 1am, and we were tucked up in our Antalya hotel by 2am.  

All in all, an audio-visual treat, which was worth considerably more than the entrance fee of 25TL.  In fact the whole trip for two people (minibus there and back, hotel, evening meal, theatre tickets, breakfast on the second day), came to an amazing 250TL.  If that's not value for money, I don't know what is.

Photo above by E Nalbantjan.
 

Photo by Alp Koksal.

Please note that some performances are now also staged at the modern, and smaller amphitheatre, which is less than a kilometre away from the antique theatre.  Still an excellent venue, but not quite as impressive as the original antique theatre.

Huge thanks to Malcolm and Marian, who pulled things together with their usual flawless organisation, and also to Volume Travel.

If you fancy doing something similar, contact any Kalkan tour opertor.  You can find details for all of them in the KTLN Business Directory.