CarmenCo – An Afternoon of Opera, Theatre and Comedy

Artists: CarmenCo – Emily Andrews (voice and flute), David Massey (guitar) and Francisco Correa (guitar)

Concert Sponsor: Rathbones Investment Management

Programme

My My My Delilah! – a concert and play, telling the story of Samson and Delilah from Delilah’s point of view, in CarmenCo’s own arrangements. The show includes well-known excerpts by Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Verdi, Donizetti and others.

• Georges Bizet – Habanera from Carmen
• Giuseppe Verdi – Triumphal March from Aida
• Camille Saint-Saëns – “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila
• Gioachino Rossini – overture to The Barber of Seville
• See the full programme below

About the Concert

nadsa’s 2026–2027 season ends on Sunday 25 April with something gloriously different. The prizewinning trio CarmenCo brings My My My Delilah!, their brand-new concert and play that retells the story of Samson and Delilah from Delilah’s own point of view. Part music, part theatre and shot through with comedy, it asks what really lay behind her infamous betrayal. Was she trying to impress? Was she jealous of his hair? And why is she here on stage playing the flute? By turns deeply moving, irreverent and laugh-out-loud funny, it is built around music from Saint-Saëns’s opera and a feast of operatic favourites in the trio’s own arrangements.

An Opera Reimagined, for Flute, Voice and Two Guitars

The afternoon weaves great operatic music into a single dramatic arc. From Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila come the sensuous Bacchanale, the tender “Printemps qui commence” and the famous seduction aria “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix,” set alongside showstoppers from Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Aida and La Traviata, and Donizetti’s La Favorita. A Spanish-tinted second half opens with Tárrega’s Capricho Árabe and Falla’s Miller’s Dance before Schubert’s beloved Ständchen and a sparkling finale, the overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. About seventy per cent music and thirty per cent spoken word, the show is performed entirely from memory, freeing the players to act, move and draw the audience into the story.

About the Ensemble

Formed in 2017, the prizewinning trio CarmenCo have performed all over England, Scotland and Wales, in every kind of venue from Kings Place and Buxton Festival to village halls and schools, honing a distinctive approach built on their own imaginative arrangements of opera, orchestral, folk and world music. The trio comprises Emily Andrews, flautist and mezzo-soprano, and guitarists David Massey and Francisco Correa, all Royal Academy of Music graduates. CarmenCo grew out of the Andrews Massey flute-and-guitar duo, formed in 2009 and winner of the Tunnell Trust Award for 2012–2013, when the addition of Francisco Correa, himself an internationally acclaimed soloist, brought richer textures and greater variety. Their earlier show A Pocket Opera, an irreverent retelling of Carmen, has been performed more than fifty times to unanimous acclaim. My My My Delilah! receives its premiere in Frome in October 2026, ahead of a full UK tour. The Ayrshire Post hailed the trio as “first-rate musicians” offering a “superb range of musical colour and artistry throughout the programme.”

Why You Shouldn’t Miss This

This is more than a concert: it is a piece of musical theatre, by turns beautiful, funny and surprising, and the perfect way to end the season. Performing from memory and in a less formal setting, CarmenCo make great music irresistibly accessible.

Full Programme

• Camille Saint-Saëns – Priestesses’ Dance from Samson et Dalila (flute, two guitars)
• Georges Bizet – Habanera from Carmen (voice, two guitars)
• Giuseppe Verdi – Triumphal March from Aida (flute and guitar)
• Gaetano Donizetti – “O mio Fernando” from La Favorita (voice, two guitars)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – “Printemps qui commence” from Samson et Dalila (voice, two guitars)
• Giuseppe Verdi (arr. Ferrer) – La Traviata Variations (two guitars)
• Giuseppe Verdi – “Possente Fthà” from Aida (voice/flute, two guitars)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila (flute/violin, two guitars)
• Interval
• Francisco Tárrega – Capricho Árabe (solo guitar)
• Manuel de Falla – Miller’s Dance (two guitars)
• Franz Schubert (arr. Boehm/Massey) – Ständchen (flute, guitar)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila (voice, two guitars)
• Camille Saint-Saëns – “L’amour! viens aider ma faiblesse” from Samson et Dalila (voice, two guitars)
• Gioachino Rossini – overture to The Barber of Seville (flute, two guitars)