Opera star? I'm a bit horse

FOR a menagerie of farm animals, including a horse, donkey and chickens, the sound of 70 operatic voices singing at full volume took some getting used to.

While the stars of Opera Australia's new production of Carmen had to take riding lessons before the show could go on, Jamieson the horse and his friend Drummer had to be trained to cope with the voices, lights and orchestra.

The animals are used in the show's teeming gypsy market scene, set in Seville.

The horses are ridden on stage by singer Joshua Bloom, playing Escamillo, and by Pamela Helen Stephen, as Bizet's sultry seductress, Carmen.

For the role the horses needed to wear rubber hoof covers to stop them slipping on the stage, and must become familiar with the cast surrounding them in the eight stage rehearsals.

All the fame is nothing new to Jamieson and Drummer, whose other stage work includes appearances at the Sydney Olympics and in The Man From Snowy River arena show.

Carmen opens at the State Theatre, the Arts Centre, tomorrow and runs until May 10.