Carmen – Royal Opera House

Director Damiano Michieletto’s desire to get away from 19^th-century Seville sadly results in the loss of more than a picturesque background with its relocation to a small town in a remote and rural Spain in the 1970s and I still can’t fathom why he has chosen to introduce the character of Don José’s widowed mother to the stage when she is only ever referred to in the libretto. Thankfully for the audience the performance from the two charismatic leads salvages some of the passion and intrigue mostly lost in this presentation of this dark tale.

In an unnamed town, naïve policeman Don José (Piotr Beczała) falls head over heads in love with Carmen (Aigul Akhmetshina), a seductive and free-spirited girl working at the local factory. Infatuated, Don José abandons his childhood sweetheart, Micaëla (Olga Kulchynska) and neglects his military duties only to lose the fickle Carmen to the glamorous rodeo rider, Escamillo (Kostas Smoriginas).

In his pre-performance interview, Michieletto stressed the impact of inescapable sunlight and heat on the characters behaviour, yet Alessandro Carletti’s lighting array resembled something you would find in a modern office interior than the scorching sun which might provoke emotions to erupt at any minute.

Paolo Fantin’s stage design is simple, and I quite liked the use of a cutaway building within each act which in combination with a part revolving stage allowed us to explore internal and external environments as well as scenes within scenes.

The period setting however added little and the opportunity to introduce an element of seventies sexploitation, whilst hinted at, was well and truly missed which is a shame because it would have fitted so well with the underlying themes of the original. If anything, it felt more seventies sitcom with caricatured characterisation, and sadly also seventies was the emphasis on seediness and sleaze rather than sassy, sexy, and sultry. This ongoing absence of heat kept the chorus cool, and everyone was just rather too well-behaved in a British kind of way with a distinct absence of Mediterranean mercurial hot-headedness.

Musically overall was an unsatisfying experience with conductor Antonello Manacorda’s stated focus for the orchestra to show what was happening on stage rather than what was written on paper ultimately unedifying and lacking conviction. In a bit of a chicken and egg moment it is difficult to pin down between him and Michieletto who is more at fault for the production’s shortcomings, although it is perhaps more telling that Antonio Pappano did not pick up the baton on this one..

In supporting roles, Kuchynska performed well in spite of the enforced constraints on her girl-next-door Micaëla complete with thick schoolgirl glasses, whilst Smoriginas, from a subdued start, grew more into his role and vocal without ever really taking off.

What kept it alive, and worthy of attention, was the performance of its two leads who earlier in the year were performing the same roles in Carrie Cracknell’s equally unsatisfying modern interpretation at The Metropolitan Opera.

Beczała is an accomplished tenor with a fine body of work in his repertoire, and although I noted then that he didn’t naturally spring to mind as Don José, he has undoubtedly grown into the role and gave a strong performance tonight. Akhmetshina’s excellent interpretation of the role continues, and she is unquestionably becoming the Carmen of this generation as she moves onto performing the same role at Glyndebourne later this year. Combined, the pair have developed a natural chemistry and understanding of each other resulting in performances honed to perfection: you can dumb down the musical direction, but you can’t take the passion out of arias and duets with leads this accomplished and strong that any audience would revel in.

Reviewer: Mark Davoren

Reviewed: 1st May 2024

North West End UK Rating: