With its thorny sexual politics, a brand new manufacturing of Carmen generally is a minefield. Prosper Mérimée’s unique novella treats his fiercely impartial central character with respect, however through the years the heroine’s brutal homicide on present in Bizet’s opera has usually embraced the voyeuristic traits of the bullfight happening offstage.
As in his Olivier award-winning Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Damiano Michieletto deflects a few of that by creating a way of a close-knit neighborhood fraying on the edges. Carmen’s tragedy turns into simply one other small city calamity, a symptom of social claustrophobia heightened by the oppressive Mediterranean warmth. Certainly, there are quite a few echoes of Michieletto’s former manufacturing, from the revolving stage to the tufts of grass thrusting up by means of the concrete.
Paolo Fantin’s evocative units, vividly illuminated by Alessandro Carletti, counsel rural Andalucía somewhat than Seville, the distant horizons emphasise the isolation of the city’s jaded cops and two-bit smugglers. On this sexual strain cooker, the attraction of Carmen, a free-spirited however troubled girl, for the emotionally wounded Don José is a dysfunctional automobile crash within the making. Confined interiors create intense enjoying areas, from a single-room police station to a intercourse membership and a battered van. Carla Teti’s sweaty singlets and spray-on sizzling pants find the motion within the Seventies.
Aigul Akhmetshina (Carmen) in Carmen on the Royal Opera Home. {Photograph}: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
To date, so good, and far of Michieletto’s naturalistic staging holds water. Whereas it’s finally unclear if the outdated girl in high-combed black mantilla is definitely José’s mom, she’s an successfully chilling manifestation of destiny. There’s the odd logical inconsistency, nonetheless, and the saccharine use of the youngsters within the entr’actes is a misstep that sits awkwardly with the ultimate graphic strangulation.
By the point she seems at Glyndebourne this summer season, Russian mezzo soprano Aigul Akhmetshina can have headlined three new productions of Bizet’s opera in beneath six months. Not dangerous for a 27-year-old who solely 5 years in the past was on the corporate’s Jette Parker Younger Artists Programme. Vocally she is electrifying, the crushed-velvet decrease register rising to a free and simple prime with a welcome bel canto flexibility. Dramatically she convinces too, her actions sometimes arbitrary however at all times advanced.
The effortlessly elegant Polish tenor Piotr Beczala is an impressive, totally convincing Don José combining clarion excessive notes with some breathtakingly hushed singing. Michieletto’s moralising, bespectacled Micaëla is an unique take, sung with searing purity by Olga Kulchynska. Kostas Smoriginas is a firm-toned, sharp-suited toreador in acid yellow flares with Sarah Dufresne and Gabrielė Kupšytė standing out as Frasquita and Mercédès.
Within the pit, Antonello Manacorda drives the rating arduous whereas discovering loads of unique issues to say in a richly sculpted interpretation. Opening up a number of the conventional cuts pays dividends. The ROH Refrain, and particularly the kids, sing with persuasive enthusiasm.
