Last Updated on July 5, 2024
Getting Bizet wid it
One potentially perverse joy of The Met: Live in HD series is the opportunity to see productions which have been in the news for the wrong reasons. Among reports of sets having to be repaired at the last minute and sickness among the opening performers, The Met’s new Carmen seemed like a cursed production.
A brand new staging on New Year’s Eve, Carmen has been flung into the 21st century. The Sevillian cigarette factory which employs the eponymous (anti?) heroine has been transformed into an arms factory on the border. Which border is never specified but from the general southern vibes of rodeo, sunglasses and cowboy hats, it’s a fair guess that it’s not the Canadian one.
Directed by Carrie Cracknell and with sets designed by Michael Levine the staging had its ups and downs. Act I was a humdrum affair staring at the back of a factory, a gang of ne’er-do-well men was hanging outside the gates to catcall and harass the women going to work. Why was not exactly clear but, they were supplemented by an army garrison supposedly guarding the arms factory. After starting a fight and seducing Don Jose, Carmen escaped arrest into the back of a lorry stocked with stolen weapons. With no ensuing chase, presumably, the American military was technologically surpassed by the lorry, or they exercised the famous restraint of US law enforcement and just let them go.
Act II was a phenomenal piece of stage work. LED striplights formed the background, full height and width of the stage. The strip lights flickered on and off in series, giving the illusion of motion as the truck and other vehicles in the foreground moved back and forth with wheels spinning. Carmen and her fellow factory escapees twerked and krumped to “Chanson bohème.” Each trill of Carmen’s Tra-la-la-la-la-ing produced a fresh jerking body part. It was magnificent.
The following two acts continued on the same theme, the gypsy encampment was the wreck of the lorry and the bullfight was a rodeo. Although with the volume of leather and fringe on display it could well have been a drag show. One issue is that, given the lack of an American travelling population, its never clear who Carmen and her criminal friends are meant to be. Why they are left alone by law enforcement, where they’ve taken the wagon of weapons and what criminal behaviour they engage in is anyone’s guess. The specifically mentioned adjacent border has an implication but surely one to which the Met would not stoop.
Playing Carmen was the rising superstar of the role, Aigul Akhmetshina. Akhmetshina has an astonishing voice for the role, with the perfect depth, colour, and quality. Everything about it was wonderful. She was certainly flirty and freedom-loving loving but there was a lack of firey seduction from her Habanera. Perhaps this rubbed off onto Piotr Beczała’s Don José since their chemistry was non-existent. Beczała sang excellently but seemed uncomfortable even looking at Akhmetshina, nothing like a passionate lover ready to kill for his desire. Angel Blue as Micaëla earned an ovation in the cinema for her Act III aria. Kyle Ketelsen’s Escamillo was an insufferable rodeo star in a ghastly velvet blazer and flashy red jag. Ketelsen delivered a forthright and punchy Toreador’s song, ticking the largest box for many a Carmen fan.
I’m glad I saw this production. Any new staging from one of the world’s largest opera companies is an interesting watch even if plot holes are bound to abound in a modern setting.
The Met: Live in HD series will continue on March 9th with La Forza Del Destino.
https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2023-24-season/la-forza-del-destino/
Meanwhile, if you want to see the opera ‘in the flesh’, the Royal Opera House production of Carmen opens on 5th April and runs through to 31 May 2024
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