Let's Get Bizet: The Carmen La Scala Review Tra la la la la la la la...

Carmen, a fiery, seductive, uncontrollable man-eating harpy who tears through men (and women) without flinching -- it's easy work to categorize one of opera's most colorful & irresistible archetypes. So when GM of La Scala, Stephane Lissner, announced Scala's new season and brought 40-something Sicilian newcomer to opera direction, Emma Dante, to open their 2009/10 season with a new production of Bizet's Carmen, no one was quite sure what to expect. Punk opera? Revolution in the air? A big meh?

In the months leading-up to Dante's new Carmen, it was set forth that Dante -- a headstrong, counter-culture figure -- would propose a fresh, innovative, young version of Georges Bizet's tragic heroine. Dante is viewed as a sort of Diablo Cody of independent, off-Broadway Italian experimental & regional theater, and Scala could use her to try and make themselves look less lame.

But what we saw on opening night from Dante's Carmen was a convoluted direction without any really new ideas, declawed by Daniel Barenboim in its more radical choices (that had been artfully leaked to the press over the months preceding la prima) safely following Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy's idiosyncratic libretto (in Robert Didion's critical edition loaded with cuts). Which is fine.

But really, it's in bad form to hype a new production by an independent director as something that it most certainly is not. This isn't about attracting young people... actually, Opera Chic, almost always the youngest person in the room, found this new production as the most alienating of the recent la primas of the recent past: Patrice Chéreau's Tristan Und Isolde and Stéphane Braunschweig's Don Carlos included.

Without the sexy spark of the irresistible heroine and without chemistry between Carmen and Escamillo or Don Jose, this was indeed your grandparent's opera (with tons of Catholic imagery thrown in for good measure), as traditional and unimaginative as Peduzzi's conventional (albeit excellent) sets, leads weighted-down with matronly and static blocking, an absence of Bizet's fiery tenderness that was treated instead with a cold, jaded, hardened, bitter Carmen, punctuated by misogynistic tinges and violence everywhere.

 

Georges Bizet's four-act opéra comique premiered in Paris in March 1875, and Barenboim fittingly gave it a French, highly appropriate reading -- an enlightened, respectful, liberal tourist in the land of bullfights. Sloooooooooooooow as molasses at certain points, and tempi sloooooooooooooooowed down to gentle lulls. Dressed almost casually without a trace of tie or bow tie, the conductor led the orchestra on an un-rushed ride that overall, sustained itself well, best example being an overture that began as a ringing, pompous arch that showed much depth and foreshadowing.

The curtain opened with the humming of three white fans and although it's been told by preview that Dante's vision was more Morocco than Seville, OC wasn't convinced. The courtyard outside of the tobacco factory was full of activity -- carpet beaters and a full-on pregnant woman in the throes of labor (??). Scenographer Richard "Italian Churches Don't Look Like That" Peduzzi's solid brick facades towered in the background, although with Dominique Bruguière's somber, minimal lighting, one more or less had to imagine Peduzzi's sets.

We find Micaëla's Adriana Damato at the beginning of Act I, and OC is duly pleased that she's not in some frumpy, bucolic dress and rather wrapped in a rich, black coat. Oops! Nevermind! Micaëla strips the jacket and reveals she's been swathed in a lace abomination. A fach too far, Damato is an excellent singer with the wrong voice for this role, but Micaëla never made the marks, and the singer, transparently set-up in the image of Dante herself (with Halloweeny white streaks in her dark hair), was lightly booed at the curtain call.  

Moralès's Mathias Hausmann showed great range and engaging emotion, playing a sort of effeminate and sympathetic brigadier, swagger and predatory vibes stripped away, completely nonthreatening -- the one aberration in Dante's cruel world of violence and indifferent men.

And here comes Dante's promised symbolism: As the cigarette girls emptied from the factory, they wore black robes over their undergarments, while white cloths worn on the head were dual nun habits and towels. As they bathed, they writhed around each other, clearly all of them lesbians (we have the same convention at Lilla Pastia's Act II bar with all that egregious rubbing).

Writing was a main theme of the tragic female condition for Dante, and we saw a lot of it during Act I's climactic girl fight. Instead of throwing punches, girls in white slips pulled each other's hair, holding tight and writhing in pain for the remainder of the act. Blocking was boring and erratic, some girls freaking out like cats in heat, other sitting still but just contorting their mouths. Even OC, who's all about feminism and equality, was appalled by such myopic, dated symbolism. Dante's concepts of feminism and female submission are so woefully outdated that she's probably still burning her bra* (actually, at a very 1960s stab at feminism, we couldn't help notice the braless dancers all over the stage. Budget cuts, perhaps?)

* Bra-burning never really happened, not even back then -- it's an urban legend, like Vietnam vets getting spit on by pacifists, but this is a topic for another post.

The end of Act II's La liberté had the cigarette girls on the ground, baring their legs, portrayed as snarling, growling animals. WTF? Seriously? So Dante sees women as bisexual whores who are unable to control their animalistic urges, freely kicked around the stage by soldiers's boots and dragged off the stage by their hair. Tenuous symbolism goes even further with the presence of crosses and clergy that haunt the backgrounds of almost each act, wearily knocking away at derivatives.

Budget choice Anita Rachvelishvili, three student productions under her belt, a name barely uttered before her Carmen debut and a recent graduate of Scala's own Accademia, had a solid stage presence, anchoring, earthbound & frankly, earthy. A voice without sparkle or much expression or nuance, instead we had a deep, solid mezzo. Rachvelishvili worked a paltry handful of expressions throughout the range of her role, and the lack of passion left a giant void in the narrative. Whirling one's hair around and grabbing at your skirt doesn't make you sexy, and Rachvelishvili lacked charisma and the free spirit of Carmen's flirtations. Sadly enough, it wasn't until her curtain call that we saw her emote more than she had the entire evening while singing Carmen.

Jonas Kaufmann as Don José was the star of the evening, which isn't saying much when stacked-up to his colleagues. Although recovering from a cold that axed him from Thursday night's Scala Under 30 preview performance, his Act II La fleur que tu m’avais jetéegarnered hearty, spontaneous applause for its beauty and emotion, one of the only applause mid-act of the evening. Chemistry damned, OC's convinced that the applause after Près des remparts de Sévillewas a way to break the awkwardness of Kaufmann's sterile kiss with Rachvelishvili. A clean-shaven Kaufmann (face & chest included) actually made the entire cast (namely the cigarette girls) look dirtier and hairier by comparison -- and when that's the case, there's a big problem.

Erwin Schrott's Escamillo was a letdown. His voice was tired, and he lacked a palpable stage presence. We wanted more, but he took a subordinate role in his acting and singing.  Act IV opened with the only memorable touch, a gigantic incense holder that was swung from the heavens, the only moment of dynamic movement or novelty in the entire opera.

And yes, we did have Escamillo's rubber hand, along with a very awkward rape attempt -- a half-a$$ed leftover of Barenboim's trimming of Dante's more unsettling (for the Scala audience) ideas.

In a libretto and composition that is so synced between the artists, it's amazing how very wrong Dante got the action -- too many moments anticlimactic thrusts on stage. We understand that all of her ~big ideas~ were smacked down by Barenboim and Lissner, so we're actually seeing a lean, cleaned-up version of Dante's ideas. Which is exactly what's so worrying. We're guessing Dante poured so much into her gimmicks, third arms, and doppelgangers that she never properly focused on the foundation or architecture of the staging, and it showed. Nothing new here, nothing edgy, provocative or refreshing. Just a lot of misplaced misogyny, and a reading of feminist ideals that are so datedly-entrenched in the Guerrilla Girls movement of the mid 1980s. Emma Dante apparently didn’t get the memo that the women's liberation has evolved past flashing ones panties as an act of defiance.

All in all we feel bad for Dante, a women who has the same dated ideas on feminism as a woman twice her age, way past the generation gap -- who lives in a world of threat, violence, and misogyny. A director who sees a very cool, awesome, vibrant story as a way to bring out the worst qualities in a person -- everything ugly and earthbound. You hire an amateur and no matter how hard you try to polish it, in the end it's still the work of an amateur.

Rightfully so, Emma Dante was booed along with the rest of the production crew at the end of the evening.  Barenboim didn’t give a crap, and came out on the stage after the curtains had been closed with Dante, who looked like she was about to cry. Which would have been fitting, although better they’re tears of joy for such an amateur to swindle Scala into paying her big bucks for something so painfully off the mark. Here we have a woman in her 40s who has never before directed an opera in her career and bragged that she had never set foot inside la Scala. We're inclined to think that before Scala invited her, she had never actually seen an opera either.  

Comments

[francesco]

i think you have to go in sicily to understand why emma dante has this vision of things. the sicily of today is not very different from the cavalleria's one (mafia, violence, women's condition). really. her mise en scene was just a 'report' of what she sees very often. and i think it's been very corageus to engage her for this show.
finally, i think it has been a good 'prima', even if i would had preferred another micaela and another escamillo

[Paolo M.]

I was there! The animal women were scary for me also! And Barenboim is too slow, the singers must have hated that. I liked Anita and Jonas (he acts better than sing), did not like Schrot, did not like Damato. Emma Dante is intelligent and does well her theatre but is not a opera director, simple.

[G. Elliott]

What were those kkk looking people with the white robes and masks? I thought they were pretty cool looking.

[Donna Anna]

As always, a brilliant, thoughtful and concise review. Opera is fiendishly difficult to stage well and Carmen especially so, perhaps because of its familiarity. Rosa's film version comes closest to making it all work. It's not so much feminism as freedom, and that's what Carmen sings and says throughout.

[dolcevita]

right on francesco! that's the essential element that oc's totally overlooked in her attempt to uncode the carmen a la dante.

oc that last paragraph is a cheap shot, and a tad disaapointing too. she wasn't staging operas before but came up with a theatrical language which obviously disturbed many including you. why is that a problem? because you expected carsenian carmen-"meneater" (hello britney!)?
aren't we the generation who's not all hung up about sex? one click away from any sex content we might wish to see.

oh well... whatever

[-Ed.]

Yummy review, tks.

[dolcevita]

http://milano.corriere.it/milano/notizie/cronaca/09_dicembre_8/emma-dante-regia-carmen-scala-contestata-zeffirelli-1602124081571.shtml

[Bee]

I was at the Anteprima on Friday (who would want to miss that, 10 Euro to see the opera that opens the season before everyone else), and I saw it again on Classica yesterday.

As far as Emma Dante is concerned, I don't agree with your review: I loved the production to bits. I thought there were some absolutely stuning moments (the beginning of Act 2 made me nearly cry). It was like opera turned into theatre - but in a good way.

Frankly, Richard Peduzzi could have made a bit more of an effort: his sets looked a bit like Tristan's painted in brown.

I thought Anita was perfect for the role, and I am literally in love with Jonas Kaufmann (too bad he's married already). Erwin Schrott has the "physique du role", but yes, he was a bit of a disappointment.

And Barenboim is just...Barenboim. I loved how he came on stage before the beginning of the show on Friday to talk to us.

All in all, it was an excellent "Prima" for me.

[Ficus]

Hated it. Watched it on the tv and absolutely loathed it. And actually felt bad for poor OC and the others that had to suffer through the four hours of Dante's Inferno. I can't believe the rest of the shows are sold out. This was one of the worst Carmen productions I've ever seen. I'd even take a boring, traditional, fairytale over this. Barenboim played way too slow for my tastes, and I really disliked exactly what you did. The cigarette girls kicked around like animals. This is a work that's supposed to show how women can weild their power in a world of bad men, yet the women remained powerless, total victims. It was torture.

Rest well today, dear OC. After four hours of that production I feel like I need a spa day.

[walter]

I was bored stiff the whole evening. Saw and heard nothing that got me excited. Now c'mon there's got to be another answer to not inviting a glam production stage director in. What did they do before Visconti and Zeffirelli?

[Mei]

One of the "highligthts" of Dante's production was the display of two giant photographs of dead bulls while Escamillo was singing his couplets... What has to do anti-bullfighting with Carmen, is that a modern vision of Carmen? That was really childish...

[Miranda Morad]

I liked your review v much - and I think it wholly accurate, although I felt that Schrott does much more justice to Escamillo than does Ildebrando D'archangelo who we have had in London recently. But Carmen - I had to shut my eyes (watching live stream from London) in order to not let her physical perfomance detract from the singing. What were they thinking of? The costumes did Carmen no justice at all, she was pretty much the most unsexy girl on the set. And call that dancing to tra la la la? My grandmother could do better. You are so right, swishing hair in face and grabbing a fist full of skirt does not a Carmen make! Gone are the days where we can ignore all that in favour of a fab voice (and was it?)

Loving OC (first time I've ever commented but am an avid fan)

[Rogier]

This was a completely sexless production. Does rape count? A Carmen without sex? You may as well have staged a concert version. Let's hope after this season that the production is put into storage and made for firewood.

[Furst]

Ouch! Ooooh!!! We haven't read the other reviews (naturally OC is our first port of call for this sort of thing) but must say we are glad that we were prevented from catching it at the theater last night by our tickets to TTOF at the Met (we wished we had gotten these for a different night, but really, with the crappy Prima and uncompelling MNF the TOH - with Trebs on her best form - do seem to have been the best choice).

Are unfamiliar with most of the principles in this context (except for JK as DJ on the CG DVD) but did see Mr. Trebs as Escamillio at the Met and found him surprisingly disappointing in quite the manner OC describes. Strange, as he should be very well suited for the role.

[Lily]

This shows how distorting (in a good way) seeing a simulcast can be. I thought they all were in good voice, and I was impressed with Schrott in particular. Of course I had to ignore the photos of bulls all bloodied, the weird and overbearing Roman Catholic symbolism, and the wretched girls exhibiting themselves or catfighting. I hope somebody enjoyed that because I thought it was darned obvious. And the setup of a circle of items that can be easily knocked over is a lame one for a dance number (Act II). What was the director thinking?

When you keep asking yourself that, you know it's not a good production. The new Met TOH evoked similar questions in my mind.

[Linda Smith]

Yes, I agree with Lily. All of this heavy handed visual stuff distracts from the story and music. It lacks subtlety and actually prevents engagement with the work. Do we really need to have everything interpreted psychologically and sociologically for us while we are watching an opera? While I didn't see this Carmen it isn't hard to imagine it from what I've read here. I did see the new Tales of Hoffman at the Met and felt that less would have been more here also. (Like this Carmen, they threw some girl on girl action in the background in an effort to appear "radical" I suppose.)

[Thad]

If you think this production was edgy and fresh, you're living in the past. Or you don't get out much. I'm so glad there's someone who can call it like it is. Great review, OC.

[Jaime Herrera]

Well, well. This review is written confusedly but I think I understood it. I would not have liked this production - for sure. If opera productions are to be like sex, the less said the better, no? Why must everything be spelled out and made graphic? When someone loves you, they just look at you and you know it. Please!!! As Heifetz said, "don't think so much, just play!"

[Eric]

Bravo, OC! This was a brilliant, thoughtful and concise review. Thank you, OC! I think the top opera critics could learn a lesson or two from you. Well done!

[Rommie233]

OC, I just wonder: you just said the same things about why this Carmen was a little lame in the production side in the same way that I felt that Tosca was lame. CONNECTING THEME: PEDUZZI.

[Chuck Villa]

I watched the HD production at the Symphony Space in Manhattan in complete horror and astonishment. Other than the cast, chorus, orchestra and conductor. The whole thing was a festering mess. The worst production of Carmen I have ever seen. Nothing made sense. Too many things going on behind the singers that place them into oblivion. What a terrible mess! I feel sorry for Ms. Dante and all that booing but, let's face it, she richly deserved it. She should go back to the theatre and stay there.
Charles in New York City

[Woodenhouse]

@ Bee: No offense, but you're exactly the opera novice that La Scala knows they can woo and get positive votes from. These suburban kids that get excited to step into the opera house for the first time. The price? Ten euros. You know, New York's Metropolitan Opera does the same thing with open rehearsals for their opening night galas, but they're FREE!! I'm glad your 10 euros was all it took to buy your vote from them. Lucky for them that they have such a large audience of young kids to feast on.

As for this Carmen? As foolish as the old men who think it is progressive. I guess to even let a WOMAN direct an opera at La Scala is a bold enough gesture for the opera house to pat themselves on the back. Sad really when you think about it.

[cd]

"A clean-shaven Kaufmann (face & chest included) actually made the entire cast (namely the cigarette girls) look dirtier and hairier by comparison -- and when that's the case, there's a big problem. " Who says opera or the review of it cannot be Funny?

On the other hand, I do hope that Ms. Dante reads OC's review. Wether OC is right or wrong in her review, the director needs to realize how her work is received. Reading OC would teach her more than the booing. I don't think Ms. Dante has any concept of what feminism is. We just assume she should have some idea because of her age. But I say, she has none becuase of her age.

[Lily]

I watched the broadcast on arte and tried, to no avail, to figure out why the hell Micaela had grey hair (I was so bored by the production that I didn't find anything better to do to make time go by quicker). She is supposed to be 17, for God's sake! And what was this bed she was transported away after her encouter with Don Jose in the mountains?? Was she suddenly transformed into his mother, or became the symbol of latter, or what???? Does anyone have any idea?

[Lily]

Previous Lily here. I assumed the gray hair indicated that Michaela was, in effect, Jose's mother. Thus, choosing her was a sexless choice. And it did tie in with the giggle-producing "Mom's in bed dying" bit. But it also suggested that Jose hung out with the Gypsies for a long time, and Michaela turned gray waiting for him. Which I don't think is in the story, since Carmen reputedly tires of men within six months.

[Donna del Lago]

I only listened to the radio broadcast, and I'll say the Kaufmann sounded quite wonderful and passionate. Carmen sang well but a little colorless. (What's impressive to me is that a woman her age, just out of school, managed to control her nerves so well for such an event.) Mr. Netrebko (aka as Mr Schrott, to quote our OC) sounded off-pitch to me in several occasion. Micaela was a bit disappointing as well. It's true, Barenboim played it slow, but for me it was just right and very beautiful.

[Anne]

Chuck Villa, speaking of things that don't make sense- your post is one. If you thought Dante's production sucked, fine. But don't write like opera directing has ever been, gasp, better than "theatre" directing, or that the two should be really different. It is partly due to decades, hell, centuries of shitty opera directors that makes opera singers known as terrible actors, and that makes audiences constantly insist that they mainly love opera 'due to the music'.

[flipstinger]

BUMMER!!!sounds like an awful experience that is meant to be forgotten.

[Siris]

Went to a delayed telecast here in L.A. They edited out the production team boos but those for Micaela were clearly heard. Agree w/ most of you re stagings. Just wanna add that I don't really mind seeing loads of supers wandering around, but pls, have them leave the stage as soon as statements/points are made. BTW, Barenboim was so fun to watch!(He struggled more than once to get up from his high chair 'cos his coat kept getting stuck :)

[Charles]

Why is nobody complaining about the incredibly awful sound of the HDTV-broadcast on Arte? The singers sounded tantalizingly loud and obscenely close and exposed. The large orchestra however could hardly be heared at all. No blending, no idea of the Scala-acoustics, no feeling of being there. Just a pain-in-the-ear.

[freddy]

The great disaster of the production is Daniel Barenboim. His obsessive presence in nearly all italian medias (which are notoriously full of bootlickers) before the première doesn't cancel his ugly musical direction.
For his marvellous conducting of "Don Carlo" a genious like Daniele Gatti was booed last year. And now the same (?) public treats Barenboim like a prophet... O tempora, o mores!!!

[Bee]

Thank you Woodenhouse for calling me a “young kid”. It feels slightly funny, because at the age of 28 I thought I was entitled to be considered an adult...

It also feels funny to be called an “opera novice”. You for sure know much more about opera than I do, but I’d like to point out that I’ve seen some 30 opera productions in various European capitals over the past 10 years. This doesn’t make me a specialist, but not a novice either. I’m just not blasé enough to denigrate an opportunity (=the anteprima) that I find great…

“De gustibus non est disputandum”, as they say. I like to confront ideas and opinions, but only with people who show a minimum of respect towards their interlocutors.

With love,
Bee

[LIANE]

I saw the opera in a cinema and must say that in spite of a lot of things, as already said above, which did not make sense to me, I enjoyed the opera fully and it looked as if the audience in the House did the same. I agree with the comments about Anita,her voice is very strong but lacks expression and she was not very sexy or seductive at all. Kaufmann was not clean shaven, he never is, and he naturally does not have hair on his chest. I can swear to it. Not every man has. Should he have stuck some hair on just for this production? His singing and acting was superb, even Domingo who was there and gave a short interview afterwards said he is the best Don Jose at the present time. However, I believe that many of you don't want to accept him as a great singer since he happens to be German and no great tenor must be German. Isn't this a bit of racism?

[Jean]

Nice french, but I prefer this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHP0W07g3yM

Barenboim"s tempi are unbearable.

[anne marie]

god... you are so right ! boring from the beginning to the end with too many out of place symbols ... and too many poor lesbian singers and dancers ... poor emma ! may i suggest her to stop trying to impress people with her own nightmares ?
as for the main characters ... alas alas alas ... we were not more lucky having to go from a carmen without any sex appeal to a poor tasteless jose, a curious micaela and a ... well what could i say about this pale bullfighter ? nothing i am afraid !
now if carmen intented to attract young people ... i am pretty sure than none of them would have been impress and none of them would like to give some of their money to come back and see anything like what we saw this week.

[David]

Thanks for yet another insightful review. I agree 110% about Schrott...he has become increasingly disappointing over time. His recent Giovanni at the Met was abominably sloppy, hardly sung, unstylish and amateur. He has fine dramatic instincts but has forgotten that the voice must be the primary vehicle for them. His Escamillo on the broadcast was the same. Crooning, weak, poorly sung, and lacking in any nobility. I am unclear as to why this has happened. His early work in Mozart was so compelling. Is he simply riding on reputation now?

[mimoblade]

Great fun reading all these reviews. Especially the argument as to whether JK has to shave his chest or is naturally hairless. Hmmmnn. And does everyone agree that Schrott isn't living up to expectations? Shame, because we love his album which is rich and rewarding and he has utterly bedazzled us in CG a few years ago. And we feel saddened that no one is going to listen to all these reviews from those who really care and consider that Dante's cluttered and distracting production - is going to be unwelcome and foisted on us all for a few years to come. Yawn. We read somewhere that JK was not in favour of Dante either - can anyone give more of that? We find he tends to be right...

[Andrew Powell]

-- Barenboim sounds unwell in the TV interview, fidgets to be seated, and is clearly not minding his body. Just the sound of his voice is cause for concern about his health.
-- Barenboim’s slow conducting brings out textual detail but the rhythms occasionally flag, a problem rare for him. The Toreador's March lacks swagger, and B makes the wrong tempo adjustments at the end of Schrott’s first scene. Tempi verge on the somnolent in Act 3, interrupting the pulse.
-- At the curtain, it was gallant of Barenboim to support director Emma Dante, faced with boos, though in reality he deserved a slice of the disapproval.
-- Orchestra plays well.
-- Excellent singing from the two Germans, though Kaufmann was even more persuasive in London in 2006. Perhaps he was put off by the strange stage instructions.
-- Damrau spoiled her second aria by moving too much, nervously shaking her own well-produced sound. Still, the crowd had no cause to boo such a careful and generous performance. Miscasting is the fault of the caster.
-- The Carmen has a great voice, though the top may be limited.
-- Kaufmann achieved rare brilliance in Act 3.
-- Damrau and Schrott have poor French.
-- Schrott's Escamillo is small enough to be a toreador but too small vocally to fully tap the role.
-- Production is made-for-video. Vertical camera shots are inaccessible to theatergoers. The unit sets, while not as bad as some, don’t change as they should. Town walls in the mountains don't make sense. This is an industry-wide problem, of course. We could have done without the stupid elevators at the tavern.
-- Stage action is routinely distorted, yet Carmen is one of the few operas that work on their own terms when played traditionally. Lesbian streak in the action is gratuitous.
-- Spain won't like the political jab at bullfighting. The bloody close-up photo is *not* representative of the sport and should not have been permitted for the broadcast.
-- The bizarre sale of prosthetics in Act 4 presumably refers to the traditional removal of the dead bull’s ears (orejas) in bullfighting, but I doubt that 1% of the audience grasped this.

[Andrew Powell]

Damato, I mean.

[lovemypiano]

I just came home from watching the movie version and anxiously wanted to read the review before posting my own impressions. I read everyone of them and frankly shocked -- didn't anyone hear how off pitch Schrott was??? No one heard that the orchestra and the chorus got totally out of sync in the opening of Act 4?
I honestly don't give a crack if JK shaves his chest (why is that important?). And I think Anita Ravishvilli was quite good, has a great voice and a fabulous presence. But I had to close my eyes listening to Ms. Damato -- never mind her Halloween wig (WTF?), but watching her grimacing was downright painful. This Michaela was anything but a symbol of devoted innocence. She looked like she swallowed a lot of uppers. The scene with her in bed, turning into her mother was quite ridiculous too.

Yeah, those girls twisting like cats in heat -- until I read the review I thought it was some sick idea of innovative choreography... truly sick to watch, besides not very interesting either, if you want to talk something sexy and obnoxious, Broadway has better stuff along those lines. There were quite a few of those unappealing "novelties" in this production, including the bloody bull photos, UGH, I really could do without. After seeing about 15 Carmens in my life and one real corrida, it's still not for everyone and not what makes this opera great.
"The Flower Song" was the best moment of the production for me. Can't wait to see Mr Kaufmann in "Faust" at the Met this year.