(Above: Olga Borodina as Carmen with Marcelo Álvarez as Don José in Bizet's Carmen @ the NYC Met Opera, February, 2008)
Steve Smith for The New York Times reviews the Metropolitan Opera's current run of Carmen, where a renegade donkey provided a bit of comic relief:
"As Micaëla, the soprano Maija Kovalevska confirmed the promise she showed in Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” last season. She had the requisite sweetness of voice and manner for the role, but demonstrated plenty of backbone in her Act III confrontation with Don José. (Her first few lines of the evening, alas, were covered by audience laughter after a donkey heeded nature’s call onstage — an occupational hazard in a Zeffirelli production.)"
We like that donkey's style. What a jacka$$. I hope some agent scoops up that rising star. One of the cigarette factory girls probably made the donkey smoke a rolled cigarette in an opening night hazing ritual, and he couldn't handle the nicotine. If I was a stagehand I'd be like heyll naw I ain't even tryin to hear that right now.