Bizet, Georges

The Metropolitan Opera Moves Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ to America

Starring a magnetic Aigul Akhmetshina, Carrie Cracknell’s lethargic staging updates Bizet’s opera to present-day America.

By Zachary Woolfe

Beczala, Piotr (1966- ) Bizet, Georges Blue, Angel Carmen (Opera) Cracknell, Carrie Metropolitan Opera Opera Theater

Murder Most Unromantic in a New ‘Carmen’ at the Metropolitan Opera

The British director Carrie Cracknell’s production, opening on New Year’s Eve, resists the idea that the opera’s climactic scene is a crime of passion.

By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim