Carmen

Published Wednesday 26 March 2008 at 11:15 by Edward Bhesania

Receiving its first revival since opening in 2006/7, Francesca Zambello’s Carmen for the Royal Opera remains something of a mixed bag.

Although on first night Marcelo Alvarez (Don Jose) was singing through a cold, he actually became increasingly comfortable, so that by the time of his Act II Flower Song, this gushing expression of love for Carmen was intoxicatingly impassioned. He also affectingly portrays an obsession with Carmen that leads uncontrollably to his ruin. But, although Spanish mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera sings with gamey richness, she doesn’t quite convince us of Carmen’s infallible seductiveness, or of her hell-bent protection of her cherished freedom. Susan Gritton sings Micaela with a well-judged combination of tender innocence and later, touching bravery but, at 40-something, she inevitably fails to look the part of Don Jose’s 17-year-old would-be fiancee. American Kyle Ketelsen is vocally attractive in the role of the triumphant toreador Escamillo and he commands the stage well, but his approach is over-smooth, whereas a rather brasher Latino machismo is required.

Zambello manages to weave the real animals - a pony and a horse - onto the stage without them stealing the scenes, and the multilayered activity in the Square unfolds naturally. What works less well are Tanya McCallin’s bland ochre wall designs, which return, reconfigured, in Act II and Act III.

Israeli conductor Daniel Oren seems more preoccupied with speed than detail, though he recreates the score with some excitement. This is certainly an enjoyable Carmen overall, but not perhaps a thrilling one.