What a real shame. It is very unusual to be criticising a production of Bizet's masterpiece 'Carmen', but too much here didn't work more than it did. English National Opera have disappointed a lot lately, and their 'Carmen' is one of the worst cases.
It is not unwatchable by all means. Eleanor Dennis is a very poignant Micaela, actually making much of little. Director Calixto Bieito does do little to make a notoriously passive character interesting, but Dennis gives the production the heart, emotional impact and passion that it is sorely lacking in in so many areas. Rian Lois and Clare Preland clearly relish the roles of Carmen's friends Frasquita and Mercedes, and Leigh Melrose's Escamillo is charismatic and the very meaning of the "I'm here, look at me" star matador with a warmly sung and vigorously acted rendition of the famous Toreador Song.
The orchestra also play the score with passionate power, vigorous energy and aching nuances, again something that is lacking in the staging and a few of the performances. Richard Armstrong gives a very disciplined (having worked with him briefly when he conducted rehearsals of the conservatoire's Verdi Requiem before walking out on us and being replaced by Barry Wordsworth, he is very particular and disciplined) but also alert, musical and energetic reading as conductor.
However, Justina Gringyte sings gorgeously and seductively, but this sensuality does not translate in her acting which is too cold, despite moments of flirtation and seductiveness, and too much of a victim, which is the complete opposite of what Carmen really is (she is a temptress who drives Don Jose to commit the actions that he does, characterising her as a victim completely undermines the final act and renders what happens senseless).
Eric Cutler has clearly grown since being introduced in the Met's 'I Puritani', the voice is notably less strained even in a heavier role, has more ring, bloom and freshness. He also gets the sympathetic side of Don Jose right in the first two acts, but doesn't quite convince when the character hardens in the last two, at times too sympathetic and sometimes too much of a brute. The rest of the roles were not particularly memorable.
Visually, it is all dismal dark and gloom with no sense whatsoever of sunny Seville/Spain. In fact, setting, place and time period are impossible to determine here. What dooms the production is Calixto Bieito's staging. Having been familiar with other Bieito productions, with his 'Wozzeck' having its moments but lots of puzzlement and his Liceu 'Don Giovanni' (its critical panning and booing being totally justified) is a travesty, one knew what to expect.
However, passion is replaced by excessive and very much gratuitous overuse of vulgarity, considering that 'Carmen' is one of the most passionate operas ever written that is an enormous problem, and there are so many touches that not just distract from the drama but confuses it and renders the very linear drama without any kind of sense. The usually very powerful final act with one of the most dramatically intense endings in all of operas, has all the emotion, let alone passion and intensity, of a damp squib, that's how underwhelming it was.
All in all, English National Opera disappoints again in a vulgar and dramatically half-cooked 'Carmen'. 4/10 Bethany Cox
