Carmen – English National Opera – Gringyte, Cutler, Melrose, Dennis, Lois – June 14th 2015

Calixto Bietio’s interpretative decisions usually upset either sensibilities or preconceptions. I for one greatly enjoy his bizarre tamperings and excursions into opera. It may be Regie, but it is intelligent regie. More than any other director, Bieito’s choices always refract the modern world through opera’s lens: no mean feat for works that might be hundreds of years old.  Which is why this staging of Carmen was surprising: it wasn’t greatly upsetting or contentious.