Spain Bizet, Carmen: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Real / Eun Sun Kim (conductor). Teatro Real, Madrid, 10.12.2025. (JMI)
The Teatro Real opera season continues with a new production of this popular opera which is always a crowd-pleaser, as evidenced by the high demand at the box office. However, it must be said that the performance of Carmen which I attended was not impressive. One always hopes for more musical and vocal brilliance than what was offered in this premiere, which only reached that high level in the final act.
Damiano Michieletto’s staging (a co-production with London’s Covent Garden and Milan’s La Scala) sets Carmen in contemporary Spain where sexuality takes center stage. The set design is almost identical for all four acts: a large, open space with a small building. In the first act, the building is the police station, and in Act II, it is Lillas Pastias’s establishment. This appears to be a roadside brothel where Carmen and her friends, Frasquita and Mercédès, also work. I wonder what a bullfighter like Escamillo is doing visiting this kind of establishment in the present day?
In the third act, the small house becomes a smugglers’ warehouse, while in Act IV, the bullfighters stop and dress there for the corrida. Some details caught my attention, such as the omission of the changing of the guard in the first act, and I did not expect Lillas Pastias to be running a brothel. On a positive note, the addition of Carmen’s mother to the stage is worth mentioning.
The musical direction was entrusted to conductor Eun Sun Kim, who was back at Teatro Real after a fifteen-year absence. She is one of the most outstanding conductors of our time, and much could have been expected from her in the pit of Teatro Real. However, her interpretation was disappointing. She accompanied the singers well, but one asks for more from a conductor so highly praised for her performances in major theaters. There was no emotion in her reading.
Carmen was sung by mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, one of the most remarkable performers of Carmen in our time. Her stage presence was notable, but I anticipated more from her vocally. She was at her best in the final act in her scene with Don José. Like other singers in this production, her vocal volume seemed adequate or insufficient depending upon whether she was singing inside or outside the little house. When indoors, her voice sounded much better.
Tenor Charles Castronovo in the role of Don José was unconvincing. There was an excess of nasal sounds in his voice, and he did not seem very comfortable in the high notes. He sang correctly, but there was no brilliance, and his highly anticipated aria, ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’, passed by without leaving much of an impression. His best moment came in final Act IV duet where he showed some emotion in his singing.
In the role of Escamillo, Lucas Meachem offered a solid voice and a correct interpretation, but not one that will go down in history, as is the case with so many interpreters of the bullfighter. Micaëla was sung by soprano Adriana González, who was a compelling performer and excellent in her Act III aria, where she offered exquisite pianissimos and received the biggest applause of the whole opera.
The secondary roles were handled well, particularly in the case of tenor Mikeldi Atxalandabaso as Le Remendado
José M. Irurzun
Featured Image: Teatro Real’s Carmen Act I © J. del Real
Production:
Director – Damiano Michieletto
Sets – Paolo Fantin
Costumes – Carla Teti
Lighting – Alessandro Carletti
Chorus director – José Luis Basso
Cast:
Carmen – Aigul Akhmetshina
Don José – Charles Castronovo
Micaëla – Adriana González
Escamillo – Lucas Meachem
Mercédès – Marie Claude Chappuis
Frasquita – Natalia Labourdette
Le Dancaïre – Lluis Calvet
Le Remendado – Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Zuniga – David Lagares
Moralès – Toni Marsol