“Don’t be fooled. The only truly impressive aspect of this ‘Carmen’ is its Carmen: the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina...Her molten yet agile tone can be confiding one moment and extroverted the next, and she moves with magnetic naturalness onstage.”
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“ ‘Carmen’ can be bracing as well as seductive. The sparking currents of class and race are timely.”
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"In the title role, the young Russian mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina had the vocal goods—a throaty, low sound with a hint of steel—and she didn’t overplay Carmen’s seductiveness, but her performance was low energy, lacking the character’s magnetism and seeming more acted upon than acting."
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“...local audiences will probably have to live with this unilluminating ‘Carmen’ for another decade until the Met once again tries to pin down the eternally elusive gypsy.”
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“Aigul Akhmetshina made a magnetic and often caustic ‘Carmen,’ her voice equally suited to silken lightness as leathery depth...Akhmetshina also gave ‘Carmen’ a restless physicality that never cut into her singing.”
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“Akhmetshina’s lyric mezzo-soprano is full bodied, rich, and supple. Its presence and clarity enables it to carry effortlessly into the theater. She dug deeply into the depths of Carmen’s psyche”
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“This ‘Carmen’ is one of the biggest disappointments I have experienced in a long time. Given the work’s preponderance in the repertory, it feels like new productions of something like ‘Carmen’ should either stray toward a safer but strong approach or go for broke with a sharp-cutting new concept that while polarizing, is artistically clear and successful.”
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