Carmen NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (29)
See it if You enjoy opera, and especially new interpretations of old works. Besides that, the music is magnificent in any interpretation.
Don't see it if You wouldn’t enjoy a new and edgy look; prefer classical interpretations, fancy costumes and heavy sets. The stage design was fantastic but Read more
See it if you like “Toreador” and other great songs from Carmen, and are interested in seeing it staged with a very well-thought contemporary style.
Don't see it if you want to see gypsies and a Spanish, traditional staging. The soul Carmen is there in this production with an electrifying interpreter
See it if The critics were a bit harsh … this is Carmen
Don't see it if Looking for Seville … not in this production
See it if You love great music and a fresh, less stereotypical take on a classic. Also has spectacular sets and "wheels in motion" in acts 2&3.
Don't see it if You have a very specific notion of what Carmen should look like.
See it if Carmen is a must for all opera fans, at any level. Bizet!
Don't see it if not an opera fan
See it if you're looking for a different take on a classic (current-day US border town, rodeo instead of bullfighting etc) led by a charismatic Carmen
Don't see it if you can't stand directorial reinterpretation that don't add or deepen our understanding of the opera, but there are many parts that do work.
See it if The woman playing Carmen is maybe the best performer I've ever seen at the Met. The music is iconic and you WILL leave humming it.
Don't see it if They changed the setting to the Mexico border, which doesn't add anything to it, IMO. But neither does it detract; it's still Carmen. Read more
See it if a high-concept CARMEN set in 20th-21st C. border town highway culture appeals.
Don't see it if that's not your thing. Read more
Critic Reviews (7)
“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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