Sung in French, with English Met titles. There is no cigarette factory.
Tiny buildings roll in on platforms from the wings.
It's hard for Carmen to seduce Jose if she keeps bumping into the walls. Nothing scares Denyce Graves' Carmen, not even Don Jose grabbing her by the hair or putting a knife to her throat. A free spirit who leaves a wake of destruction through southern Spain, Graves' Carmen is an unforgettable theatrical performer whose presence drowns out Zeffirelli's circus atmosphere. Blazing tempos may give the illusion of exciting musical theater, but they aren't what Bizet wrote. Worse yet, much of the subsidiary characters and finer plot points of this great drama are simply cut.