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Ruth Alfie Adams as Don José's mother with Olga Kulchynska as Micaëla | Photo: Camilla Greenwell 

Bizet’s Carmen is one of the most challenging roles in the repertoire. The lead must be simultaneously bold and fragile, determined and seductive, all while dealing with such a brisk libretto that she is given mere minutes to convince the audience that she is capable of making a police officer turn to a life of crime for her. On top of that, anyone tasked with playing Carmen has to put their own stamp on well-worn and instantly familiar melodies. It’s quite a feat to do something new with the ‘Habanera’. 

All this makes Aigul Akhmetshina’s success at bringing something fresh to the role all the more impressive. Currently performing in Damiano Michieletto’s production at the Royal Opera House, Akhmetshina’s Carmen is not a tragic figure buffeted by fate, but a complex, self-possessed and self-assured woman who knows what she wants, and is unafraid to stand up to a society that doesn’t understand her. The timbral range of Akhmetshina’s voice is extraordinary. She flows seamlessly between a rich mellow tone and a far more harsh, forbidding sound, giving Carmen a vocal unpredictability that perfectly suits her chimerical character. And Akhmetshina’s vocal excellence is matched by her acting. She has a mesmerising stage presence. Completely at ease and commanding throughout, Akhmetshina makes Carmen a well-rounded, believable character, balancing authority with brief moments of vulnerability. 

Aigul Akhmetshina as Carmen in Damiano Michieletto’s production at the Royal Opera House | Photo: Camilla Greenwell

It’s not just Carmen who has received an overhaul. Given a roughly contemporary setting, all romance has been stripped from the opera. Characters fall in lust but not in love, in a landscape where sex and violence are ubiquitous. Paolo Fantin’s stark sets remain relatively consistent across all four acts, with the stage divided into an outdoor space and one small room. There’s variation in the room’s interior design to transform it into a police office, nightclub, lean-to smuggling den and dressing room, but the continuous two-element design generates a sense of claustrophobic stasis. No wonder Carmen feels trapped in this environment. Much of the mood changes are left to Alessandro Carletti’s excellent lighting design. Spotlights isolate individuals, colour changes create the effect of time passing over a barren world, and a moving rig emphasises the violence of Carmen’s murder. 

Perhaps the most significant dramatic change, however, is the transformation of Don José’s mother. Usually an off-stage character whose intentions are voiced by Micaëla, Don José’s sweetheart, here the mother is brought onstage as a ghostly presence haunting her son. It has the effect of infantilising Don José, sung with conviction by Piotr Beczala – he cannot move on from the voice of his childhood, and vacillates childishly seemingly waiting for his mother’s approval. In comparison to the forthright Carmen, the Don José concocted here is impressively pathetic. He moons over Carmen, following about in her shadow, unable to keep up with her more forceful personality. His outbursts when he doesn’t get his own way feel like petulant tantrums. It turns Carmen from a cautionary tale about the femme fatale to a commentary on toxic masculinity. Carmen does not die because she has to – she is murdered, senselessly, because she has the audacity to say no to a man who believes she owes him a yes.  

The cast of Carmen at the Royal Opera House | Photo: Camilla Greenwell

There is much to recommend in this production. The orchestra under Antonello Manacorda could have been more vibrant in places, and the ensemble scenes might perhaps have benefitted from variation in on-stage heights to give more space and depth, but these are minor quibbles in an otherwise stellar production with an exceptional cast. Olga Kulchynska outshines her role as Micaëla, more than matching Akhmetshina in vocal and acting prowess. She portrays Micaëla as an earnest and pious woman undeterred by Don José’s apathy towards her, and her Act III aria was one of the night’s highlights, drawing every possible nuance out of the score. Among the supporting cast, Pierre Doyen, Vincent Ordonneau, Sarah Dufresne and Gabrielè Kupšytė in particular provide superb performances as the smugglers and Carmen’s friends. By removing the opera’s glamour and transforming it into a tightly-focused drama about individual agency in a hostile society and women’s navigation of patriarchal violence, Michieletto and his team have created a perfect twenty-first century Carmen. 

Carmen is at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Until 31 May | www.roh.org.uk