The role is tough.  She has to be a singer, dancer, seductress.  I imagine Carmen as beautiful and magnetic: a gypsy, a factory girl, a sorceress.  Get it right: sluttiness is not her appeal. 

Costumes
First, Carmen isn't wearing red!  What's Dat?  All of the women wear schmatas: long skirts and shawls in earth tone colors.  Carmen does carry a nice black lace, but come on.  The soldiers are in Franco green with the awkward tricorneo hat.  Not at all dashing.  Still, Escamillo is the glittering ego wearing tights and short beaded vests that would make a drag queen blush.

The scenery is uniform in tall blocky brick facades that rotate for changes.  A Decaying guard station at cigarette factory.  A Decaying Tavern.  A Decaying mountain retreat.  A Decaying bull ring. 

The logo of the show is a black screen with a red slash across, a little Hollywod.

Scene 1 is an idyllic village scene, with soldiers commenting on the passers-by.  Except the scenery pushes the players to the front of stage, leaving no room for any passers-by.  One of the appeals of the Met is this people watching aspect, so I'm satisfied to watch the audience when the director forgets to put extras on the stage.

I always love the crowd of children urchins, first following the changing guard, then in a mocked bull fight during Escamillo's visit.

Don Jose is a confused guy, with out-of-control emotions.  I prescribe Zanax.

My seat is orchestra, three rows under the mezzanine.  A mistake.  Even that small overhang takes the crispness out of the bells and trumpets.  I feel like I'm listening through a layer of cloth.

Micaela has the best voice in the crew.  Instead of the blue peasant dress, she's wearing a 50's wool skirt.

This was a dark take on Carmen.  The libretto justifies that darkness:  no one is a bit better off at the end of the action.  But the music is irresistibly uplifting and even in a bleak presentation, undeniable.