★★★½☆ Nicole Car’s debut is one of the enjoyable highlights in a sometimes mediocre revival.

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
October 27, 2015

This revival of Francesca Zambello’s production of Bizet’s Carmen opened on October 19 in its fifth outing at Covent Garden. The evening goes down well with audiences and it is easy to slot international singers in and out of the main roles to add periodic interest. For instance Jonas Kaufmann takes over the role of Don José on November 14. There is always a difficulty with revivals that both chorus and principals give a ‘painting by numbers’ feel to the production and although there are some fine moments in this performance, the trap is not always avoided by the current cast.

Tanya McCallin’s designs owed more to Santa Fe than 19th-century Seville, but are atmospheric and allow space for obligatory grand opera spectacle. Her design is well aided by atmospheric lighting from Paule Constable. Zambello includes a lot of busy chorus work that occasionally descends into gypsy pastiche, but does its best to keep things afloat and engage the audience.

There are some committed performances amongst the principals and some good voices,...