The cats and I finished the Met Carmen. For everything that impressed me there was something that irritated me a lot, like that moronic dancing couple who danced through simulated sex during the beautiful entr'acte to Act Three. Carmen is the one opera I can think of where, just when you think you've heard every good tune, floors you with another. There's an ensemble following that wonderful card trio about how women occupy the guards while the smugglers do their thing with such surprising turns of harmony that absolutely knocks me over.
In Act Four, for the first time ever, that little moment with the flutes - after Escamillo's exit when Frasquita and Mercedes warn Carmer to be careful since they've seen Don Jose in the crowd - was absolutely heartbreaking since Carmen knows she will never see those friends again. I have never felt that before in any production. Then suddenly, after Don Jose stabs her, instead of the happy crowd leaving the bullfight to discover a murder, the scene changed to a sort of limbo! It irritated me, but I continued to be impressed by the cast.
