New York Magazine

“The Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča is the most convincing Carmen in a long time, and not just because of the way she hikes her skirts to stroke a naked thigh.… Today, we can read [Carmen] as a guerrilla in the gender wars, a martyr to personal freedom, a narcissistic virago, or just a self-destructive vamp. Garanča chooses all of the above, mixing stereotypes with a dab of nonchalant cruelty. Onstage, though, musical choices merge with an acting strategy: Garanča delivers a hot performance of a cold character, a Carmen who doesn’t seduce Don José so much as kick him into her world and then carelessly toss him out. She is a virtuoso of indifference.”

 

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