Review: Opening of updated 'Carmen' at San Francisco Opera packed more visual than vocal punch
The production marks the U.S. premiere of Calixto Bieito's bold 1999 staging of Bizet's 'Carmen.' He has set the action in post-Franco Spain, cut much of the dialogue and created indelible pictures of a frontier society beset by hardship, cruelty and sexual violence. At Friday's opening, Irene Roberts played the title role, and Brian Jagde played Don José.