Sally Potter is not the first name that springs to mind for this most romantic of operas, but even I could not have foreseen the pitiful mess of this Carmen. Yet musically it is fabulous. What on earth is going on at ENO that they can engage an agenda-driven, small-time film director to cut her theatrical teeth on such a high profile project? This production is laughable - coarse theatre at its most pretentious.

Ah, but Alice Coote. What a singer. What a voice. What a waste.

Job

See the Derby Evening Telegraph review (of all places), which has just come up on the web, which reinforces all you write. One knows in the opera game when a production threatens to be a disaster. This Carmen had that written all over it. Bargepole country. What a week for opera in London - and the dreadful Covent Garden Ring hasn't even started yet!