Carmen review – Costa-Jackson’s smouldering heroine blazes brightly

Royal Opera House, London Ginger Costa-Jackson is an elemental and powerful Carmen in this revival of Damiano Michieletto’s 2024 staging that relocates the drama to Franco’s Spain Damiano Michieletto’s Carmen has plenty going for it.

The Italian director’s colourful 2024 staging, revived here for the second time already, is an effective update of a work where sexual violence can feel normalised if not handled with care. Here, it’s a subtle combination of emotional immaturity, relentless heat and habitual boredom that eventually blows the lid off the pressure cooker. With the action relocated to Franco’s Spain, the oppressive police presence and reactive societal lawlessness ring true, even if Michieletto glosses…