Oscar Hammerstein's 1943 musical ought to feel like Bizet's opera and more: so much of the original music remains that opera fans will barely notice the difference, and his updating of the setting to 20th-century America seems to result in more dialogue rather than less. Oddly, it is also more wholesome. It is wartime, and Carmen now makes parachutes for a living, which is a lot less sexy than making cigarettes - though in Jude Kelly's staging, she is in the habit of putting on her knickers only when she arrives at the factory. Bizet's glamorous bullfighter Escamillo becomes the boxer Husky Miller; instead of decamping to a smugglers' lair in the mountains, they head to Chicago. Soldiers treat their gals to boxes of marshmallow fudge. Few of Hammerstein's gentle jokes hit home even when we can hear them, though the amplification is better than for Sweeney Todd here earlier this month.
This is the show that Kelly has gambled on to fill the Festival Hall for the summer. Her production makes for an enjoyable evening, though it barely seems worth resurrecting the musical rather than commissioning a new translation of the opera. Do you really need a designated black-cast piece in order to showcase black talent?
You do need a top-class orchestra, and with the London Philharmonic alternating with the Philharmonia, and sounding buoyant under John Rigby, that base is well covered. The players are sunk into the centre of the stage, the action taking place fluidly around them in front and on top of Michael Vale's ramshackle colonial buildings. The slow-motion boxing match behind Carmen and Joe's final confrontation works especially well.
Tsakane Valentine Maswanganyi's Carmen prowls around with magnetic grace, but vocally comes up short, with an obvious break between her lower voice and a more operatic-sounding top, and an accent that wanders all over the place. Tenor Andrew Clarke sounds plummy as poor naive Joe, but Rodney Clarke booms out a charismatic Husky Miller. Best of all is Sherry Boone as faithful Cindy Lou, who alone sings every word as if she means it.
The one moment you know you are in the musical rather than the opera is in Beat Out Dat Rhythm On a Drum, magnificently belted out here by Brenda Edwards and riotously choreographed by Rafael Bonachela, when Bizet's Gypsy dance whirls into a stomping percussion break. Strange that in a performance full of name-that-tune moments, it should be the nearest thing to a showstopper.
· Until September 2. Box office: 0871 663 2500.
