The production team behind Bizet’s "Carmen" at the Metropolitan Opera has demanded their names be stripped from programmes. This follows a dispute over the company’s decision to bring back sets from a retired 2009 version of the opera.
Director Carrie Cracknell’s staging, her Met debut on 31 December 2023, controversially relocated the action from 19th-century Seville, Spain, to a modern American industrial town. In this interpretation, Escamillo was reimagined as a rodeo star, not a bullfighter.
The original production featured Escamillo making a grand entrance in a red Jaguar convertible, traversing the stage for his famous Toreador’s Song. He was accompanied by an entourage in three pickup trucks, all vehicles guided by computer-controlled wires.
In the restaging decision, the Jaguar and two trucks were eliminated. Escamillo walked in with his followers, some pushing a motorcycle. One of the pickup trucks from the original staging was kept, in a stationary position throughout the act.
“We were furious,” set designer Michael Levine said. “I didn’t want my name attached to the production because it’s not a representation of the original artistic intent. … I’ve never come across anything on this level where they literally change the basic concept.”
Levine said the Met's assistant general manager for production notified him of the change last fall, just ahead of the Oct. 28 opening.
“I get a phone call from John Sellars saying: We’re in terrible financial straits and we have to make cuts to the opera. We are going to cut the automation of the trucks,” Levine said.
Levine and Cracknell attempted to find a solution such as putting the cars on the stage turntable but said the Met wasn’t willing to negotiate. Levine said his contract specified changes could not be made after opening night and he removed his name. Levine said the Met then gave the rest of the production team one day to decide whether they would follow suit.
Cracknell, Tom Scutt (costumes), Guy Hoare (lighting), rocafilm/Roland Horvath (projections) and Ann Yee (choreography) also asked their names to be dropped. After the names of the conductor and chorus master, the only person listed in programs was revival stage director Melanie Bacaling, who was an assistant stage director when the production premiered, followed by several inches of white space.
Met cites economic reasons
“It was really an economic decision,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said of the change. “We decided it was incredibly expensive to run, and it was not particularly effective. We decided to cut it.”
Gelb said the savings was more than $300,000.
On Tuesday, Gelb announced 22 layoffs to the Met's administrative staff of 284, 4-15% temporary salary cuts and the reduction next season by one opera to 17. The moves are projected to save $15 million this fiscal year and $25 million in 2026-27.
Cracknell’s production runs through Friday, the 30th performance over two seasons. Through her management agency, she referred a question to Levine.
A person familiar with the Met’s planning, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made, said the company intends in a future year to bring back Richard Eyre’s production. That staging premiered Dec. 31, 2009, and ran for 79 performances over six seasons through 2019.
Cracknell, 45, received a Tony nomination for “Seawall/A Life” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and an Olivier nomination for Berg’s “Wozzeck” at the English National Opera.
Levine, 65, has designed the sets of a half-dozen Met productions, including praised stagings of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” by Robert Carsen and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” by Anthony Minghella.
The Met could not remember a previous instance of a retired production returning.
The most recent similar dispute came after Graham Vick’s production of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” was met with laughter at dramatic moments and then booed on opening night in December 2000. The Met restaged it by the third performance, and Vick and his production team withdrew their names for the 2002-03 revival. It appeared just 28 times over two seasons and was replaced by a David McVicar staging in 2009.
Levine is slated to be back at the Met next season when Claus Guth directs Leoš Janáček’s “Jenůfa,” a staging that has appeared at London’s Royal Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago,
“Now, of course, I don’t trust the Met,” Levine said.
Gelb hopes to repair the relationship.
“I consider Michael to be one of the greatest designers in the world,” he said. “We’re very proud to have had many of his great designs on our stage.”
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