The notices for Carmen are in, and Damiano Michieletto’s staging, first seen at Covent Garden in 2024 and now revived by Dan Dooner on the Royal Opera House’s Main Stage, divides the critics far more over its director’s ideas than over its singers. Bizet’s opera is moved to a sun-bleached Spanish backwater in the 1970s, with Paolo Fantin’s revolving buildings, Carla Teti’s period costumes and Alessandro Carletti’s lighting, and Sesto Quatrini conducts. On one point nobody we could read in full parts company: Ginger Costa-Jackson’s Carmen is the evening’s engine, and Russell Thomas’s Don José runs her close. The argument is over Michieletto’s additions, above all the silent mother figure with her tarot card and the children brought on during the entr’actes, which The Guardian and BroadwayWorld find a distraction and All That Dazzles welcomes, while The Stage calls the whole revival underpowered.
3.8 / 5 from 6 criticsThe verdict: seven reviews in so far, six of them with a rating: one five-star notice, three at four stars and two at three, The Stage’s among them, for an average of 3.8 out of 5. The Telegraph’s review is listed below without a rating. What unites them is Ginger Costa-Jackson, whose Carmen is praised for both swagger and voice; what divides them is how much of Michieletto’s invention the opera needs, with the mother figure and the children’s interludes drawing the sharpest complaints.
What are critics saying about Carmen?
London Unattached
“Costa-Jackson Brings her Signature Swagger to Damiano Michieletto’s Carmen”
Reviewer: Dr Adrian York
Adrian York, who reviewed the production’s earlier runs, finds Costa-Jackson bringing a more contemporary edge to the role, with a warm, focused voice that has plenty of power at the top, and a performance that makes dramatic and musical sense from first to last.
“The casting of Russell Thomas as Don José was a masterstroke.”
The review also singles out Adriana González’s Micaëla and Alexander Vinogradov’s self-assured Escamillo, and reads the mother figure as the moral pole that Don José can never escape.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
“this passionate revival proves the opera’s dangerous allure is as potent as ever”
Reviewer: Emily Godwin
Emily Godwin calls Costa-Jackson a riveting, sultry Carmen and finds Thomas just as compelling as the unravelling Don José, with Fantin’s revolving set and Carletti’s lighting given particular credit for the final showdown.
“Still, this Carmen oozes confidence and brims with star casting.”
The reservations are small ones: the comic business between the acts adds little, and the old woman’s tarot card is hard to make out from beyond the first few rows.
BroadwayWorld
“Is it third time lucky for Damiano Michieletto's tragedy?”
Reviewer: Franco Milazzo
Franco Milazzo sets this staging against the house’s earlier Carmens and finds three Michieletto habits weighing it down: the revolve, the looming mother and a troupe of urchins who take over every entr’acte.
“As Carmens go, Costa-Jackson has read the assignment and gets top marks.”
The drawbacks do not outweigh the successes here: the chorus is given real personality, the duets play at close quarters on a vast stage, and the production’s final minutes land with force.
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Sam Woodward
Sam Woodward welcomes the 1970s setting and the mother figure, who doubles as a kind of Grim Reaper, as fresh ways into a familiar opera, and praises Sesto Quatrini’s conducting and the male ensemble’s singing.
“…it is difficult to take your eyes off Costa-Jackson as she explodes with a powerhouse voice and spirited performance.”
Yet the performance this review ranks highest is Adriana González’s Micaëla, brief as the role is, with Thomas’s Don José close behind.
The Guardian
“Costa-Jackson’s smouldering heroine blazes brightly”
Reviewer: Clive Paget
Clive Paget finds the move to Franco’s Spain effective but lists the production’s faults: a mother figure who is overused and too literal, a cutesy parade of children that spoils some of Bizet’s most charming music, and a revival that is rough around the edges.
“At the heart of this production is Ginger Costa-Jackson’s elemental Carmen, an emotional powder keg…”
Thomas rises to an electrifying final scene, though the spark between the pair sputters earlier, and Quatrini’s conducting grows bolder as the evening goes on.
Also reviewed by: The Stage (Alexandra Coghlan, three stars, “Light on star-power”), whose review sits behind a registration wall, and The Telegraph (“A sultry-voiced lead sets the Royal Opera’s Carmen on fire”), behind its paywall.
Best of Theatre set out the casts and dates before the run opened, in Everything you need to know about Carmen at the Royal Opera House, and the latest critics’ digest gathers the notices for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Swan Lake at Sadler’s Wells.
Carmen is booking at the Royal Opera House until Saturday 21 November 2026.
