FROM the opening notes of the overture to Bizet’s Carmen, a sense of expectation takes over and there is that gut feeling that you are about to experience something great.

At the end of Saturday’s Metropolitan Opera production of the popular work, one was pleased that it indeed lived up to, and may have even surpassed expectations.

A small but appreciative audience gathered inside the Carib in St Andrew for another in the Live in HD series, organised by The Met in New York.

What unfolded on screen was three-and-a-half hours of lush voices complemented by superb musical arrangement of the centuries-old work by the celebrated French composer. This was the third instalment for the 2014-2015 season following Macbeth and Le nozze di Figaro.

Carmen follows the wiles of a temptress who, although being the first to admit to suitors that she isn’t one to fall for, has a string of men in pursuit of her hand. Her latest suitor is a young soldier Don Jose (Aleksandrs Antonenko) who falls head over heels for the seductress and is even convinced to desert the army for the woman he loves. As with all great stories, there are plots and sub-plots, twists, turns, a steamy melodrama and, at the end of the story, there is a body on the stage.

Being a popular opera, the cast of Carmen were challenged with making it new and fresh for a 2014 audience, and that they achieved.

The star of the production is in every way is the title character brought to life by the ravishing Anita Rachvelishvili.

This talented mezzo brings a va va voom to the character and truly embodies the Spanish gypsy. She lives up to her own admission that she is a Carmen. Her rich vocals take her audience even deeper into the character and blur the lines of where Anita ends and Carmen begins.

She is on point with the popular aria Habanera, which she also admits that she hates as she finds it is really difficult. The Georgian-born singer, who started out in jazz and discovered opera at age 19, showed no sign of hating the piece and she gave it the drama required to bring across the message.

One could not help but draw parallels with Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones, which starred the flawless Dorothy Dandridge. Rachvelishvili takes the prize in the match-up with Dandridge as she oozes sexuality whereas Dandridge’s sex appeal is much more understated.

The Met must be commended for it sets this season. The work put in by the opera company on productions such as Aida is legendary, but this season each production stage so far as part of the Live in HD series has had a wow factor, and Carmen was no different.

The giant ruins of war-ravaged Seville in Spain have been recaptured with incredible attention to detail. The art direction is also noteworthy. When red heart-shaped confetti float across the stage during that final dramatic scene involving Carmen and Don Jose, it is pure magic.

The Live in HD series continues on November 22 with the staging of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The Encore performance of Carmen takes place at Palace Cineplex in St Andrew next Sunday.

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