Carmen in hi-def

If you are okay with the concept of Carmen as a six-foot-tall, blue-eyed northerner with dimples, Elīna Garanča has just redefined the role of Bizet’s eponymous gypsy. In the Met Opera’s high-definition telecast on Saturday, you could practically see the steam rising from her. When the cigarette girls emerge from their factory—oddly situated in a hole in the ground—they are sweating from their labors. Garanča raises the ante by taking a wet rag, reaching past her breasts, and mopping her armpits. Later, after the knife fight with a colleague, it transpires that she’s been cut on the thigh, and she uses what is presumably the same rag to clean the wound and of course to flaunt the thigh to Roberto Alagna’s corporal. Then she throws the rag to the ground in front of him. He picks it up, clasps it to him, and all but inhales it. I was reminded of the scene from A Fish Called Wanda, in which Kevin Kline rouses his animal spirits by inhaling deeply from his armpits before leaping into bed with Jamie Lee Curtiss.

The only downside of broadcasting the opera into movie theaters is that sometimes the audience brings its television manners to the performance. I hadn’t noticed this in my earlier forays to the Showcase Cinema, but Saturday afternoon I had chattering ladies to my left and a hectoring European behind me, two sets of running commentaries. May they choke on their popcorn. Blue skies! – Dan Ford