Carmencita

With a setting which represented plastically, with various unexpected levels and slopes, a Spanish interior the like of which has yet to be seen in Spain, the Nemirovitch--Dantchenko Moscow opera troupe (TIME, Jan. 11) presented last week their version of Merimee's Carmen with a totally new Russian libretto and a totally new arrangement of the Bizet score.

It was again evident that M. Nemirovitch--Dantchenko's "singing actors" act much better than they sing. From a purely auditory viewpoint the performance was scarcely more than worth attending. The eye, however, was caught, held and delighted by the perfect ensemble pantomime of the chorus, which lolled and sat about at various levels throughout most of the production, and provided a sort of "visual accompaniment" to the action which centred about the main characters.

Old guard operagoers moaned, "Bizet's score has been hacked, dismembered, jumbled." The rising generation nailed the piece as "Merimee synthesized through Nietzsche"--whatever they meant by that.