Carmen Reviews

Chicago Reader - Not Recommended

"...Scarlett's Carmen, in its U.S. premiere at the Joffrey, is a rape fantasy, with just enough resistance to make for a heavily staged and overly long fight. The unimaginatively literal images of sexual harassment and abuse that occur throughout can't pass for entertainment in the best of times. In a political climate where rapists not only run free but hold office despite the testimony of survivors who have been abused in this and countless other contexts, it's thoroughly in poor taste."

Buzz Center Stage - Highly Recommended

"...If you are one that finds ballet boring, you haven’t been to Joffrey Ballet. Kicking off their 70th season with Carmen, Joffrey once again proves it’s the ballet company for adults. Hot off the heels of his 2023 production of ‘Frankenstein’, Liam Scarlett returns to Chicago with his US premiere of Carmen."

PicksInSix - Highly Recommended

"...The Joffrey Ballet kicks off its 70th anniversary season by drenching the Lyric Opera Grand Foyer in crimson red, preparing the evening's audience for a night of passion, desire, and tragedy. Liam Scarlett’s “Carmen” is adapted from Bizet’s 1875 opera “Carmen” with libretto inspired by the 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée. Scarlett’s “Carmen” was originally commissioned and performed in 2015 at the Norwegian National Ballet and now receives its U.S. Premiere with the Joffrey Ballet at the Lyric Opera House."

BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended

"...Ballet and opera devotees will appreciate this work for its magnificent combining of the two genres. Do not be afraid of ballet. Do not be afraid of opera. This production combines the best of both and the outcome should be seen and heard in all its splendor."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...The Joffrey Ballet kicked off its seventieth-anniversary season with a total smokeshow. "Carmen," Liam Scarlett's adaptation of the Georges Bizet opera playing through September 28 at the Lyric Opera House, is heady with longing, seduction, sexually charged choreography and, in the first act, a whole lot of honest-to-God smoke. Fair enough-the story does open in a cigarette factory. Scarlett places the tale in 1930s Spain at the brink of the civil war, and the sultry title character and other working women of Seville toil under military supervision."