**
A fling or a future? The romantic twain are so easily muddled you'd think they'd be on the National Curriculum. As they're not, we have operas and ballets like Carmen, which remind us of the frequent mis-meeting of lust and love.
Carmen provides the concision life lacks, and tunes so good they're part of our melodic DNA. That's if you're lucky. If you're not, you get stamping and wailing, and the sort of Hispanic sulks that have you banning all things frilled and fringed.
CompañÃa Metros' modern-day Carmen isn't quite this bad, indeed, bits of the small-scale show are quite good. The roofscape set cleverly evokes the hot and dusty urban night, and makes you feel on-a-level with Carmen's (Sandrine Rouet) catlike prowl.
Individual performances are strong, such as Carmen's solo when she inflects her moves with a curvature of affection for José (Javier GarcÃa) The Bullfighter (Rubén Olmo) is also pulled-up appealing, and the "José hates me" solo from Micaela (Joana Rañé) is poignantly forlorn.
However, the music is a flat recording of Bizet's score, and the choreography is thin with little depth to its supposedly unique mix of flamenco and contemporary moves.
And since choreographerdirector Ramón Oller has stripped out much of the dramatic detail, we feel little theatrical unease.
The problem, you suspect, is that he's confused his contemporary setting with modern-day morals. Oller can't bring himself to damn a 2006 Carmen with three or 10 lovers, even if she treats them badly. The bloke who gets jealous should get over it, as should his old girlfriend.
Oller's moral hesitation may reflect our own, but he should nail us where we are weak. Emotional flippancy brings misery, and we are as damned as Carmen when we forget it.
Until 24 June. Information: 0870 737 7737.
Compania Metros: Carmen
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