London - Arabstoday
Following last year’s Carmen, London’s Royal Opera House brings another of its live stage productions to 3D screens. Puccini’s impassioned score can’t breathe life into the dated tragedy of a Japanese geisha (Liping Zhang) given the run-around by the American naval officer (James Valenti) to whom she’s naively devoted. Close-up intimacy dents credibility rather than increases emotional impact, given Zhang is decidedly longer in the tooth than the 15-year-old she plays. Meanwhile, the Oriental-style set’s flat minimalism works against the redundant 3D format.