Carreras' performance was amazing. It was thrilling to see him acting and singing live. (I had only seen him singing in concerts before) The big Act 1 aria, 'The Bear's Song' was a revelation - simultaneously spooky and charming. I was amazed at how graceful and uninhibited he was as he danced like the bear. The spotlights cast enormous shadows of him against the backdrop as he performed a mini-opera inside and opera. He became the bear. He also did some amazing things with his voice (Sorry, I can't stop using that word). Sometimes, when you weren't expecting it he would use that beautiful mezza voce that resonated all over the opera house. It was almost unworldly and made you feel as if you were hearing it with your body rather than your ears.

I have to say that Marta Domingo's direction left a lot to be desired, especially in the first and third acts. There were way too many people milling around in the first act tavern scene and some of them were randomly prancing about to no particular effect which was quite distracting. The 'blocking' was not at all skillful. The drunken poet should have been the focus of the staging. Instead, he often tended to be lost visually - fortunately the power of Carreras' voice meant that he wasn't ever lost vocally. But a live opera performance needs to be a fusion of visual and vocal impact. It's the director's job to make sure that happens. The second act was much better laid out except for some rather aimless dancing again. (Does Domingo have a relative who is a choreographer?) In the third act, Marta decided to add a Tinkerbell-like figure (she was supposed to be 'The Angel of Death') who was dancing around behind Carreras. This is unfortunately becoming a particularly pointless cliche. I've seen a couple of operas at Covent Garden, where in the most moving part of the opera, a figure which is supposed to be the singer's spirit, alter ego, thoughts (whatever!) prances about and mimes their 'inner emotions'. It is very distracting and almost invariably silly. Surely the director can trust the audience to hear these things in the music and in the singer's voice. Especially in a voice like Carreras'.

It was he and he alone who made the Act 3 death scene so compelling. He had quite a long hard 'sing' in that act and it was very moving. I didn't want that scene to end. But it did. The curtain fell and the audience applauded long and loud. The applause at the end of an opera breaks the spell and tells us it's time to return to 'real life', but I will never forget the spell that was cast over me that night.