Carmen May Seriously Damage Your Health…

Anthony Holden in The Observer:

Carmen is back at Covent Garden for the first time since last summer’s Orwellian smoking ban and I’m delighted to report that the Royal Opera has taken not the slightest notice. If there’s any opera in which onstage smoking should be mandatory, this is it. Cigarette girls and soldiers alike all puff their heads off during the first act, to the point where the fumes drift gratifyingly into mid-stalls. And, even better, there are none of those ludicrous health-and-safety signs out front, as, for instance, at the Old Vic, to warn us of the perils of entering a smoke-stained auditorium.

Of course in plucky Scotland this production would be shut down by zealous council officials. The smoking ban in Scotland is so absurd that even smoking herbal cigarettes on stage is prohibited, presumably lest this too persuade impressionable audiences to take up the noble habit. Such is life in brave new Scotland.