Akhmetshina was complemented superbly by conductor Daniele Rustioni and the Met orchestra, who justly received the kind of warm applause for the Entr’acte, the sweet-melancholy piece for flute and orchestra that precedes Act 3, that the Met audience usually reserves for a touching aria from a singer.

“It was also a fine night for conductor Daniele Rustioni and the Met orchestra, who made the score sound as good as it is, as did the Met chorus.”

Akhmetshina’s superb vocal achievement was greatly helped by Daniele Rustioni’s robust yet nuanced conducting of the Met orchestra in top form and both the adult and children’s choruses performing splendidly.

Daniele Rustioni’s vivacious and clarifying conducting showed Bizet’s score off to best advantage, and everything moved at pleasant clip, zippy but not rushed.

Aigul Akhmetshina leads powerhouse cast in the Met’s contemporary new Carmen “The Met Orchestra played brilliantly for Daniele Rustioni.

Daniele Rustioni ensured cast, chorus and orchestra remained on track. In the overture I was struck by the freshness and vitality of the rhythms and Rustioni’s eye for detail.

“Rustioni and his forces did far greater justice to the opera. The prelude to Act iii was lovely. And the maestro did something I had never seen before.”

Rustioni drew particular tartness from the flutes and strings, and whipped up a wild, windblown energy across the orchestra that lent the whole score a refreshing vivacity…

At the Met, a daring new production of ‘Carmen’ takes flight “... Rustioni drew particular tartness from the flutes and strings, and whipped up a wild, windblown energy across the orchestra that lent the whole score a refreshing vivacity.

The conductor Daniele Rustioni kept to moderate, well-judged tempos, and the train always stayed firmly on the tracks, including precise work by the chorus ... In the preludes to the third and fourth acts were glimpses of a wilder, more expansive and more beautiful vision of Bizet’s score.

Daniele Rustioni was a 10-year-old in the La Scala children’s chorus when he saw Riccardo Muti for the first time.