Instead of focusing on spectacle, the music is taunt and lean. The "Toreador Song," sung without a chorus, seems more like Escamillio's anthem of defiance than an exotic piece of Spanish culture. The musical staging of the work feels more realistic because it does not deploy a large orchestra. With only fourteen instruments to bring the songs to life, the audience really feels as if it is in a tavern, watching the passions of a real world unfold. The music seems to grow organically from the situations. In many operas, the music seems as if it is being imposed upon the story, or as if the story is highly artificial and only a showcase for the music. This production is about people who sing, for whom music is a part of their lives while they go through a variety of doomed couplings. They sing to unburden their hearts in a harsh world, to seduce one another, and to enjoy life while they can. Even though...

When she sings "L'amour est un oiseau rebelled" she is performing and seducing Jose at the same time.
I enjoyed this production both musically and as a dramatic work. I was surprised by the way it avoided all cliches, and could take me by surprise, even during the sequences when the music was familiar to me. It showed me that opera could be realistic, and that complex characters could be portrayed in the medium of song. The singer's voices were showcased, not the orchestra given the relative lack of instrumentation. This enabled them to speak more directly to the audience. Sometimes, only a piano accompanied some of the solos. However, the work was even more powerful -- and terrifying -- in its passionate intensity because of its daring simplicity.