Calixto Bieito, the Director of this production, first seen in 2012, brings his own personal interpretation of an unyielding Carmen in the midst of early 1970’s Franco-type testosterone-filled masculinity.  No quarter is given.  The male soldiers are at the same time playful boys and violent nasty male caricatures.  The misogynistic treatment of women stands out in this stripped back production, but the gratuitous violence that simmers throughout the evening is at times unedifying and disturbing.