Still, she fell short of a smoldering Carmen that is the center of all men's attention. She had vocal power to spare in her dusky voice, which has an especially strong top, and her 'Habanera' was seductive. Rachvelishvili, a mezzo-soprano who made her Met debut in last year's 'Carmen' revival, slinked her way around the set with the sexy moves of the title character in a manner that was labored. Mariotti gets his first high-profile Met assignment in January, the new Michael Mayer staging of Verdi's 'Rigoletto' set in 1960 Las Vegas. The 33-year-old shaped a propulsive evening, bringing out the colors of Bizet's score and the vibrancy of Richard Eyre's staging, which opened at the Met on New Year's Eve 2009.

Mariotti, principal conductor at Bologna's Teatro Comunale in Italy, put his imprint on the opening night of the run Friday with a briskly conducted overture that bordered on a dash.

NEW YORK - The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2½-year-old production of Bizet's 'Carmen' was memorable for the debut of conductor Michele Mariotti and for performances by Anita Rachvelishvili and Yonghoon Lee that never quite came together.

Ny met opera schedule 2012