It is a sight as has never been seen in Bermuda. Four matadors in full gilded regalia parading under the spotlights, waving to the cheering crowds, being showered with red confetti like rose petals.

There were audible gasps of delight as the men, chests out, skin tight trousers, heads held high, walked down the aisles of the Ruth Seaton James Centre and on to the stage.

First came the picadors, then the caballeros, and then the mighty matadors, in costumes imported from Spain all followed in the darkened hall by the spotlights, waving to their fans.

This was the last act -- and the most spectacular -- of Carmen at its premie n re on Monday. And the showmanship of the most ostentatious of operas was used to its full.

Mark Tinkler, the director of the performance, has to be congratulated for his stage management. So many people on such a small stage could be a recipe for disaster.

Instead he managed to make the gypsies look like something out of a dark 19th Century Goya as they hid in the hills in Act II.

The bustling crowds had the taste of Seville with the muddied faces of the children and loud market cries.

And the final act, in the blink of an eye, the stage became a bull ring as the obsessive Don Jose m stalked the fearful and defiant Carmen.

Let me go back a step. Carmen is the story of a hot-headed beauty, a gypsy girl who sets her sights on the mild-mannered and honourable soldier Don Jose m.

He resists her charms and vows to marry the demure, if dull Miacela. But the lusty Carmen wins the day, and after a street brawl in which Carmen is arrested, he lets her go free and faces a prison sentence.

On his release, Carmen waits for him, and declares her love. But as the bugles call, he tries to leave, and she scolds him for not loving her. The upshot after several complicated twists, is he deserts and ends up with the smuggling gypsies in the mountains, a bandit.

By the third act relations between Carmen and Don Jose m have deteriorated, and his love has turned to obsession. She despises him. His faithful (and drippy) Marciela comes to take him away to his ailing mother, and Carmen is swept off her feet by a matador. t the final scene the bull fighters arrive at the ring and Don Jose m, now completely mad, kills Carmen because she will not be his. David Barrell's performance as Don Jose m and his mad obsessive love for Carmen had the dream-like quality of the delirium in latter-day Goya paintings.

The costumes were spectacular, all swirling hips and swaggering layers of cloth, adding to the fan fare.

But the most outstanding thing in the entire show was, as it should be, Carmen herself. Played by Heather Shipp, Carmen was sexy, sultry, bad tempered and hot headed.

And you could see why no man could resist her charms -- and why he would driven mad. In Act II you could feel the steam rise from the stage as Shipp (who you never thought of for one second as anything but Carmen) worked her magic on Don Jose m after he had got out of prison.

She danced for him, straddled him, dragged him to the ground. The audience is left thinking he must be crazy when he declares he wants to go back to his barracks.

Colourful Carmen a festival winner Even while lying on her back, hauling Don Jose m on to her, her voice belted out to the back of the hall, sending tingles down your spine.

The local children's choir was another of the highlights. And the smallest of them, two blonde girls, stole each scene they were in.

When the curtains first rose, I thought the sets a little plain. But as the show progressed, I realised I was mistaken.

The simplicity of line added, rather than took away from the show. With such a dramatic tale, costumes, and large casts, an elaborate set would have taken away from the atmosphere. And lighting was used to its most dramatic effect, with the use of fire, smoke and lanterns on stage. The simplicity of set was particularly effective in the last scene. Where the sweeping curve of the back-drop was used as the shape of the bull ring, and as Don Jose stalked Carmen like a matador across the whole expanse of the stage, the director had to be applauded for stage management and the set designer for the drama.

My only criticism is that it was done in English. Bizet just sounds a bit strange in English. It is just that productions in French or even Spanish and Italian sound better. Don Jose m's cries of "I will never let you go'' are just not the same in English. Latin languages have a different cadence which lends itself to the drama and music more easily.

But this is a small gripe, and the standing ovation was well deserved. More than one person wiped a tear from their eye as Carmen lay dead in the arms of Don Jose. And if it were not sold out, I would go back again tonight.

The final act: Carmen (Heather Sharp) sings of her love of matador Escamillio (Simon Thorpe) before he goes into the ring.