We spend 100 years developing an art form that breaks out of the musty auditoria of the 19th century and where does it get us? Right back where we started. We're promised "the best seat in the house" but that turns out to be a wheelchair moving around six feet in front of the performers and rarely straying beyond the proscenium. Furthermore, this Royal Opera House production is as conventional as you could imagine. Compared to inventive cinematic takes (the township-set U-Carmen, Preminger's Carmen Jones or Carlos Saura's 1980s version, to name three), it feels like a step back in time, regardless of the hi-tech trappings.