Ellen Kent’s Carmen brings a little Andalusian warmth to the New Theatre on Saturday night. Toreadors and matadors burst onto the stage in flamboyant Spanish costumes. Cigarette girls manoeuvre around the set with the kind of sexy, flamenco moves that makes me want to buy my wife outfits from a Marbella gift shop - and live in hope.

As though these flashes of Spanish culture weren’t authentic enough, Ellen Kent even has a donkey brought on stage during Act One. The action is fast-paced and compelling - in fact when the time comes for the donkey to make its exit, the poor beast has to be dragged off.

Romanian tenor Sorin Lupu sparkles as Don Jose. At the climax of the Seguidilla his voice soars with Otis Redding-like soulfulness - and his affair with Nadezhda Stoianova’s seductive Carmen remains convincing throughout.

It does seem unfair however that the horse - who makes his appearance in Act Four - gets a bigger cheer from the audience than either of the central characters (only Ecaterina Danu’s Micaela attracts a moderately louder round of applause). The cast smile and clap as the horse takes its final bow, but were I in their shoes, I would have stuck a leg out and tried to trip it headfirst into the pit. After all, if I wanted to clap a horse, I would have gone to the circus.

Thankfully there are no animals in Thursday night’s Tosca.

This is beautifully presented as a passionate, edge-of-your-seat Gothic melodrama. The period sets and costumes are a delight, particularly the dresses worn by Maria Tonina in the title role. The stand out performance comes from Vladimir Dragos as the police chief Baron Scarpia, whose fine baritone is genuinely sinister.

Ellen Kent’s production interprets Illica and Giacosa’s libretto as a thriller and the interpretation does stand its ground. At its best it’s like watching a re-run of 24. I note that in Act Two the painter Cavaradossi is interrogated and tortured off stage, Tosca claims immunity - and the audience learn that the political prisoner Angelotti will be dead within the hour.

Thankfully these events don’t occur in real time or I’d be sat in the New Theatre in all night. Ellen Kent has yet to announce her next run of shows in Oxford, but her Carmen and Tosca both entertain throughout. They are full of colour, superbly choreographed and well-sung.

In fact this may have been the best Carmen I’ve ever seen. And wouldn’t it be madness to watch opera on a cinema screen when you could have productions as thrilling as these on your doorstep?