In China, Fears Ours Would Be a \'One-Week Puppy\'

BEIJING - China has many genuine pet lovers who care well for their dogs, but also many owners who don't. The dog trade is virtually unsupervised and selling sick animals to unsuspecting customers is common. Animal shelters are full. The pet scene is tough. Buying a dog, which I write about in my latest Letter from China, can be a risky business.

“Some breeders just want to make money. Some are real animal lovers,” said Xing Xiaosi, an editor and marketer at goumin.com, a Web site for dog lovers in China that offers an interactive education and information platform.

“But in general, the situation isn't that positive or optimistic,” she said.

A week after we bought our boxer puppy, Xiao Tongzhi, or Little Comrade, he fell ill.

Knowing the horror stories, I took him to the vet, feeling queasy.

Here's how Ms. Xing described an all-too common scenario: “Many dogs are not well treated in kennels and if the owners feel the dog looks sick, they may give it an injection to stimulate it, and make it more active. It usually lasts for about a week. They hope to sell the dog within a week to make their money, but the dog may die very soon after the week. If the buyer takes it to an animal hospital for treatment it may live. But if he doesn't want to spend the money, it won't.”

The serious - possibly deadly - illnesses include puppy distemper, canine parvovirus and canine coronavirus, usually contracted in dirty and crowded conditions at kennels.

Was Little Comrade a “one-week puppy,” as they are called?

Thankfully, the vet said he had only caught a cold. He tested negative for parvovirus and distemper, though he had been exposed to coronavirus, she said. Beiji ng's cold had turned even harsher the weekend we bought him in early December, with temperatures dropping below freezing.

Still, the vet didn't take any chances, administering anti-distemper serum and large amounts of antibiotics. The bottom line was - all puppies are vulnerable to serious disease because of the conditions they are often kept in before sale.

Overall, animal rights awareness here is low, said Ms. Xing.

“Many people are not responsible towards their pets,” she said. “They buy them as if they were toys. Then, once they have them back home, they feel they are difficult to care for because they urinate and defecate and they feel that's dirty.”

“Some people throw their pets away when the family gets a baby,” she added. “When they're abandoned some people do try to look for a new home. But many just throw them into the streets.”

As a result, animal shelters in Beijing and other cities are full.

“People's conscio usness about keeping pets needs to be raised,” Ms. Xing said. “They need to feel responsible for their lives.”

At the Paris Opera, a \'Carmen\' in Search of Catharsis

PARIS - Three years ago the mezzo-soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci scored a major success as Carmen at the Opéra Comique here, so when the Paris Opéra decided on a new production of Bizet's opera at Opéra Bastille, it was only natural for her to reprise the title role. Unfortunately, while in some respects Ms. Antonacci's portrayal is as arresting as ever, the new production by Yves Beaunesne fails to bring out the best in her or, indeed, to do much for the opera.

Frequently, a less-than-satisfactory production will be especially remembered for one or two inopportune moments that should have been squelched early on, and so it is here. When the jilted Don José, in a last, desperate attempt to patch things up with his gypsy lover, appears in the final scene, he carries a couple of suitcases. Suitcases are nothing new in productions these days, but Do n José's actually contain something: a wedding dress for his beloved, which he pathetically drapes over her. And if there is any opera character who doesn't need to look even more pathetic than he is at this point, it is this ruined soldier.

I've always found the final scene of puzzling. Why does this strong woman allow herself to be murdered? It's admirable not to fear death and to accept the dictates of fate bravely, but you don't have to just let it happen. In any case, the sight of the wedding dress ruled out any possibility of catharsis. Elsewhere in the production other gimmicks take the place of thoughtful direction of the principals.

Mr. Beaunesne is at his best in the massed scenes. Lillas Pastia's tavern is a place for kinky sex, as we see from a motley assortment of characters that roll in on a flatbed trailer, including - judging from his/her height of about seven feet - a transvestite bearing (and baring) fake breasts. The festivities at the start of Act 4, which include acrobats, jugglers, stilts-walkers and people imitating bulls, are also fun. But these are decorative scenes that are peripheral to the heart of the drama.

The best thing that can be said for Damien Caille-Perret's single set - the large courtyard of a building - is that it proves more versatile than you might think. But what of the roof, which consists just of dark beams? It is under construction, or is it in ruins, or is it maybe some idealization of a roof? Hard to say. The action is updated to the 1970s, apparently to facilitate parallels to early films by Pedro Almodóvar. Jean-Daniel Vuillermoz's costumes vividly comply with imaginative details and bursts of color.

Ms. Antonacci herself brings to mind another cinematic personage, for the singer wears a Marilyn Monroe wig. Don't ask why. At least we are spared images of her skirt blown up by subterranean gusts. Ms. Antonacci doesn't even wear a pleated skirt, but her mod ish dress makes her look as though she has come from lunch at a fancy Seville restaurant rather than from work in a cigarette factory. Yet Carmen has a personality that transcends her humble status, so while this Carmen seemed out of place, Ms. Antonacci made her seem convincing, especially when one factors in the singer's characteristically intelligent approach to sex appeal. The latter extends to the care and purposefulness of her delivery of text, so that her every utterance commands attention. Her tone is amply rich and sultry as well.

In another twist by Mr. Beaunesne, this Carmen fascinates even children. During a pause between Acts 3 and 4, a small boy comes up to her, and the two go off together. Here is a Carmen who apparently has motherly instincts. (Is that why Don José is so attracted to her? Let's not go there.)

Nikolai Schukoff, in his é debut, sings Don José, but was apparently not in particularly good voice for the premiere. Here and th ere he sounded impressive, although his Flower Song was a nonevent. Genia Kühmeier sings Micaela with a voice of surpassing loveliness if not a great deal of personality, and Ludovic Tézier brings macho energy and vocal robustness to the toreador, Escamillo.

Philippe Jordan conducts with his usual verve and musicality but could pay greater heed to the darker currents of the score. The opera is performed with spoken dialogue - and quite a bit of it - in accordance with the original practice of the Opéra Comique, for which “Carmen” was written. In fact, today's most popular French opera long remained the province of that theater. Only in 1959 did “Carmen” come to the Opéra; the new production is the third at the Bastille.

“Carmen” is at the Opera Bastille in Paris through Dec. 29; it can be seen in selected movie theaters on Dec. 13.

The Museum of Everything, an Alternative to the Art World You Know

PARIS-After traveling through Russia, setting up shop at Tate Modern in London and welcoming more than 350,000 visitors since its creation in 2009, the Museum of Everything is parked in Paris for the winter, at the end of a dark alleyway in St Germain des Prés in what used to be a catholic seminary.

The art has no price tags or gallery representation. Its creators might not even have known they were artists when the pieces were made. There are more than 500 outsider-art pieces here, all made by nontraditional, self-taught artists. Some were farmers, janitors or truck drivers. For most of them, art was their only medium of communication.

“A lot of these artists had mental conditions, schizophrenia, they can't read or talk, so they create their own language,” says James Brett, the museum's founder. Josef Karl Rädler, an Austrian ceramicist committed to a sanatorium in Vienna in the 1900s, painted his surroundings and neighboring patients into small gouache compositions that cover one of the walls of the museum. Like much of the art here, the work is meticulous, obsessive and powerful, a long way from the art stars at the fairs like FIAC, Frieze or Art Basel Miami Beach.

Five-meter-high figures painted on rice-paper rolls by Guo Fengyi, a Chinese factory worker turned artist, tower above you on one floor. Upstairs, through a labyrinth of small rooms with paintings from floor to ceiling, you find castlelike constructions made with typewriter parts by the French duo ACM that interact with Midwestern America religious banners from the 1960s.

Astonishingly, it all works. “We are more than just curators,” says Mr. Brett about his obsessive, personal relationship with all these artists. “It's like art from the caverns: No one knew it was art back then. All you needed was a person to discover it.”

The Museum of Everything is at the Chalet Society, 14 Boulevard Ras pail, through February, Wednesday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. To visit, register on the museum's Web site.

Gay Marriage Fight Intensifies in Britain and France

LONDON - The pragmatic Dutch should be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.

A decade after the Netherlands legalized marriage for same-sex couples with a minimum of brouhaha, the issue has spurred a fierce and emotional debate in two other European countries, France and Britain.

The disputes focus on plans by the Socialist government in France and the Conservative-led government in Britain to introduce legislation next year that would allow same-sex marriage.

The British government announced its proposals on Tuesday with a compromise that left both sides of the debate unhappy.

The proposed law specifically excludes the established Anglican churches of Eng land and Wales by forbidding them from marrying same-sex couples, while other faith groups such as Quakers and liberal Reform Jews would be allowed to opt into the system.

That is intended to protect a reluctant Anglican Church from being forced into performing gay marriage ceremonies. But it added to what gay and equal rights activists described as the muddle surrounding law reform.

Peter Tatchell, a veteran gay rights activist, told Pink News that the Conservative proposals actually discriminated against heterosexual couples by denying them the right to a civil partnership, the so-called “marriage lite” that has been available to gay couples in Britain since 2004.

The proposed British compromise looked unlikely to quell opposition within Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party from those who reject the concept of same-sex marriage on religious, social or moral grounds.

The right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party has threatened to exploit divisions which it said threatened to rip apart the Conservatives' traditional rural base.

“We feel the prime minister's proposals will present an affront to millions of people in this country for whom this will be the final straw,” Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, told The Guardian.

Mr. Farage may be exaggerating the extent of opposition in a country where opinion polls show a majority in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. But, as in France, the opposition is certainly noisy.

Anti-gay marriage groups staged demonstrations across France in October and November that attracted an estimated 100,000 people. The ruling Socialist Party has decided to fight back by throwing its support behind a counter- demonstration due to take place in Paris this weekend.

Romain Burrell, a journalist for a French gay magazine, wrote in The Guardian, “It's quite simple. The ongoing same-sex marriage debate sparked a renewed wave of homophobia in France.”

He lamented that the opposition conservative U.M.P. had thrown its weight behind the anti-gay marriage campaign.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, appears to have survived unscathed from 11 years of same-sex marriage.

My colleague Celestine Bohlen, in a report from Amsterdam last week, cited polls that showed support for same-sex marriage increased by 20 points to 82 percent in the five years after the Dutch law was introduced.

As Celestine wrote, “Gay or straight, married, divorced, single or cohabiting, the Dutch - like many other Europeans - have been quietly rearranging their family structures over the past d ecade.”

IHT Quick Read: Dec. 12

NEWS North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday morning that appeared to reach as far as the Philippines, an apparent success for the country's young and untested new leader, Kim Jong-un, and a step toward the nation's goal of mastering the technology needed to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. Choe Sang-hun reports from Seoul, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

Soldiers carried out a late-night arrest of Mali's prime minister at his home in Bamako, forcing his resignation early Tuesday and casting new doubt on plans to chase out radical Islamists who control much of this troubled West African nation. Adam Nossiter reports from Bamako.

On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted a uniform patent system for Europe. If the plan goes into effect as expected by early 2014, it would try to remedy the country-by-country approach whose time and costs have long been an impediment to innovation across the European Union. James Kanter reports from Brussels.

The competing business dealings of former high-ranking United States officials in Kosovo may present a special ethical quandary. So many former American officials have returned to Kosovo for business - in coal and telecommunications, or for lobbying and other lucrative government contracts - that it is hard to keep them from colliding. Matthew Brunwasser reports from Pristina, Kosovo.

According to the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, an independent Scotland would have to apply for membership in the European Union. Stephen Castle reports from London.

Three weeks into an impasse over who won a leadership vote in France's center-right opposition party, François Fillon - who was declared the loser, though he has refused to concede - proposed on Tuesday that a new election be held next spring in which he most likely would not run. Nicola Clark reports from Paris.

ARTS An all-female version of “Julius Caesar” in at the Donmar Warehouse packs a believable wallop, while two other London shows stretch credibility to breaking point and beyond. Matt Wolf on theater.

A disappointing and oddly chosen “Lohengrin'' opens the season at La Scala, while in Rome, a fine Verdi opera is presented in regal style by Riccardo Muti. George Loomis reviews.

SPORTS There would be lots of hurdles if the 2020 European Championship soccer tournament were to be expanded to six host countries, but previous events have shown that soccer is capable of overcoming such challenges. Rob Hughes reports from London.