When the curtain falls on the final performance of English National Opera’s Carmen on Friday it will also end a groundbreaking experiment in connecting artists with their audience.

The production, staged by the film director Sally Potter, has been a commercial hit but was mauled by the critics, who called it “woefully tedious”, “an ugly, misbegotten aberration” and “a suicide note to the Arts Council”.

However, through a series of blogs written by members of the cast and crew, including Potter, the ENO believes it defused some of the power of the reviews by reaching out to the paying public. Feedback from them has been more evenly split, with about a third loving the production, a third hating it and a third not expressing a strong opinion.

John Berry, the ENO’s artistic director, said that opera houses around the world were studying the Carmen website, which also includes links to a streamed film of the opera and a video diary of rehearsals. “There’s no stopping this now and we’ve got plans to expand the whole social networking experience with ENO. We want our audience to have access to people here, and to me and to the creative process. The more people feel engaged the more likely they are to buy tickets.” Mr Berry said that the box office had remained strong despite the reviews: “It’s turned into an event that people want to see. What does that say about the power of critics?”

Potter’s interpretation of Bizet’s masterpiece relocates the action from 19th-century Spain to a modern Britain peopled with prostitutes, hoodies and menacing security guards, all spied on by CCTV.

After the first reviews came out last month, she took the exceptional step of responding with a 600-word posting on the site.

She wrote: “The truth must be faced: my production of Carmen has infuriated many of the established opera critics. There have been some very positive exceptions, but nevertheless, there is a group who have responded negatively, with varying degrees of derision and nastiness, and in some cases, a wilful misinterpretation of the concept, design and staging.”

The blog, she felt, had offered her a valuable opportunity to circumvent the criticisms.

“Composers, directors and other artists are not supposed to air their opinions . . . Personally, I like this melting of boundaries. The voices of authority can be challenged. History can no longer be written by the few, ideas are no longer the possession of an elite; a genuine dialogue is possible across previously impenetrable barriers.”

Richard Morrison, the Times chief music critic, who gave Carmen three stars and praised its “strong musical values”, supported the development, saying: “Most critics would welcome more direct discussion with a director. The point of writing a review is not to hand down a tablet like Moses. It’s to start a debate. The more that the public gets engaged and debating a show, the better it is for opera.”

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