Never Seen That One Before

I would normally go into a long spiel about the performance, but these bits stuck out the most to me, so I figuredI'd discuss them here. 

Has anyone else seen a performance of Carmen that showed the Act 1 Cat fight?  Or had Don Jose's superior officers rip the insignia off his shoulders after he lets Carmen go?  Or even had Carmen pull the knife in Act 4 halfway through climactic scene?  Neither did I until last night when I saw Madison Opera's production last night. 

I've seen Carmen a thousand times before, on video and on screen.  But seeing it live onstage is a whole new ballgame.  You're in the same room as the man who's angrily demanding that the harlot who seduced him come with him or else.  So the intensity is twice what it would be on video or in the cinema (It gave my poor boyfriend the shock of his life).  

Good performance all around (I could not find fault with the singers at all), but some of the choices the director made were a trifle odd.  Having Carmen pull the knife first changes the dynamics of the entire scene.  I think it meant Carmen was saying that she'd fight Don Jose if she had to, but it gives him an excuse for killing her other than jealousy.  Maybe it was for dramatic purposes that they showed Carmen and Manuelita beating each other up.  Still, there's already the chorus of factory girls giving the report to the soldiers, so it probably Coals to Newcastle to show the two women duking it out onstage.  
       Ripping the insignia off wasn't what I was expecting, but it made sense in context.  Don Jose let Carmen escape and has failed in his duties, and as a result gets a demotion (and a prison term to boot).  Of course why he would get an instant demotion is something that I would like to know.