Carmen the femme fatale, Carmen the outsider, Carmen the witch. Carmen bathes in the looks of her contemporaries. But what makes them so fascinating has been told anew every time since the success of Georges Bizet's opera of the same name. There is a Carmen in the car factory, a Carmen in the South African township and of course a Carmen in a flamenco dress. Are you born a Carmen or do you become one? Not only the portrait of a self-determined woman is unheard of for the Parisian audience of the premiere, but also the realism displayed: Carmen is a worker, maybe a prostitute and also a “Bohème”, a free-spirited anti-bourgeois pariah. The way her last lover, Don José, wants to possess her is unheard of from today's perspective. The reserved outsider turns out to be the most stubborn of her admirers. Marriage to his foster sister beckons the reclusive lieutenant. Instead, Carmen awakens longings in him that he has never felt before. When she threatens to move on, Don José experiences a new feeling - the raging jealousy that drives the once love story to its tragic end. In Georges Bizet's "Carmen" there are real people on the stage. But Bizet's music also means that the morbidly jealous Don José and the obscure Carmen make themselves heard by the audience. In Rahel Thiel's production, Carmen drags her audience head over heels into the human abyss. When she threatens to move on, Don José experiences a new feeling - the raging jealousy that drives the once love story to its tragic end. In Georges Bizet's "Carmen" there are real people on the stage. But Bizet's music also means that the morbidly jealous Don José and the obscure Carmen make themselves heard by the audience. In Rahel Thiel's production, Carmen drags her audience head over heels into the human abyss. When she threatens to move on, Don José experiences a new feeling - the raging jealousy that drives the once love story to its tragic end. In Georges Bizet's "Carmen" there are real people on the stage. But Bizet's music also means that the morbidly jealous Don José and the obscure Carmen make themselves heard by the audience. In Rahel Thiel's production, Carmen drags her audience head over heels into the human abyss.