Organization

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Sophia Maeno

Carmen

Antigone Papoulkas

Tenor

Gustavo Ernesto Peña Pérez

Don José

Soprano

Tatiana Larina

Michaela

Maraike Schröter

Baritone

Jacob Scharfman

Escamillo

Bass

André Eckert

Zuniga

Marie Hänsel

Frasquita

Tea Trifković Ferenc

Marlen Bieber

Mercedes

Konrad Furian

Dancaire

Tommaso Randazzo

Remendado

Felix Rohleder

Morales

Spoken

Sylvia Schramm-Heilfort

Lillas Pastia

Su Yeon Hilbert

Une marchande d'oranges

Elžběta Laabs

Simone Stolzenburg

Stage director

Arila Siegert

Conductor

Jakob Brenner

Costume designer

Marie-Luise Strandt

Set designer

Hans Dieter Schaal

Dramaturge

Bernd Feuchtner

Susanne Holfter

Chorus master

Stefan Bilz

Theater Chemnitz

Others

Chor der Oper Chemnitz

Mitglieder des Kinder- und Jugendchores

Orchestra

Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie

French

Halle

Germany

Opernhaus

Public

Private

German

Approved

Under the Andalusian midday sun, the men watch the workers of the tobacco factory during their break. Carmen attracts everyone's attention. Only the Basque soldier Don José pays her no attention. It was only when Carmen threw him an acacia blossom that from then on he was captivated by its wild beauty. He sacrifices his military career and embarks with Carmen in a smugglers' milieu that is alien to him. As a deserted soldier, all he has left is his love for her. His increasing claims to ownership narrow Carmen and let her feelings for him grow cold. Instead, she turns to the successful torero Escamillo. But Don José cannot live with or without Carmen and murders her. Even in the face of death, Carmen does not give up her urge for freedom. She dies as she lived and loved: as a free woman.

The commissioned work for the Opéra-comique in Paris experienced a fiasco when it premiered on March 3, 1875. The drastic demeanor of a milieu study, in which a gypsy woman seduced a deserted soldier and was murdered by him on the open stage, presumably contained too much reality for a bourgeois opera audience at the time. Bizet, whose health was already badly affected, was additionally weakened by depression after the failure. He died three months after the premiere at the age of 36. He was no longer able to compose the recitatives planned for the first performance in Vienna in October 1875. This was done by his trusted friend Ernest Guiraud. Carmen celebrated in this thoroughly composed versioninitially worldwide successes. In the meantime, however, people are mostly returning to the original form, typical of the genre of Opéra comique, with dialogues that lend Bizet's masterpiece gripping authenticity.

The director Arila Siegert, the set designer Hans Dieter Schaal and the costume designer Marie-Luise Strandt, who have already staged Fauré's Pénélope , Weber's Freischütz , Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin and, most recently, Verdi's masked ball at the Chemnitz Opera , tell the story of all social conventions bursting woman as an arena of passions from which there is no escape.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble