One of opera’s most notorious free spirits, Carmen is a rebel with a passionate cause – she wants to live and love in her own way. Though Carmen warns Don José not to love her, he gives up his job, reputation and girlfriend Micaëla for her. Soon bored of Don José's obsessive nature, Carmen moves on to celebrity toreador Escamillo. What she doesn’t anticipate is the searing jealousy that will be unleashed in her former lover.
Olivier award-winning director Damiano Michieletto's searing new production evokes all the passion and heat of Bizet's score. Conductors Antonello Manacorda and Emmanuelle Villaume lead two stellar international casts, headlined by Aigul Akhmetshina, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya and Ramona Zaharia.
The origins of Carmen
Bizet took the plot of Carmen from the popular novella of the same name by French writer Prosper Mérimée, who claimed to be inspired by a true story. Though it earned a lukewarm response from the press and public at its premiere – perhaps due to its heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence — the opera soon became immensely popular and remains an enduring favourite today. In fact, Carmen is the second most performed opera in The Royal Opera’s repertory, having been performed over 500 times.
The music of Carmen
Drawing from the opera's setting of Seville, Bizet’s unforgettable score boasts a host of Spanish-inspired melodies, including Carmen's sensual ‘Habanera’ and ‘Seguidilla’ arias, and Don José's tender ‘Flower Song’, ‘La fleur que tu m’as jétée’ (The flower that you threw to me). The composer’s gift for writing catchy melodies reaches its peak in the flamboyance and masculinity of Escamillo’s ‘Toreador Song’, one of the most instantly recognisable arias in all classical music.
