Name: Carmen
Start: 2025-04-09T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2025-07-03T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Royal Opera House

Admin

Royal Opera House

Teatro Real de Madrid

Teatro alla Scala

Stage director

Damiano Michieletto

Set designer

Paolo Fantin

Costume designer

Carla Teti

Lighting designer

Alessandro Carletti

Dramaturge

Elisa Zaninotto

Conductor

Mark Elder

Christopher Willis

Ariane Matiakh

Chorus master

William Spaulding

Mezzo-soprano

Aigul Akhmetshina

Carmen

Tenor

Freddie De Tommaso

Don José

Soprano

Yaritza Véliz

Michaela

Baritone

Lukasz Goliński

Escamillo

Bass

Jamie Woollard

Zuniga

Marianna Hovanisyan

Frasquita

Cai Jingwen

Mercedes

Siphe Kwani

Dancaire

Seumas Begg

Remendado

Ross Ramgobin

Morales

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Others

Chorus of the Royal Opera House

Anna Goryachova

Charles Castronovo

Mané Galoyan

Christian Van Horn

Alison Langer

Veena Akama-Makia

Ryan Vaughan Davies

Grisha Martirosyan

Valentina Puskás

francès

London

United Kingdom

Main Stage

Public

Private

Rahul Solomon

anglès

Approved

Carmen Bizet

Watch Aigul Akmetshina and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya share the title role in Damiano Michieletto's searing new production of Bizet’s ever-popular opera. Carmen c...

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.

English

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