There is probably no stronger motive for hatred and murder than disappointed love. In Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, the simple soldier Don José quickly becomes a murderer. When he meets the attractive Carmen, he falls hopelessly in love with her - Don José commits himself to her for life. But Carmen soon turns to the torero Escamillo. Bizet's characters, all of them border crossers in life, move in a dangerously explosive field of tension between attraction and rejection, between seriousness and play, between lust and self-abandonment, duty and desire.
To this day, Bizet's Carmen has lost none of its fascinating power in its relentless drama and the elemental effect of its melody. "This is a masterpiece in the truest sense of the word, one of those rare compositions that reflect the musical aspirations of an entire age to the highest degree," said Tchaikovsky. However, the bourgeois audience at the premiere in 1875 at the Opéra Comique in Paris initially reacted to Bizet's work with disapproval. It was perceived as too garish and immoral. In her anarchic urge for freedom and her lustfully lived femininity, the title character represented a danger to the established order. However, the opera soon began its triumphal march and became an operatic myth of modern times.
Director Andreas Homoki combines the timelessness of the material with a concrete theatrical situation: the starting point for his production is the location of the premiere, the Opéra Comique - Bizet's work is tangibly linked to the genre cultivated there in its playful, open form and multi-layered theatrical levels.
Premiere April 7, 2024
Further performances: April 10, 12, 14, 19, 21 and 24, May 4, 11 and 15 as well as June 12 and 15, 2024
