CARMEN (Paris Opera) (Screening)

Don José, a serviceman, falls under the spell of Carmen, a gypsy woman he has let escape when he was supposed to arrest her. After several months together, Carmen tires of her jealous lover and falls in love with the toreador Escamillo. Whereas Don José’s mother gets ill, Micaëla is unable to make him go back to their village. Don José is desperate to win back Carmen.

Presentation By adapting Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote one of the most famous librettos in the history of opera. Calixto Bieito’s production is positioned in a relatively abstract spatiotemporal environment. In a setting marked by the emptiness of barren landscapes, the characters’ appetite for life and their destructive passions unveil at breakneck speed.

Opera in 4 acts, sung in French. Recorded at the Paris Opera / Opéra Bastille 

Music by Georges Bizet Opera Production by Calixto Bieito
Musical Direction Sir Mark Elder Cast Roberto Alagna (Don José), Elīna Garanča (Carmen), Ildar Abdrazakov (Escamillo), Maria Agresta (Micaëla), Paris Opera’s Orcherstra and Chorus
Director François-René Martin Production Paris Opera, Camera Lucida
Place of Production/Country of origin Paris Opera Bastille/France