After a scandalous world première, no other opera has ever been performed as often as “Carmen” by Georges Bizet (1818-1875). The enigmatic heroine is still today generally regarded as the woman of every man’s dreams. From the start she makes clear what her attitude to love is in her habañera: unlimited freedom for her feelings, and also absolute freedom from all moral inhibition. This is finally her downfall: obsessed by his desire to possess her, Don José cannot cope with her. Jealousy drives him to kill her.

In his staging, director Carlos Wagner plunges his public into the gloomy Spain described by the pictorial world of Goya. He depicts her longing for freedom, and the tragedy of how her strong-willed nature has the young corporal Don José completely at a loss, in emphatically poetic tableaux in which dream-worlds merge into nightmarish reality.


“Deutsche Oper am Rhein shows an interpretation which explodes over-constricting realism without straying into interpretative speculation”.
Christoph Zimmermann, Orpheus

“High tension in this ‘Carmen’ is generated to only by the expressive staging, but also by the musical and dramatic individual performances”.
Lars Wallerang, Westdeutsche Zeitung

 
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Georges Bizet

CARMEN
Opéra comique in four acts
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy after Prosper Mérimée

 
In French with German surtitles
 

Musikalische Leitung Christoph Altstaedt / Ralf Lange / Benjamin Bayl
Inszenierung Carlos Wagner
Bühne Rifail Ajdarpasic
Kostüme Patrick Dutertre
Licht Fabrice Kebour
Chorleitung Gerhard Michalski
Choreographie Ana Garcia
 
Don José Sergej Khomov
Escamillo James Bobby / Tomasz Konieczny / Boris Statsenko
Remendado Johannes Preißinger / Florian Simson
Dancaïro Attila Fodre / Daniel Djambazian
Zuniga Torben Jürgens / Timo Riihonen / Adam Palka / Günes Gürle
Moralès Bogdan Baciu / Dmitry Lavrov
Carmen Ezgi Kutlu / Isabelle Druet / Morenike Fadayomi
Micaëla Elisabeth Selle / Anke Krabbe / Brigitta Kele
Frasquita Luiza Fatyol / Alma Sadé / Iulia Elena Surdu
Mercédès Sarah Ferede / Melanie Lang / Annika Kaschenz
Tänzerin Michèle Lama, Anna Roura-Maldonado / Antonio Olmedo Gil, Sara Blasco Gutiérrez / Irina Castillo, Carmen Mar Canas Salvador / Sara Blasco Gutiérrez
Tänzer Joeri Burger, Alexeider Abad Gonzales, Michael Schuldt / Antonio Olmedo Gil, Jonas Tilly, Jonas Tilly
Leitung Kinderchor Justine Wanat / Karoline Philippi
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Kinderchor Düsseldorfer Mädchenchor / Kinderchor am Rhein
Orchester Düsseldorfer Symphoniker / Duisburger Philharmoniker