Georges Bizet: Carmen

About this event

One of the most popular and beloved operas of the world, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, sees a new staging at the Bregenz Festival 2017, with its breathtaking backdrop of Lake Constance and a spectacular set design by British artist Es Devlin. The title role of Carmen is performed by rising star mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez, alongside Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson as strongly passionate Don José.

Acting with unrestrained intensity and displaying a stunning array of vocal colours, Gaëlle Arquez is at the centre of attention. She embodies Carmen “in a finely nuanced and completely natural way, as if she had just invented Habanera & Co.” (Tagesspiegel). The Wiener Symphoniker play Bizet’s powerful score with elegance and technical virtuosity, under the “sensitive and energetic musical direction” (The Telegraph) by Paolo Carignani.

This new production on the Bregenz lake-stage has been staged by Kasper Holten, who has been attracting great attention for his work at major theatres around the world, in particular for his “Copenhagen Ring” and his stagings as Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Set Designer Es Devlin, who already designed sets for pop stars like Adele, U2, Take That, the Pet Shop Boys and Kanye West, has created a set construction with an impressive height of 21 metres. The playing cards, which seem to hover between two massive hands, are not only part of the scene but also serve as projection surfaces.

The Telegraph is full of praise: “The lake-stage in Bregenz is a venue for theatrical spectaculars, and Kasper Holten’s production of Carmen on Es Devlin’s extraordinary set was a knockout! […] If opera is theatre, and it certainly should be, then this big-audience production serves it brilliantly.”

Featuring

Orchestra: Wiener Symphoniker

Conductor: Paolo Carignani

Choruses: Prague Philharmonic Choir, Bregenz Festival Choir, Children’s Choir of the Musikmittelschule Bregenz-Stadt

Chorus Masters: Lukáš Vasilek, Benjamin Lack, Wolfgang Schwendinger, Michael Schwendinger

Stage Director: Kasper Holten

Carmen: Gaëlle Arquez

Don José: Daniel Johansson

Escamillo: Scott Hendricks

Micaëla: Elena Tsallagova

Le Remendado: Simeon Esper

Le Dancaïre: Dariusz Perczak

Frasquita: Jana Baumeister

Mercédès: Marion Lebègue

Moralès: Rafael Fingerlos

Zuniga: Sébastien Soulès

Lillas Pastia: Stefan Wallraven

Carmen as a Child: Efsa Topal

Video Director: Felix Breisach

Repertoire

1. Georges Bizet: Carmen WD 31

Duration: approx. 125 minutes.

Subtitles available in English and German.

This video is provided free of charge as a teaser video as part of a cooperation with UNITEL in connection with the relaunch of myfidelio.

Dieses Video wird im Rahmen einer Kooperation mit UNITEL im Zusammenhang mit dem Relaunch von myfidelio als Teaser-Video kostenlos zur Verfügung gestellt.