FASCINATION AND TRAGEDY - BIZET'S CARMEN

The bohemian Carmen, one of the workers in a cigarette factory in Seville, has her eye on the young soldier Don José. During a fight, she injures a colleague with a knife and Don José, of all people, is sent to arrest her. She persuades him to let her go. This leads to his own arrest. Meanwhile, Carmen sets her sights on the bullfighter Escamillo. When Don José is released, he meets Carmen again, gets into an argument with his superior and goes into hiding with Carmen and a gang of smugglers. But Carmen rejects him - and Don José swears revenge ...

Carmen has been performed 727 times at the Volksoper in five different productions. Now Lotte de Beer and music director Ben Glassberg are devoting themselves to the work, adding joie de vivre and comedy to the tragedy:
„In the first two acts, Carmen seems like an operetta: colourful songs with folkloric features, spoken texts, humour, catchy tunes ... But the third act heralds the tragedy that unfolds in the fourth act. And then, in retrospect, we realise that it couldn't really have developed any other way. That is the power of this piece.“ Ben Glassberg conducted Bizet's opera in autumn 2023 at various venues (in Rouen, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin). In this opera, it is particularly important to him to find the right balance between lightness and heaviness, „it has to be precise, but with a sound that overwhelms us.“

THE MYTH OF THE FREE, INDEPENDENT WOMAN

„One word is very important in Carmen: freedom,“ says director Lotte de Beer. „But is Carmen really the free, independent woman we think she is, or is she rather a prisoner of the myth of the free, independent woman? Isn't it the men in particular who make her believe this independence so that her conquest is all the more rewarding? These are the questions that concern me about this character.“

The role of Carmen is embodied by Katia Ledoux, who has dreamed of playing this character since childhood and therefore became an opera singer: „All the issues that Carmen deals with are still relevant today, from the racism she experiences due to her darker skin and eyes to police violence. And it's all set to stirring music and many of the greatest hits ever composed. Carmen is one of the most performed operas of all time and yet I think the riches it holds are still underestimated. I LOVE this opera!“ says Katia Ledoux, whose international career has taken her regularly to Zurich Opera and most recently to the ROH Covent Garden (Bersi in Andrea Chénier).
Nikolai Schukoff is one of the most internationally sought-after heldentenors and returns to the Volksoper as Don José after a long absence. His interpretation of Parsifal alongside Placido Domingo brought the Austrian tenor his breakthrough at the Bavarian State Opera in 2007. Further milestones were Siegmund (Die Walküre) under the direction of Zubin Mehta in Valencia in 2013 and Don José (Carmen) at the Metropolitan Opera New York. Recent engagements have taken him to the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos as Florestan (Fidelio), to the Teatro Real Madrid as Walter in Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Passenger and to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Parsifal.

Josef Wagner returns to the Volksoper ensemble as Escamillo after a long break. Important stages in his career have most recently included the title roles in Eugene Onegin in Helsinki and The Flying Dutchman at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Malmö Opera, Count (Capriccio) at the Teatro Real Madrid, Jochanaan (Salome) at the Stuttgart State Opera, Barak (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Opéra Lyon and Telramund (Lohengrin) at the Opéra National du Rhin. His most recent appearances at the Volksoper were in The Tales of Hoffmann and The Flying Dutchman.

The stage design is by Christof Hetzer and the costumes by Jorine van Beek.