Carmen

Georges Bizet’s opera

SEB presents

Georges Bizet’s opera to Henri Meilhac’s and Ludovic Halévy’s libretto, based on the eponymous novelette by Prosper Mérimée 
World premiere: March 3, 1875 at Paris Opéra Comique 
Premiere at the Estonian National Opera on September 27, 2024

Music Director and Conductor: Arvo Volmer
Conductors: Henri Christofer Aavik, Kaspar Mänd
Stage Director, Set and Costume Designer: Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau (France)
Lighting Designer: Gilles Gentner (France) 
Estonian National Opera Chorus, Orchestra and Boys’ Choir

When “Carmen” was first staged in France (1875), it received negative feedback: its plot was considered immoral and characters vulgar. Bizet shocked the audience by portraying ordinary people on stage – villagers, factory workers, gypsies, smugglers, and by showing the death of the main character on stage. Pyotr Tchaikovsky understood the greatness of this piece and predicted a brilliant future for the opera: “Ten years from now it will be the most popular opera in the world”. And he was right, because “Carmen” shortly became one of the most popular operas with the Toreador’s song and the main character’s Habanera becoming the symbols of opera music for many generations.

Bizet’s passionate music is brought to life on stage by the stage director Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau: “Carmen is a woman haunted by fate and destiny that run between men and superstitions, religion and paganism. To communicate this, I want to return to the sources of the Carmen “myth”: rediscover the harsh and uncompromising spirit of Mérimée’s heroine. In a cigar factory, a no man’s land and an arena, Carmen plays, dances, summons the spirits, and trembles. From the start, she must be aware of her imminent and inevitable death, like an animal that senses danger and the hunter. Carmen is also a figure of anarchy, of the refusal of the established order, of total and deadly freedom, who, through her attitude and her behaviour, challenges bourgeois morality. This figure of a woman like a black sun will find in Don José the instrument of her destiny. Don José is already a murderer; he joined the army to flee from the consequences of his actions and his village. He is broken, dangerous and very unstable. The witch in Carmen will sense that at an instant. She will use José, drive him crazy, and lead him to kill her, because that is his destiny. This is what I want to show in my production of “Carmen”, in the midst of the sand of the bull fighting arena, Madonnas, bandits, sweat, dances, chairs, and bullfighting”.

Performed in French with subtitles in Estonian and English

Recommended age 7+