Photo Flash: The Royal Opera House Stages Classic CARMEN

By: Julie Musbach Feb. 08, 2018

BroadwayWorld has a first look at CARMEN at the Royal Opera House!

Carmen is the best-known work by French composer Georges Bizet, and one of the most famous operas in the entire art form - numbers such as the Habanera and the Toreador Song have permeated the popular consciousness as little else has. The opera's heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence initially proved too much for the stage, and it was a critical failure on its 1875 premiere. Bizet died shortly after, and never learned of the spectacular success his Carmen would achieve: the opera has been performed more than five hundred times at Covent Garden alone.

This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky's highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world's most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich's The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera's endlessly fascinating central character.

Carmen is at the Royal Opera House until 16 March

Photo credit: Bill Cooper

Photo Flash: The Royal Opera House Stages Classic CARMEN

Photo Flash: The Royal Opera House Stages Classic CARMEN
CARMEN _ROH, Director; Barrie Kosky, Carmen; Anna Goryachova, Don Jose; Francesco Meli, Escamillo; Kostas Smoriginas, MicaÃ«la; Kristina Mkhitaryan, Zuniga;David Soar, Frasquita; Jacquelyn Stucker, Mercedes; Aigul Akhmetshina, Le DancaÃ¯re; Pierre Doyen, Le Remendado; Jean_Paul Fouchecourt, Morales; Gyula Nagy, Choreographer; Otto Pichler, Chorus Director; William Spaulding, Assistant Director; Alan Barnes, Conductor; Jakub Hrusa, Conductor: Christopher Willis,

Photo Flash: The Royal Opera House Stages Classic CARMEN

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