Carmen

With a spectacular production that has rewritten the rules of the Opera Festival, Carmen is scheduled for the 101st edition of the Verona Opera Festival for five evenings, the masterpiece of Georges Bizet in the setting conceived by the late director Franco Zeffirelli, with costumes by Anna Anni and choreography by El Camborio.

The story shows a strong passion against the backdrop of a dynamic Seville, which contrasts with a fitting and tight realism of cinematic form.

In the role of the rebellious gypsy Carmen, the rising star of the opera, the young mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, makes her debut on the first two dates.

Carmen is a comic opera by Georges Bizet in four acts (or paintings, as the composer calls them), to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Based on the novel of the same name by Prosper Mérimée (1845), it makes some salient changes, including the introduction of the characters of Escamillo and Micaela, and the character of Don José, who is described in the novel as a rough and brutal bandit.

It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Initially, the opera was not very well accepted due to its strong themes, so Bizet, who died three months after the first performance, could not see its later success. This is the work that opens the doors to the Verist current, which chose to represent stories more relevant to “real” life, references to events in the news, with more realistic and endowed characters with psychological complexity.

Performances: 5, 13, 20, 25 July at 9.15 p.m. - 3, 8, 17, 23 August at 9.00 p.m. - 7 September at 9.00 p.m.