Insights into The Royal Opera's new production of Carmen
Join the cast and creative team for a glimpse behind the scenes on Barrie Kosky's hotly-anticipated new Royal Opera production. Find out more at www.roh.org.uk/carmen Featuring members of the cast and the creative team, the event will feature performance extracts of Bizet's well-known opera, as well as interviews with director Barrie Kosky, conductor Jakub Hrůša and stars Anna Goryachova (Carmen) and Francesco Meli (Don José). The event will be presented by Flora Willson. Following his success last Season with The Nose, Barrie Kosky returns to Covent Garden with a highly physical production of Carmen which was originally created for Frankfurt Opera. His is a far-from-traditional take on the classic, 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 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. --- The production is supported by Abu Dhabi Festival and is staged with generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet, Yvonne and Bjarne Rieber, Alan Howard, Trifon and Despina Natsis, The ROH Young Philanthropists, and the Friends of Covent Garden.
