Carmen

You may well have never experienced Carmen live on stage. But you definitely know the music. Few operas are so interspersed with recognisable melodies, as Bizet's 1875 masterpiece. Right from the iconic and fast-paced prelude, you as the audience are taken by the hand, and it is only released again a little three hours later, when a string of greatest hits and one of the most provocative tales of the 20th century has flown over the stage.

Carmen is more than unforgettable music. It is also a portrait of one of the central female figures of opera history, who, 150 years after its premiere, still seduces, amazes and fascinates in its representation of freedom, jealousy, seduction, love, revenge and powerlessness. At the same time, the opera breathes into a highly topical debate about partner violence and the mechanisms by which a woman 'free as a bird' nevertheless chooses to return to the man who wants her hurt.

In the narrative we meet the sergeant Don José, who falls in love with the petty criminal Carmen, whom he guards after a knife assault. Carmen persuades him to set her free, even though it will be the end of his soldier career. Don José joins Carmen and a traveling herd of outlaws, but Carmen falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo and leaves Don José. Don José realizes that his life is in ruins because of Carmen: he has lost his fiancée, his family, and his work, and is now left rejected and humiliated. In a blind rage, he seeks out Carmen...

The title role of Carmen is sung alternately by Siv Misund and Laura Mayer, and Anders Kampmann and Fredrik Bjellsäter share the role of Don José.

Carmen is sung in Danish with Danish subtitles.

Recommended from 12 years