The playing cards, which seem to hover between two massive hands, are not only part of the scene but also serve as projection surfaces. Set Designer Es Devlin, who already designed sets for pop stars like Adele, U2, Take That, the Pet Shop Boys and Kanye West, has created a set construction with an impressive height of 21 metres. This new production on the Bregenz lake-stage has been staged by Kasper Holten, who has been attracting great attention for his work at major theatres around the world, in particular for his “Copenhagen Ring” and his stagings as Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
The Wiener Symphoniker play Bizet’s powerful score with elegance and technical virtuosity, under the “sensitive and energetic musical direction” (The Telegraph) by Paolo Carignani. She embodies Carmen “in a finely nuanced and completely natural way, as if she had just invented Habanera & Co.” (Tagesspiegel). The title role of Carmen is performed by rising star mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez, alongside Swedish tenor Daniel Johansson as strongly passionate Don José.Īcting with unrestrained intensity and displaying a stunning array of vocal colours, Gaëlle Arquez is at the centre of attention. One of the most popular and beloved operas of the world, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, sees a new staging at the Bregenz Festival, with its breathtaking backdrop of Lake Constance and a spectacular set design by British artist Es Devlin. The latter, however, has long since captured Carmen‘s heart, making Don José mad with jealousy. He hides out with her band of smugglers, ignores Micaëla‘s words of warning, and even imagines he‘s more than a match for Escamillo, the swaggering bullfighter. He sees the flower she threw at him as a token of her love and dreams of spending his life with her, even at the cost of losing his rank and status. He is arrested for his weakness but is soon released. The soldier Don José is ordered to detain her after a fight but she twists him around her finger.
She‘s desired by all and is an object of fascination for the soldiers on guard duty as they smoke and play cards: Carmen.
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