Carmen

Ever wonder why Bizet’s Carmen is one of the world’s most popular operas? Come meet the woman who outwits them all!

Carmen does not want to be seduced; she wants to do the seducing. Love is like a rebellious bird that no one can tame, she sings, like a lawless gypsy child. To this woman, all that matters is freedom – including the freedom to be a woman in her own way. This provokes Corporal Don José to no end. At the same time, he is obsessed with making her his own, his property. But Carmen will never let herself be chained down.

Popular production

The accomplished director Calixto Bieito is behind this production. To date, it has been seen by over 45,000 in Oslo and acclaimed by critics after premiering in 2015. “A revelation” wrote Dagbladet, while Morgenbladet described the performance as a “cinematically inspired contemporary drama that outperforms all traditional, romantic versions.”
When the production returns to the Main Stage, the role of Carmen will be played by both Alessandra Volpe and Ingeborg Gillebo, both of whom have performed this role successfully in the past.

Fateful borders

Calixto Bieito has stripped down the story and placed the action in the late 1970s, immediately after the end of the Franco era. There are no flamenco dancers or castanets to be seen. Instead, we meet people on the border between Spain and Morocco, as well as the border between freedom and coercion, sensuality and brutality, life and death. But this violent reality is not without humour, music or energy, which has fascinated Carmen audiences since the very first premiere in 1875.

Co-production with the English National Opera

Free introduction one hour before the performance