The Teatro Real will be hosting the latest production by Damiano Michieletto on the opera by Bizet on 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29 and 30 December and 2, 3 and 4 January 2026, shedding a new light on the lust, violence and passion of the popular opera.
Carmen is the last opera and masterpiece by Georges Bizet, based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée. On this occasion, it is coming to the Real with a production by Michieletto, with the participation of great voices, such as Aigul Akhmethsina, who is back at the Teatro Real after the hit Elisabetta by Maria Stuarda or artists of the likes of Michael Fabiano, Charles Castronovo or J’Nai Bridges.
Eun Sun Kim, currently the musical conductor of the San Francisco Opera, is at the helm of the Teatro Real Resident Orchestra and is the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro Real after winning first prize at the Jesús López-Cobos International opera Conducting Competition in 2008.
This opera in four acts, with a libretto written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, was first performed in Paris in 1875 and has become one of the best known and most popular operas in the operatic repertoire. It is set in Seville in 1820, where Carmen, a seductive and free gypsy woman who works in a tobacco factory, lives. Her attractiveness wins the heart of the soldier Don José, who is initially engaged to Micaela, but finds himself irresistibly attracted to Carmen.
The relationship between Carmen and Don José gets complicated as he is drawn into the world of smuggling and crime as a result of his obsession with her. However, these sacrifices are in vain when Carmen decides to give her affection to the bullfighter, Escamillo. This sends Don José into a spiral of pain, hatred and jealousy.
Artistic File:
- Musical Conductor - Eun Sun Kim / Iñaki Encina (3,4 Jan)
- Stage Director - Damiano Michieletto
- Stage Design - Paolo Fantin
- Costumes - Carla Teti
- Lighting - Alessandro Carletti
- Choirmaster - José Luis Basso
- Choirmaster of the Children’s Choir - Ana González
Cast:
- Carmen - Aigul Akhmetshina: 10, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29 December / J’Nai Bridges: 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 30 December; 3 January / Ketevan Kemoklidze: 2, 4 January
- Don José - Charles Castronovo: 10, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29 December; 2, 4 January / Michael Fabiano: 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 30 December; 3 January
- Escamillo - Lucas Meachem: 10, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26 December; 2 January / Luca Micheletti: 11, 14, 20, 27, 30 December; 3 January / Dmitry Cheblykov: 17, 29 December; 4 January
- Micaëla - Adriana González: 10, 13, 16, 19, 23, 26, 29 December; 2, 4 January / Miren Urbieta-Vega: 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 30 December; 3 January
- Zuniga - David Lagares
- Moralès - Toni Marsol
- Frasquita - Natalia Labourdette
- Mercédès - Marie-Claude Chappuis
- Le Dancaïre - Lluís Calvet
- Le Remendado - Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
- Teatro Real Resident Orchestra and Choir
- Young Singers from the ORCAM
Programme:
Comic Opera in Four Acts
- Music by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
- Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novel of the same name (1845) by Prosper Mérimée
- Premièred at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875
- Premièred at the Teatro Real on 14 March 1888
- Teatro Real production in co-production with the London Royal Ballet and Opera and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
