Gulbenkian Music has teamed up with the Aix-en-Provence Festival to show, on a large screen, in its Grand Auditorium, four production premieres: Carmen by Bizet, The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky, Così Fan Tutte by Mozart and Alcina by Händel. With free admission, this initiative seeks to take some of the best production at this prestigious, beyond borders Festival, opening up the music – and opera in particular – to a new public.

Sinopse

Free was she born, free shall she die. Occasionally, a tobacco worker, occasionally a tobacco smuggler, also somewhat enchanting and frequently passionate. Capable of deserting Don José or captivating the bull fighter Escamillo, she is the ally of love, this rebellious bird and daughter of the bohemia that she so much resembles. Her name: Carmen. Around these two syllables, Prosper Mérimée constructed a novel that Georges Bizet turned into a character that his opera transformed into a myth. That of the free woman, listening to her desire without any concern for the consequences and destined to die, stabbed by one she deserted, consumed by his passion. Whoever says myth, also says an infinity of possible readings. Even while having become the most popular opera in the world, Carmen remains susceptible to the most recent approaches as is the case with any universal masterpiece. With design by the visionary scenographer Dmitri Tcherniakov, this promises great emotions: how Mérimée, in his performance reveals Carmen through the eye of José. And in the vertigo of directing the actors down to the millimetre, under the elegant conducting of Pablo Heras-Casado, this recognises the eternal dance of a couple in a fatal love affair.

Opera in French with English subtitles.

Musical direction Pablo Heras-Casado
Staging and scenography Dmitri Tcherniakov
Lighting design Gleb Filshtinsky
WardrobeElena Zaitseva
Carmen Stéphanie d’Oustrac
Don José Michael Fabiano
Micaëla Elsa Dreisig
Escamillo Michael Todd Simpson
Frasquita Gabrielle Philiponet
Mercédès Virginie Verrez
Le dancaïre Guillaume Andrieux
Le remendado Mathias Vidal  
Zuniga Christian Helmer       
Moralès Pierre Doyen
Choir Ensemble vocal Aedes
Youth Choir Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône
Orchestra Orchestre de Paris

New production for the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2017

A co-production with Théâtres de La Ville du Luxemburg