STORY – To celebrate the 150th anniversary of its creation, Bizet’s masterpiece is about to go on tour in its reconstituted original version. An opportunity to look back at the reasons behind a triumph that literally and figuratively got the better of its author.
Two hundred and twenty… That’s the number of productions of Carmen recorded by the Operabase reference site for the 2024-2025 season. A new record. A reminder of the extent to which Georges Bizet fascinates audiences far beyond our borders, a century and a half after its premiere. Laurent Brunner knows all about it.
In early January, the director of the Opéra royal de Versailles will open the festivities to celebrate the work’s 150th anniversary with a production that caused quite a stir last season: a recreation of the original staging of the opera, performed on March 3, 1875 at the Opéra Comique. A sumptuous spectacle, undertaken by the Palazzetto Bru Zane (a Venice-based center for French Romantic music), whose recording at the Opéra de Rouen last September has just been released on DVD.
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The original 1875 Carmen is reborn at the Opéra de Rouen
“ Although we didn’t initiate this re-enactment project, we immediately wanted to be part of it, explains Laurent Brunner. It’s a show that ticks all the boxes the curtain is half-opened, and we are in 1875. And 1875 is a key date for…
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