Jerusalem Lyric Opera

27th May 2023

G.Bizet Carmen

Georges Bizet`s opus has existed for almost a century and a half and is one of the leaders in the modern operatic repertoire. Comparing the performances of different years and in different countries, one can see not only the diverse and colorful world of incarnations of an operatic masterpiece but also reflections of a specific historical time.

Carmen:Love and Freedom
Premiered in France in 1875, Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (with libretto by Henri Meilhax and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée) provided audiences with a main character who is not only aware of her sexuality but who knows how to use it as a source of power and self-satisfaction. Carmen is often viewed as an ambiguous protagonist of questionable morals embody a triple threat toward male characters in the opera.
For stage director Rocc "the famous story of the seductive gypsy woman is basically a social drama that raises the question of free love as a momentary unbridled passion, versus jealousy and revenge inevitably leading to destruction. Carmen and her lover, Don José, live two diametrically different lives: he is an orderly soldier aiming at an idyllic family life in the countryside, and she is a free spirit attracted to spontaneous life on the edge of society. The clash of two archetypes: orderly and rational logic versus uncivilized and chaotic exoticism. When the two worlds meet, they mutually excite each other, but as a result, they necessarily nullify each other. The conflict between normative-dogmatic social systems and free-thinking primal human instincts, as well as the eternal motive of passionate love, are no less different and relevant today." Conductor Paolo Spadaro brings together such illustrious colleagues as Marta Matalon, Alin Stoica, Michal Partyka, and others.

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