Carmen

You may never have experienced Carmen live on stage – but you certainly know the music. Few operas are packed with as many instantly recognisable melodies as Bizet’s 1875 masterpiece. From the iconic, high-spirited prelude, the audience is swept along and held in its grasp for nearly three hours, carried by a string of operatic highlights and one of the most provocative stories in the repertoire.

Carmen is, however, more than unforgettable music. It is also the portrait of one of opera history’s central female figures, who, 150 years after the premiere, continues to seduce, astonish and fascinate in her portrayal of freedom, jealousy, desire, love, revenge and powerlessness. At the same time, the opera feeds into a highly topical debate about partner violence and the mechanisms that lead a woman “free as a bird” to return to a man who wishes her harm.

In the story, we meet Sergeant Don José, who falls in love with the small-time criminal Carmen, whom he is assigned to guard after a knife attack. Carmen persuades him to set her free, even though it brings his military career to an end. Don José joins Carmen and a travelling band of outlaws, but when Carmen falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo, she leaves him. Realising that his life lies in ruins because of Carmen – having lost his fiancée, his family and his profession – Don José is left rejected and humiliated. In blind rage, he seeks out Carmen…

The title role of Carmen is performed in alternation by Siv Misund and Laura Mayer, while Anders Kampmann and Fredrik Bjellsäter share the role of Don José.

Carmen is performed in Danish with Danish surtitles.

Recommended from 12 years old