Some of the greatest hits in opera history, immortal melodies and great emotions: Georges Bizet’s »Carmen« is one of the most famous operas of all time – and not without reason. Passionate love and raging jealousy, bullfighting and Spanish heat are all part of the package. Free and untamed, this is how the heroine of the piece wants to live her life: she would rather perish than submit to a man’s will. Carmen dies a heroine, to the sounds of perhaps the most passionate opera music ever written.
After countless highlights in the Baroque repertoire and masterful Mozart interpretations, conductor René Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra venture into the shimmering scenery of this grand opera, which was first performed in 1875.
It has never sounded like this before :he original version of »Carmen«
Bizet’s hit opera is performed this evening in a very special version: as the French composer originally intended it in 1874, before the director of the Opéra comique urged him to make far-reaching changes to the score. The manuscripts of this original version have now been analysed, yielding a reconstructed »Carmen« as it has never been heard before.
Gaëlle Arquez as an experienced Carmen and Sabine Devieilhe as her rival Micaëla form a sparkling female double act. Tenor François Rougier takes to the stage as Carmen’s infatuated admirer Don José, baritone Thomas Dolié as his adversary Escamillo.
René Jacobs on the 1874 version of Carmen
Performers
B’Rock Orchestra
Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Kinderchor der Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
Gaëlle Arquez Carmen
François Rougier Don José
Thomas Dolié Escamillo
Sabine Devieilhe Micaëla
Margot Genet Frasquita
Séraphine Cotrez Mercédès
Grégoire Mour Remendado
Emiliano Gonzalez Toro Dancaïre
Yoann Dubruque Moralès
Frédéric Caton Zuniga
director René Jacobs
Programme
Georges Bizet
Carmen / opéra-comique in four acts
Concert performance in French with German surtitles
