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Music by Georges Bizet ; Poem by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy based on the short story by Prosper Mérimée.Violent passion crushed by a blazing Spanish sun; Philippe Jordan conducts Bizet’s masterpiece for its long-awaited return to the Paris Opera.Music needs to be “Mediterraneanized”. That is what Nietzsche wrote – in French! – after hearing Carmen for the twentieth time. He was grateful that Bizet, ten years after Tristan, had composed its antithesis – even its antidote. Far from the heady aura of the Wagnerian ideal, Bizet had brought to the stage of the Opéra-Comique a deadly passion, violently revealed and crushed by the Spanish sun. The philosopher saw its as a revelation and deliverance. “ The work has retained Mérimée’s logically moving passion, concise lines, and implacable precision. Above all, it possesses what is distinctive to hot countries, namely, the dryness of the air. A different sensuality, a different sensibility, a different, and more confident gaiety speaks there. The music is gay, but this is no French or German gaiety. It’s gaiety is African. Blind fate weighs down on her, her happiness is brief, sudden, merciless. Then, finally, love; love re-transposed into its original nature! Love conceived as a fatum, a fatality, cynical love,innocent, cruel! Love, harbinger of war; the mortal hatred of the sexes its very principle.”Philippe Jordan conducts Bizet’s masterpiece for its long-awaited return to the Paris Opera.
Nikolai Schukoff (Don José), Ludovic Tézier (Escamillo), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Le Dancaïre), François Piolino (Le Remendado),François Lis (Zuniga), Alexandre Duhamel (Morales), Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen), Genia Kühmeier (Micaela), Olivia Doray (Frasquita), Louise Callinan (Mercedes), Philippe Faure (Lillas Pastia) Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Paris Opera Children’s Chorus
Conductor: Philippe Jordan, Stage director: Yves Beaunesne, Sets: Damien Caille-Perret, Costumes: Jean-Daniel Vuillermoz, Lighting: Joël Hourbeigt, Choreography: Jean Gaudin, Dramaturgy: Marion Bernède,Chorus master: Patrick Marie Aubert
French
English, French
Production compagny : François Roussillon & associés
Running Time : 1 x 170'
Production Year : 2012
Distribution compagny : Telmondis distribution
Video Format : HD CAM