Between days 11 October 18 November Theater Royal offer 18 functions Carmen from Georges Bizet (1838-1875), with three different distributions, in the successful production directed by calixto Bieito what, since its premiere in 1999, at the Peralada Festival ─ which co-produced the opera with Opera Zuid Maastricht─, It has been presented in more than 30 theaters in Europe and America and offered in Spain at the San Lorenzo del Escorial Auditorium (2009), Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (2010 Y 2015) and the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao (2014).
In addition to this tour of the opera houses (which will continue after the Royal Theater), the quality of the production is endorsed by the awards it has received, as the Campoamor Award, in Oviedo, in 2011, or Franco Abbiati, in Italy, in 2012.
For the spectacular roaming of production, has contributed, in addition to quality, originality and strength of Calixto Bieito's stage direction, the simple and effective scenography of Alfons Flores.
Along the 18 years, the set initially conceived for Peralada and Maastricht was adapted to the characteristics of each theater and, most unusual case, it was multiplying: several theaters have decided to rebuild the set of Carmen, as the Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Opera San Francisco (who then sold it to the Boston Opera), the English National Opera (in co-production with Oslo Opera House), he Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theater of Bogotá (whose stored decor was recently destroyed by fire), and finally, the Paris Opera, who did the scenography for the Bastille Theater last summer and who, by its proportions, is the one that best adapts to the stage of the Royal Theater.
In his dramaturgical proposal for Carmen, calixto Bieito moves the opera away from the picturesque focus and moves its plot to Ceuta over the years 70, border area conducive to the universe of smuggling and marginalization, in which the situation of the protagonists is presented with a tear, referring to the confusion caused by the premiere of the play in Paris, in 1875, when the public rejected his naturalistic drama.
Georges Bizet, deeply disappointed in the poor reception of his opera, tired and sick, would die three months later, with scarcely 36 years, without intuiting that his Carmen, precursor of Italian verism, would become one of the most performed operas in the world.
Following in the wake of Federico García Lorca, that asked the actors to show ‘the bones and blood of their characters’, Bieito demands a visceral interpretation of the singers and the choir, in which seduction, the passion, sex, the abuse, humiliation, the male chauvinism, jealousy and unreason reach the viewer with emotional violence and a frenetic pace, empowered by life to the limit in that hyperbolic underworld, not without a haunting poetry, reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino O Martin Scorsese.
At the Teatro Real, three casts by renowned singer-actors will give life to Bizet's opera, led by mezzo-sopranos anna Goryachova, Stephanie d'Oustrac Y Gaëlle Arquez (Carmen), tenors Francesco Meli, Andrea Carè Y Leonardo Caimi (Mr Jose), las sopranos Eleonora Buratto Y Olga Busuioc (Micaëla) and the baritones-bass Kyle Ketelsen Y Vito Priante (Escamillo) what, with the rest of the cast and the Headlines Choir and Orchestra of the Teatro Real, will perform under the musical direction of Marc Piollet, great expert in the nineteenth-century French repertoire.
The different readings and interpretations that arise from Bizet's fabulous score and its ability to provoke emotions make Carmen a work always alive and universal.
THEATERS THAT HAVE PRESENTED THE PRODUCTION OF CARMEN DIRECTED BY CALIXTO BIEITO:
- Peralada Festival, 1999 (premiere)
- Opera South, Maastricht, 2000
- Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 2002
- Flanders Opera, Antwerp, 2004
- Flanders Opera, Ghent, 2004
- Opera South, Maastricht, 2007
- Parquet Theater Eindoven, 2007
- Theater on the Parade, the Bosch, 2007
- Lucent Danstheater, Hague, 2007
- Stadsschouwburg, Utrecht, 2007
- Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Rotterdam, 2007
- Theater, Tilburg, 2007
- Parkstad Limburg Theaters, Heerlen, 2007
- Stadsschouwburg, Groningen, 2007
- Theater at the Vrijthof, Maastricht, 2007
- Chassé Theater, Breda, 2007
- Auditorium of San Lorenzo del Escorial, 2009
- Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 2010
- Theater Basel, Basel, 2012
- Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Bogotá, 2012
- Regio Theater, Torino, 2012
- English National Opera, London, 2012
- La Fenice Theater, Venice, 2013
- Euskalduna, Bilbao, 2014
- English National Opera, London, 2015
- Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 2015
- The Norwegian Opera, Oslo, 2015
- Massimo Theater, Palermo, 2016
- National Theater of São Carlos, Lisboa, 2016
- Boston Lyric Opera, 2016
- San Francisco Opera, 2016
- La Fenice Theater, Venice, 2017
- The Norwegian Opera, Oslo, 2017
- Opera National de Paris, 2017
AGENDA | PARALLEL ACTIVITIES
15 October, to 12.00 and to the 17.00 hours | Teatro Real, sala Gayarre
family workshop Everyone to the Gayarre!: "Love is a rebellious bird".
Directed by Fernando Palacios, with the participation of Pilar Vázquez (mezzo soprano) and Elisa Rapado (piano).
16 October, to 19.00 hours | Teatro Real, sala Gayarre
Discussion around Carmen with Carmen Iglesias, Serafin Fanjul, Enriqueta Vila Vilar and Juan Pablo Fusi.
Collaboration with the Real Academia de la Historia
17 October, to 19.00 hours | National Museum of Romanticism
Conference around Carmen
21 October, to 11.00 hours | French institute
creative workshop around production.
Carmen: To imagine, create drawing… like a true artist.
In French (all levels) for children 4 a 8 years
22 October, to 12.00 hours | Teatro Real, living room
Works by Darius Millaud, Maurice Ravel, Ernest Chausson and Claude Debussy
Soloists of the Titular Orchestra of the Teatro Real
27 October, to 18.00 hours | Spanish Film Library, Living room 2
Film Series: Teatro Real: Opera night
Carmen (Spain, 1983). Directed by Carlos Saura. Interpretation: Antonio Gades and Laura del Sol.