A Carmen by Georges Bizet who lives again - filtered through a bath of modernity destined once again to shake - in her authenticity as a proudly free woman, and therefore a victim of male violence; a Carmen immersed in a scenography marked by twentieth-century popular elements and some moments even inspired by western films. It is what Damiano Michieletto, with the originality now recognized internationally, brought to the prestigious stage of the Royal Opera House (Roh) in London in the premiere of the performance scheduled at Covent Garden from this weekend to 31 May.
A show that in the next two seasons will be in Madrid and then in Milan. And which in the meantime made its breakthrough, in a deluge of applause, in front of the audience of opera lovers in the British capital. With a sold-out debut that confirms the attention that the Venetian director manages to arouse, both among the public and in critical reviews.
Supported on the occasion by a cast of high-level performers and musicians, led on their debut by the baton of the Turin Antonello Manacorda, called to alternate on the podium of the orchestral direction - in the various London performances entrusted to a complete double cast - with the Frenchman Emmanuel Villaume.
"This is a tragedy linked to man's immaturity, to Don José's inability to accept his reality, which will lead him to commit a criminal act, emblem of his persistent infantilism", he underlined to ANSA on the sidelines of the debut evening Michieletto: returned to the London temple of opera for the fourth time after the success-scandal of Guglielmo Tell in 2015; the diptych Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci earned him nothing less than the Olivier Award; and Don Pasquale of 2019. "Carmen also and above all talks about freedom - continued the director, ready as in the past to challenge the quiet life of purists - since on the one hand the female figure of the protagonist embodies the idea of absolute freedom ; on the other hand in the figure of Don José's mother (evoked by her staging as a sort of silent black shadow, ed.) she expresses the attempt to tie a son to herself, forcing him to obey, hijacking his will to maintain control over of him. And although the mother is not physically present in the story, her strength manifests itself through the character of Micaela." "The final tragedy, with what is in effect Carmen's femicide, thus transforms into a metaphorical clash between two opposing existential models", Michieletto's conclusion.
To highlight all this, the show - co-produced by the Royal Opera House, La Scala in Milan and the Teatro Real in Madrid - can leverage world stars and emerging voices of today's opera scene: like the young and sparkling Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, under the spotlight of the first in the non-traditional guise of a Carmen interpreted with sublime voice, ease and extraordinary stage presence until the highly graphic epilogue of the killing (Akhmetshina who will be replaced from 12 May by her compatriot Vasilisa Berzhanskaya). Or again as Piotr Beczala (Don José); Kostas Smoriginas (Escamillo); and finally the Ukrainian Olga Kulchynska (real ovations for her Micaëla).
A context that cannot fail to attract the attention of the major press in the United Kingdom. As demonstrated by the fact that "this Carmen", signed by Michieletto, was included by the Daily Telegraph among "the 10 operas not to be missed" of the 2024 season: for the "burning intensity" of a story in music that is more current than ever.
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