Carmen

CARMEN – Bizet's Masterpiece Between Seduction and Rebellion

With Carmen, Bizet created an operatic figure in 1875 that polarizes audiences to this day: seductress, freedom fighter, goddess of fate – Carmen defies any fixed interpretation. She lives radically according to her own rules, rejects social constraints, and becomes a projection screen for desire, power, and fear.


At the same time, Bizet revolutionized the operatic stage with CARMEN. The realistic portrayal of female workers, smugglers, and soldiers—the "little people" on the margins of society—represented a break with the bourgeois-heroic operatic tradition. The story of Don José, whose destructive love for Carmen leads him ever deeper into dependency, criminality, and madness, is not only a tragedy of emotions, but also a reflection of social and gender power relations.

Opera Berlin: Ole Anders Tandberg's production

In his powerful and highly acclaimed production, Ole Anders Tandberg gives the opera classic CARMEN new relevance. His direction combines realistic scenes, luridly grotesque tableaux, and bloody ritual images of bullfighting into a gripping narrative of power, desire, and violence. The aesthetic is at times reminiscent of Tarantino films, with the musical intensity and emotional depth of the work always taking center stage.


Tandberg's Carmen is a complex character: not just an object of desire or an icon of freedom, but a human being who protects herself from emotional trauma behind a dazzling facade. In her relationship with Don José, vulnerability and genuine emotion flash for moments before the deadly drama unfolds.


Cast & Direction:

• Aleksandra Meteleva / Irene Roberts – Carmen
  
• Nina Solodovnikova / Maria Motolygina – Micaëla
  
• Andrei Danilov / Vittorio Grigolo / Attilio Glaser – Don José
  
• Byung Gil Kim / Joel Allison – Escamillo
  
• Musical Direction: Anna Handler / Friedrich Praetorius
  
• Director: Ole Anders Tandberg
  

3 hours / One intermission

In French with German and English surtitles