Attention, production-event has the Royal Opera of Versaillesand this for 8 performances: Carmen by Georges Bizet is the most performed work in the world! A lyrical summit which is also emblematic of French opera. All the more unmissable – in the case of this production – as it offers us costumes and sets from the creation in 1875…
More Carmen, first of all, shocked at its creation in 1875: the subject, the succession of scenes, especially the musical portrait of the sultry cigar maker and temptress, scandalized the audience of the Opéra-Comique. The violence of the emotions, the immoral freedom of the heroine, the Hispanic expressiveness of the music imagined by Bizet (who never made the trip to Spain!) obsess the spectators. And despite the sudden death of the composer – during the 33rd performance! -, Carmen won the esteem of the whole world and became the most anticipated and applauded opera on the planet. A status that has hardly diminished since then. Versailles thinks big. The Royal Opera and its house teams (Orchestra and Choir) are offering at the start of 2025, the version of creation,in the costumes and sets of 1875… enough to celebrate with dignity the 150th anniversary of the work which has become legendary. The Royal Opera offers a finally faithful reconstruction of the sets and costumes of Bizet’s time: here is Bizet’s Seville, with picadors, bullfighters, brigadiers and brigands, alguazil, rising guard, and above all flaming and provocative cigar women…
Hervé Niquet directs several of the most committed and convincing singers of the day (Adele Charvet et Éléonore Pancrazi alternate in the title role; Florie Valiquette et Vannina Santoni in that of Micaëla…), the Royal Opera Orchestra will play on period instruments and several members of the Royal Opera Academy will perform secondary roles… an unmissable operatic production!
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VERSAILLES, Royal Opera
BIZET : Carmen (version 1875)
January 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 and 22, 2025)
(at 8 p.m. – 3 p.m. Sun Jan 19, 2025)
INFO & RESERVATIONS / Reserve your seats directly on the Château de Versailles Shows / Royal Opera website: https://www.operaroyal-versailles.fr/event/bizet-carmen/
3 hours, intermission included
Distribution
CARMEN : Adèle Charvet (January 14, 16, 18 and 22)
/ Éléonore Pancrazi (January 15, 17, 19 and 21)
DON JOSE : Julien Behr (January 14, 16, 18 and 22)
/ Kévin Amiel (January 15, 17, 19 and 21)
Alexandre Duhamel, Escamillo
Florie Valiquette (January 14, 16, 18, 21 and 22)
/ Vannina Santoni (January 15, 17 and 19): Micaëla
Gwendoline Blondeel: Frasquita
Ambroisine Bré: Mercedes
Matthieu Walendzik: The Dancaïre
Attila Varga-Tóth*: Le Remendado
Nicolas Certenais : Zuniga
Halidou Name*: Moralès
*Members of the Royal Opera Academy
Rameau Choir
Royal Opera Choir
Royal Opera Orchestra
Hervé Niquetdirection
Romain Gilbert, Director
Vincent Chaillet, Choreography
Christian Lacroix, assisted by Jean-Philippe Pons: Costumes
Antoine Fontaine, Sets
Hervé Gary, Lights
Adèle Borde, Antoine Cardin, Pierrick Defives, Paloma Gandia,
Izquierdo, Karmil Suliman, dancers
Cédric Brenner, Maxime Nourissat, Mimes
Harold Batola, Stanislas Briche, Romain Collard,
Baptiste Delamare, Vladimir Delaye, Vincent Petit Figurants
