Georges Bizet: Carmen – Oper in vier Akten

Carmen is a myth, something that never was, but always is. The freedom-loving Carmen is the demonic, exotic seductress of a man who is still self-confident at the beginning. The love between the two ultimately leads to a merciless fight to the death: absolute fidelity or absolute freedom?

So when in Carmen the soldier Don José jeopardizes his modest career, his budding marriage to Micaëla, his orderly social life, descends into petty crime and in the end even becomes a murderer, Prosper Mérimée, the author of the original story, has the perpetrator explain this in retrospect on the day before his execution with this mythical Carmen magic.

For the opera version, however, Bizet changes the perspective, removes all moralizing, justification and accusation and tells the story - to tremendous musical-dramatic effect - from the point of view of the main female character: Carmen thus becomes an unsparing showpiece with music!

In this production, the students not only provide the sets, costumes and make-up, play in the orchestra and sing in the choir, but also take on all the solo parts and develop new dialog scenes to shed new light on this myth from today's perspective. The result is a unique version of Carmen that contrasts the 19th century image of Carmen with today's gender relations.