Organization

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Anna Caterina Antonacci

Carmen

Marina Domashenko

Tenor

Jonas Kaufmann

Don José

Marco Berti

Baritone

Ildebrando D'Arcangelo

Escamillo

Laurent Naouri

Soprano

Norah Amsellem

Michaela

Liping Zhang

Bass

Matthew Rose

Zuniga

Roderick Earle

Jacques Imbrailo

Morales

Grant Doyle

Elena Xanthoudakis

Frasquita

Ana James

Viktoria Vizin

Mercedes

Liora Grodnikaite

Jean-Sébastien Bou

Dancaire

Adrian Clarke

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt

Remendado

Harry Nicoll

Conductor

Antonio Pappano

David Syrus

Philippe Auguin

Stage director

Francesca Zambello

Set designer

Tanya McCallin

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Paule Constable

Choreographer

Arthur Pita

Chorus master

Renato Balsadonna

Royal Opera House

French

London

United Kingdom

Internationally recognised director Francesca Zambello joins forces with Antonio Pappano, who conducts the ‘utterly compelling’ Anna Caterina Antonacci as Carmen and Jonas Kaufmann as Don José.

For this, his 17th and last opera, Georges Bizet took inspiration from the popular novella by Prosper Mérimée, which had enticed French readers with exotic tales of Spain. Its heady combination of passion, sensuality and violence initially proved too much for the stage and the opera was a critical failure on its premiere in 1875. Bizet died shortly after, and never learned of the spectacular success Carmen would achieve. Popular around the world, the opera has been performed more than five hundred times at Covent Garden alone.

The opera contains many much-loved numbers, such as Carmen’s seductive Habanera and Escamillo’s rousing Toreador Song, in which he celebrates the thrill of the bullfight. In Francesca Zambello’s 2006 production for The Royal Opera, richly coloured designs by Tanya McCallin capture the sultry heat of the Spanish sun, while ranks of soldiers, crowds of peasants, gypsies and bullfighters bring 19th-century Seville to life.

Production booklet

Further reading