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Mezzo-soprano

Terezija Kusanović

Carmen

Tenor

Ivan Momirov

Don José

Vladimir Garić

Baritone

Ivan Šarić

Escamillo

Ivica Čikeš

Špiro Boban

Dancaire

Vinko Maroević

Remendado

Saša Jakelić

Bass

Mate Akrap

Zuniga

Zlatko Aurelio Kokeza

Morales

Soprano

Antonija Teskera

Michaela

Božena Svalina

Marija Buzdovačić

Frasquita

Jelena Brnadić

Branka Pleština

Barbara Sumić

Mercedes

Vera Obukhova Velić

Bjanka Ivas

Spoken

Miroslav Ljubičić

Lillas Pastia

Conductor

Marco Boemi

Stage director

Dora Ruždjak Podolski

Set designer

Josip Lovrenović

Costume designer

Vanja Popović

Sonja Obradović

Lighting designer

Zoran Mihanović

Branimir Bokan

Chorus master

Ana Šabašov

Marko Lasić

Robert Homen

Sarajevo National Theatre

HNK Split

Others

HNK Split Choir

Split

Croatia

Carmen Bizet

Public

Private

Approved

"... undoubtedly, in Split we got a performance that will fill the theater, but also the hearts of those present. The premiere promised it, the thunderous applause of the numerous audience really lasted a long time." With these words, the critic of Vijenc concluded her review of the premiere performance. Music critics at the Paris premiere in 1875 had a completely different attitude to Georges Bizet's new work, which shocked them with its depiction of the life of the lower social classes, raw passions, life on the other side of the law. However, time has  rehabilitated Carmen  multiple times and today it is one of the most popular and performed works in the entire opera literature.

Carmen  continues her life on the Split stage in the new season. The performances will be directed by maestro Robert Homen, and the titular role of the animalistically passionate and fickle gypsy Carmen will again be interpreted by the prima donna of the HNK Split Opera Terezija Kusanović. The role of Don José, that submissive corporal and son, who gradually descends into a fugitive and a smuggler, and at the end of the opera, a murderer, will be sung by the Bulgarian tenor Ivan Momirov. Matija Meić, a young award-winning baritone, will make his debut in the role of bullfighter Escamillo on the Split opera stage, and the role of Micaela will be sung by Split sopranos Valentina Fijačko Kobić and Antonija Tesker.

BIZET: THE GENIUS OF PSYCHOLOGY
It seems to me that there is no opera with so many directing challenges as Bizet's Carmen. By this, I do not mean the director's intervention in terms of the concept and abstraction of the template, but rather a challenge in terms of the elaboration of relationships, full-blooded and brutally realistic, memories of the solstice, noon, the sun standing over our heads while we are wet and hurrying hungry for lunch, like a deran from some Brazilian favelas. All the colors, smells and tastes of childhood. Everything we absorbed as children. From parental love and passion to eclipses caused by vulnerability and the relentless need for love. Because that's how Carmen is. And so is Don José. By the very opening of the curtains in the first act, Bizet evokes with merciless precision the summer itself, the closet, the immobility of a moment in which, with the arrival of a refreshing evening, everything is possible: first of all, in the manifestation of pure hedonism.
After the experience of directing the opera of the same name at the National Theater in Sarajevo, I became aware of Bizet's important thesis: as much as he masterfully outlined the title heroine, the composer is equally passionate about the male principle. What fundamentally united the two protagonists is actually an identical destructive nature: in Carmen, a girl who was abused and exploited in various ways since childhood, and who turned her trauma into extraordinary manipulative powers (all-purpose with one goal - to find someone who would loved unconditionally); and in Don José, a young man who grew up in the shadow of a domineering mother with the inability to express himself, achieve and initiate into a potent and realized man (all-in-one with one goal – to find someone who would love him unconditionally). The two are mirrored in each other, at first, beyond the presented content, evidently in the true recognition of the same mirror aspiration whose common denominator is love. Over time, however, each mirror becomes augmented and distorted, pointing to the undisguised shortcomings of individuality and mutuality.
Well known story, isn't it.
And precisely in this fact lies the genius of Georges Bizet's psychology. Because there is no dramaturgically weak spot in this opera. It almost seems to me that there is no person who has not experienced this kind of love story. The exceptional fluidity of the score evokes an equal fluidity of vitality that concerns everyone.
And I don't know who I would pity more - Carmen or Don José. It is precisely this equalization, this equilibrium of the male and female principles that delights me. In the changes of lightness and darkness, constructiveness and destructiveness, the beginning and the end of the game.

English

nedvojbeno, u Splitu smo dobili predstavu koja će puniti kazalište, ali i srca nazočnih. Obećala je to premijera, buran pljesak brojne publike zaista je dugo trajao.“ Tim je riječima svoj osvrt na premijernu izvedbu zaključila kritičarka Vijenca. Glazbeni kritičari na pariškoj praizvedbi 1875. imali su potpuno različit stav o novom djelu Georgesa Bizeta koje ih je šokiralo prikazom života nižih društvenih slojeva, sirovih strasti, života s druge strane zakona. No, vrijeme je Carmen višestruko rehabilitiralo i danas je to jedno od najpopularnijih i najizvođenijih djela cjelokupne operne literature.

Carmen svoj život na splitskoj pozornici nastavlja i u novoj sezoni. Izvedbama će ravnati maestro Robert Homen, a naslovnu ulogu animalno strastvene i prevrtljive ciganke Carmen ponovo će tumačiti primadona Opere HNK Split Terezija Kusanović. Ulogu Don Joséa, tog pokornog kaplara i sina, koji se postupno srozava do bjegunca i krijumčara, a na kraju opere i ubojice, pjevat će bugarski tenor Ivan Momirov. U ulozi toreadora Escamilla na splitskoj opernoj pozornici debitirat će mladi nagrađivani bariton Matija Meić, a ulogu Micaele pjevat će splitske sopranistice Valentina Fijačko Kobić i Antonija Teskera.

BIZET: GENIJ PSIHOLOGIJE
Čini mi se da ne postoji opera s toliko redateljskih izazova poput Bizetove Carmen. Pri tom ne podrazumijevam redateljske intervencije u pogledu koncepta i apstrahiranja predloška, već izazov u pogledu razrade odnosa, punokrvnih i brutalno realnih, sjećanja na solsticij, podne, sunce koje nam stoji nad glavama dok se mokri žurimo gladni na ručak, poput derana iz neke brazilske favele. Sve boje, mirisi i okusi djetinjstva. Sve ono što smo upili kao mali. Od roditeljske ljubavi i strasti do pomračenja izazvanih ranjivošću i bespoštednom potrebom za ljubavlju. Jer, takva je Carmen. A takav je i Don José. Samim otvaranjem zastora u prvom činu Bizet nesmiljenom preciznošću priziva ljeto sâmo, omaru, nepokretnost trenutka u kojem je, s dolaskom osvježavajuće večeri, moguće sve: ponajprije, u manifestaciji čistog hedonizma.
Nakon iskustva režije istoimene opere u sarajevskom Narodnom pozorištu, osvjestila sam važnu Bizetovu tezu: koliko god da je maestralno ocrtao naslovnu junakinju, kompozitor se jednakim marom bavi i muškim principom. Ono što je temeljno spojilo dvoje protagonista, jest zapravo identična destruktivna priroda: u Carmen, djevojke koja je odmalena zlostavljana i iskorištavana na razne načine, te koja je svoju traumu pretvorila u izvanredne manipulacijske moći (sveudilj s jednim ciljem - da pronađe nekoga tko bi je bezuvjetno ljubio); te u Don Joséa, mladića koji je odrastao u sjeni dominantne majke uz nemogućnost da se izrazi, ostvari i inicira u potentnog i realiziranog muškarca (sveudilj s jednim ciljem – pronaći nekoga tko bi ga bezuvjetno ljubio). Njih se dvoje zrcale jedno u drugome, isprva, mimo predočenog sadržaja, očito u istinskom prepoznavanju istovjetne zrcalne težnje kojoj je zajednički nazivnik ljubav. S vremenom međutim svako zrcalo postaje augmentirano i iskrivljeno, upućujući na neskrivene nedostatke pojedinačnosti i međusobnosti.
Dobro poznata priča, zar ne.
I upravo u toj činjenici leži genij psihologije Georgesa Bizeta. Jer u ovoj operi nema dramaturški slabog mjesta. Gotovo da mi se čini da ne postoji osoba koja nije doživjela ovakvu ljubavnu priču. Iznimna protočnost partiture dočarava jednaku protočnost životnosti koja se tiče svakoga.
I ne znam koga bih više žalila – Carmen ili Don Joséa. Upravo to izjednačavanje, taj ekvilibrij muškog i ženskog principa me oduševljava. U izmjenama vedrine i mraka, konstruktivnosti i destruktivnosti, početka i kraja igre.

hrvatski

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