Production for rent: Carmen

Among the cigarette girls of Seville, Carmen the Bohemian is the most seductive and whimsical. Apprehended for having assaulted a friend, she captivates the brigadier Don José who lets her escape. For her sake, he loses his rank and deserts, embracing the adventurous life of a smuggler.

“Our production is a tribute to the Opéra-Comique. The premiere of Carmen in 1875 in this theatre was the starting point of an unprecedented triumph, that of an opera that remains one of the most successful in cultural history.

The tragic downfall of the main character Don José, brought about by his fatal encounter with Carmen, a free and unattached woman who leads the good soldier to become a smuggler and eventually a murderer, is one of the great stories of the opera stage. The eponymous character has lost none of its power of fascination today. Carmen's femininity, archetypal because it is emblematic as an object of male desire, is at the same time totally emancipated, asserting her will without accepting any compromise: in this she seems more modern than ever.

We have therefore conceived an interpretation that tells the story of how this modern myth came to be in the 150 years since its creation. Our work is also a tribute to the Opéra-Comique and its most famous child.”

Andreas Homoki, director

"Andreas Homoki's staging is based on one concept : to pay tribute to the Opéra-Comique. Original backdrop, with its large brick wall flanked by Gustave Eiffel's seven iron doors (pendrillon effect), opulent red stage curtain marking the sequences in the manner of music-hall entrances, and even the golden scallop shell, which once served as a trapdoor for the prompter. An interpenetration of the place and the work developed on the dramaturgical level. »

Le Monde.fr | 27 avril 2023 | Marie-Aude Roux

"The new production of Carmen, by Andreas Homoki and conducted by Louis Langrée, is back to basics. The German director opted for minimalism and the Director of the Opéra-Comique for a "theater music", subtle, which accompanies the text more than it stifles it. »

France Télévisions | 25 avril 2023 | Mohamed Berkani

"Andreas Homoki's production on the stage of the Opéra-Comique is a model of intelligent stripping and pure theatricality. Elegance and fluidity seem to be the key words of this interpretation which presents the work "to the bone", without fat, flourish, with an economy of means that only a deep dramatic craft is able to authorize. »

Transfuge | 25 avril 2023 | Nicolas d’Estienne d’Orves

Number of Principals: 10

Chorus / parts (S/A/T/B): 32 (9/7/8/8)

+ kids chorus

Extras: 4

Instrumentation

53

2.2.2.2 / 4.2.3.0 / 3perc 1timp 1harp/ 9-8-6-5-3

Volume of the production

Set and props 3 containers

Other info

Last performed: Opéra-Comique, April 2023

Coproduction: Zürich Opernhaus

Revival in Zürich May-June 2024