Carmen celebrated its premiere at the Vienna Volksoper » Leadersnet

Why do you fall in love with someone? This question also arises in Georges Bizet's opera “Carmen“, where the eponymous heroine, a worker in a cigarette factory in Seville, sets her sights on the young soldier Don José. When Carmen is about to be arrested for a knife attack, she manages to convince Don José to let her go – with dramatic consequences for his life. As she later turns to the bullfighter Escamillo, Don José falls deeper into his obsession until a tragic confrontation occurs.

Mixed reactions

In Vienna Popular Opera The piece celebrated its premiere a few days ago. Lot de Beer In her new production, she embraces the image of Carmen as a free and independent woman. She questions whether this freedom is truly Carmen's own decision or whether it is a product of male expectations and projections. “Is Carmen really the woman who decides her own destiny that we think she is, or is she just playing the role that men have intended for her?”

De Beer even continues these considerations and says that Carmen “was made for a bourgeois audience that really liked to see a rebellious woman do everything they dare not do. But: in order for the world to be ordered again, she made it so that she would die at the end.” With this thought, the director put the theater audience on stage to watch Carmen die. The actual audience in the Volksoper looked at the stage and saw a fake audience, which De Beer probably wanted to convey to the guests that they were spectators applauding the massacre of a woman.

However, this did not go down well with the audience: although the orchestra and actors received appropriate applause for their performance, de Beer had to face boos for her production.

Anyone who wants to see the piece for themselves will likely have the opportunity to do so at the Volksoper until the end of May. You can find more information here. here.

Leadernet He was there at the premiere. You can find the impressions in our gallery.

www.volksoper.at