Calixto Bieito’s Carmen

The long-awaited U.S. opera debut of Calixto Bieito in a co-production with Boston Lyric Opera and San Francisco Opera.

BLO’s 40th Anniversary Season launches with the bicoastal American premiere of Calixto Bieito’s Carmen in a co-production with San Francisco Opera –marking the director’s long-awaited U.S. opera debut. Set in the arid earthiness of 1970’s post-Franco Spanish North Africa, this raw and cinematic vision is a powerful account of the defiantly free-spirited woman and her obsessive lover, set to Bizet’s intoxicating score.

Jennifer Johnson Cano, critically acclaimed for her star turn in BLO’s 2015 production of Don Giovanni, returns to Boston as the fiery, seductive gypsy who destroys the naïve soldier Don José, played by Roger Honeywell. BLO Music Director David Angus conducts.

Carmen

• On Friday, September 23 at 7 pm; Sunday, September 25 at 3 pm; Friday, September 30 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, October 2 at 3 pm.
• Directed by Calixto Bieito, music by Georges Bizet, libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
• Sung in French with English supertitles.

Calixto Bieito raw take on Carmen heightens the intense emotions pulsing through this tale of love, lust and murder. The result is a powerful account of a free-spirited woman and her obsessive lover. Be swept into Carmen’s deadly seduction as never before.

A riveting drama of love and jealousy, filled with famously alluring melodies and captivating dances, Carmen is one of the world’s most popular operas. Bizet’s immortal score overflows with one delight after another, a music lover’s hit parade of opera’s most intoxicating melodies.