IN A FEW WORDS :
What a scandal on March 3, 1875, during the creation of Carmen at the Opéra‑Comique in front of an audience shocked by this “Castilian shamelessness”! Georges Bizet will die three months later, without suspecting that his score would become one of the most played in the world. If the success of the work is due to its unforgettable melodies, it owes a lot to the free character of the famous cigar girl. “Carmen will never give in, free she was born, free she will die,” the heroine says to Don José at the end of the opera. This irrepressible freedom, coupled with the need to live ever more intensely on the razor’s edge, Calixto Bieito’s staging reflects it like no other. From the character of Mérimée, Carmen retains in Bieito the deeply Iberian contours and the burning temperament of one who lives off petty trafficking. But the rebellious bird is fundamentally of our time. Seductive and rebellious vamp, witness to male and societal brutality, she drives at high speed, in a hurry to exist.