Among Seville’s cigar makers, Carmen is the most attractive woman around. Arrested for the assault of a friend, she enthrals the brigadier Don José who lets her escape. For her, José abandons his childhood sweetheart, he gives up his rank, deserts the army… and to what ends will passion drive him when he loses Carmen's love to the glamorous bullfighter Escamillo?
The first Parisian audiences at the Opéra Comique in 1875 were shocked to see the incarnation of such an independent heroine. Today, Carmen is the French opera that is most performed around the globe. Magnificently recreated by Bizet, this a searing depiction of a woman who craves love but creates obsession and jealousy. After Bizet’s sudden death in the same year as the premiere, Carmen won the hearts of audiences in Vienna, Brussels, Saint-Petersburg, New York… and only triumphed in Paris in 1883. OperaVision is live in Zurich for its first ever stream from its famous Opernhaus in a production by Andreas Homoki first staged at Opéra Comique earlier this season and here conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.