Carmen at Opera på Österbybruk

August 2021

The root of darkness

When I read Prosper Mérimée’s novel “Carmen” and George Bizet’s libretto I was struck by how dark the story really was. I of course knew that it all ended in murder, I have seen the opera many times and sung most of the opera during my studies. But I had not seen how the darkness ran through the entire plot. I had always perceived Don José as a well-functioning human that is driven to murder, when in fact he is the root of the darkness.

I wanted to steer away from the romanticizing of the Romani people. Take away the blame that is put on Carmen. I wanted to focus on Carmen’s honesty, Micaela’s courage, the smugglers comradery and Don José’s fixation. How Carmen and Don José ended up in this dysfunctional relationship. And how Don José’s violent and unstable personality drove him and Carmen to their deaths.

Susanna Reuter – Carmen

Markus Pettersson – Don José

Michael Schmidberger – Escalmillo

Amanda Liljefors – Micaëla

Alexandra Linde – Frasquita

Katerina Roussou – Mercédès

Joseph Mossop – Remendado

Mårten Wåhlström – Moralés och Dancaïro

Tobias Bennsten – Zuniga

Jennifer Macpherson - director

Niklas Tamm - conductor

Jimmy Svensson – light