The 99th edition of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival opens on June 17th, 2022 with a spectacular production in nine evenings: "Carmen", masterpiece by Georges Bizet, with the staging design by the late director Franco Zeffirelli.
The costumes are curated by Anna Valli. The story shows a strong passion against the backdrop of a dynamic Seville, which contrasts with a fitting and tight realism of cinematic form.
Carmen is a comic opera by Georges Bizet in four acts (or paintings, as the composer calls them), to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Based on the novel of the same name by Prosper Mérimée (1845), it makes some salient changes, including the introduction of the characters of Escamillo and Micaela, and the character of Don José, who is described in the novel as a rough and brutal bandit. Bizet himself collaborated on the libretto, also writing the words of the famous “Habanera – L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”.
It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Initially, the opera was not very well accepted due to its strong themes, so Bizet, who died three months after the first performance, could not see its later success. This is the work that opens the doors to the Verist current, which chose to represent stories more relevant to “real” life, references to events in the news, with more realistic and endowed characters with psychological complexity.
