Carmen at New National Theatre Tokyo

A highly popular opera composed by Georges BIZET.Set in Seville in Spain, this tragic opera of passionate love and jealousy unfolds around the fiery and unbridled tobacco factory worker Carmen, army corporal Don José, celebrated bullfighter Escamillo and José's fiancée Micaëla. Director UYAMA Hitoshi (former Artistic Director of Drama of the New National Theatre, Tokyo) admirably brings out the intense energy of contrast in this work: male and female, love and betrayal.

Auditory highlights include at the start, Carmen's entrance aria , Escamillo's and Don José's expression of love to Carmen ; the sheer number of these is one reason this work is so popular.

The cast includes Elena MAXIMOVA as Carmen and Massimo GIORDANO as Don José, having played the same role in May 2015 at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin. The appearance by conductor Yves ABEL follows on from "The Lady of the Camellias" (June 2015) and "Falstaff" (December 2015).