Damiano Michieletto's New Production of CARMEN Opens at The Royal Opera House Next Month

Olivier Award-winning director Damiano Michieletto will return to the Royal Opera House this April bringing his unique vision to a new production of Carmen.  

Conductors Antonello Manacorda and Emmanuelle Villaume lead two stellar international casts. Former ROH Jette Parker Young Artist Aigul Akhmetshina returns to The Royal Opera to perform the title role following a sensational 2022/23 Season, which saw her receive great acclaim for her performance as Charlotte (Werther) and Rosina (The Barber of Seville). She shares the role with Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, who recently performed in The Royal Opera's 5* production of La forza del destino. 

They are joined by Piotr Beczala and Brandon Jovanovich who share the role of Don José. Beczala performed alongside Akhmetshina at The Metropolitan Opera, and they are reunited in London for a limited run of performances. Beczala has performed frequently with The Royal Opera since his Covent Garden debut, with leading roles in works such as Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin, La bohème, and La traviata. Jovanovich has performed the role of Don José to critical acclaim internationally; his previous engagements for The Royal Opera include the title role in Lohengrin and Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk). 

Kostas Smoriginas and Andrii Kymach will perform the role of Escamillo. Three brilliant sopranos make their Covent Garden debut in the role of Micaëla: Olga Kulchynska, Liana Aleksanyan and Gemma Summerfield will share the role throughout this run. Blaise Malaba and Jamie Woollard will perform the role of Zuniga.  

The cast will perform alongside the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus. Additionally, 30 members of the Royal Opera House Youth Opera Company will perform in Carmen.  

Damiano Michieletto, director of Carmen, said, “Carmen deals, above all, with freedom. On the one hand, Carmen embodies the idea of absolute freedom, which implies the isolated life of an outsider, like a stray animal. On the other, we have Don José's mother who tries to bind her son to herself, forcing him to obey, derailing his will and keeping control over him. Although the mother is not present in the story, her strength is manifest through Micaëla's character. The final tragedy, with Carmen's death, is thus transformed into a metaphorical fight between two opposing existential models.” 

Carmen will be performed on the Main Stage between 5 April and 31 May. The performance will be broadcast live across the world on Wednesday 1 May at 6:45pm BST, with encore screenings from Sunday 5 May. More details are available at roh.org.uk 

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