OPERA CARMEN Georges Bizet

2 hours and 55 minutes including intermission.

Opéra-comique in four acts.

Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy from Prosper Mérimée.

Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus.

Treble Voices Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala Academy directed by Brunella Clerici.

Teatro alla Scala New Production

Co-production with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London and Teatro Real, Madrid

The next Music Director of the Teatro alla Scala, Myung-Whun Chung, reaches his eleventh opera title at La Scala (having conducted over 140 concerts both at home and on tour) with this new production of Bizet’s Carmen, a co-production with London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Madrid’s Teatro Real. Well-versed in French music—also through his work with the Opéra Bastille and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France—Chung leads a cast that is perfectly idiomatic. Alongside Clémentine Margaine in the title role, alternating with Stéphanie d’Oustrac, and Giorgi Manoshvili as Escamillo, the production features Vittorio Grigolo as Don José—a major Italian voice with a strong affinity for the French repertoire— alternating with Matthew Polenzani. Damiano Michieletto and set designer Paolo Fantin reduce local colour to a minimum in order to construct a bare and effective spectacle, focused on the ineluctable fate of the protagonists.