Carmen

Free or trapped? Carmen is one of the most fascinating operatic heroines to understand. For how can she at the beginning stand up and say that she is "free as a bird", only to feel obliged in the end to try to talk reason into a man who she knows will kill her? Ultimately, Georges Bizet's hit opera from 1875 is a powerful story about how a man's greatest fear is being made a laughing stock, while a woman's is being killed. Every fifth killing in Denmark is committed by a current or former partner. Carmen therefore becomes an image of all the murdered women we hear about far too often in the news, where we sit baffled and horrified and think: How could it happen? Carmen is sung in Danish with Danish surtitles. Synopsis Sergeant Don José falls in love with the petty criminal Carmen, whom he is guarding after a knife fight. She persuades him to let her go, and he does so, even though it will be the end of his career in law enforcement. Don José joins Carmen and a travelling band of outlaws, although she repeatedly makes it clear that she is not interested in being with him. Carmen falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo and wants to leave with him. Don José realises that his life lies in ruins, and he thinks it is Carmen's fault: He has abandoned his fiancée, his family and his job - and now feels rejected and humiliated. In rage he pursues Carmen and seeks her out in public. Knowing full well that it is dangerous, Carmen sees no other option than to talk reason into the life-threateningly dangerous and indignant Don José. Programme: Bizet: Carmen

• Dirigent: Maria Itkonen

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