In 1999, a very young Calixto Bieito who was beginning to take his first steps in the world of opera – in fact, it was his second production – proposed a new reading of Bizet’s Carmen that turned the famous cigar maker into a real gypsy, a free and indomitable woman who loses her life at the hands of Don José not because of a passionate outburst but because of a bloodthirsty crime of sexist violence (“I killed her because she was mine”). The daring staging provoked many boos in her It premiered at the Peralada Festival that year and in 2010 it was presented in style at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, from where it began a very long journey that continues to this day. An unprecedented success, the most viewed of Bizet’s operas. , which has visited around thirty theaters and of which there are currently seven ‘kits’ touring around the world, as recalled by the artistic director of the Rambla Coliseum, Víctor García de Gomar, who is hosting it again coinciding with its twenty-fifth anniversary. anniversary.
“It is an authentic masterpiece that over time, far from fading, has gained strength, it has gained strength. It is a very pertinent Carmen, because it has that human truth that is independent of the historical moment. It tells many truths not only about Carmen “but from the environment, from the idiosyncrasy, from something that we may no longer be but that we have been, that we know. There is something very authentic, very pure and very honest, which is what gives it value,” says Lucía Astigarraga, assistant of Bieito and in charge of directing the production that will be presented on January 4 (it will be on display until the 17th, with an exclusive LiceUnder35 session on the 3rd), with Clémentine Margaine and Varduhi Abrahamyan in the role of Carmen and Michael Spyres and Leonardo Capalbo like Don José.
“This Carmen is a deeply Iberian creature, deeply passionate, but at the same time very contemporary, with an urgent desire to vindicate herself and to be completely free,” says De Gomar, for whom it is a proposal that places us “on the border of many emotions”. Bieito himself found in border Spain, between Ceuta and Morocco, the seedy environment for a radical proposal where the third of dragons becomes the Legion and the Lillas Pastia tavern is a beach bar next to a dilapidated Mercedes at a road junction secondary schools presided over by Osborne’s bull. A south without a hint of romanticism inhabited by unfortunate characters and smugglers who deal in tobacco, watches and televisions.
Set designer Alfons Flores and costume designer Mercè Paloma explain that the preparation for the opera was done on the spot. The entire team traveled to Malaga and from there they traveled to Tangier and Ceuta. “It was lucky, because there was the essence of the story: at the border there were hundreds of Mercedes loaded with packages to the roof, smugglers who passed heavy refrigerators and televisions over the fence and we even saw a Legion parade. We stayed very, very impressed, so much so that we ran away,” they remember.
Clémentine Margaine confesses that she is a “very special” Carmen and Varduhi Abrahamyan does not hesitate to describe her as her “favorite.” Both agree again in pointing out that the “absence of scenery” (Flores protests: the cabin, the Spanish flags, the Mercedes, Osborne’s bull make up a very powerful image) forces them to delve into the depth of the character to convey his strength. and energy. “The costumes have a very different color and texture than what we are used to in opera, and when we travel around the world they have always valued it a lot, it catches their attention because it does not look like opera, but rather has a cinematic point. You can like a movie from beginning to end, that’s why the singers feel such a great responsibility, because they are constantly in the foreground,” argues Paloma.
The production by Calixto Bieito has the musical direction of Josep Pons, for whom Bizet’s opera “is a wise combination between a story starring townspeople, factory workers who take out the knife when it suits them, and enormously delicate and refined.” It arrives in Barcelona in its full version and without the commotion that surrounded its premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2017 due to some scenes in which the Spanish flag appeared: a prostitute sunbathing with a red and yellow towel or a group of legionnaires hoisting the banner on a mast with a girl hanging. “It was also said that a legionnaire wiped his butt with it,” but that has never happened in any representation, assures Astigarraga. There is no outrage to the flag, but Bieito agreed to delete the scenes to avoid misunderstandings.
The performances at the Liceu will be dedicated to Luis López Lamadrid (San Sebastián, 1936 – Menorca, 2023), who, as director of the Peralada Festival, was involved from the beginning in this Carmen that has become the most viewed of the history of Bizet’s opera.
