Bizet: Carmen **
Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 4th July 2017
Love may well be a rebellious bird, but that’s as nothing to maverick director Dmitri Tcherniakov. In his beloved Russian repertoire he displays genius – his recent Snow Maiden in Paris fully deserving your vote in our current Best Production poll – but core classics often find him in rebellious mood. In his programme note, Tcherniakov describes being unable to connect with the truth behind the story of Carmen, with all its “unpleasant clichés” of bullfighters, smugglers and tobacco factories, so his twisted staging for Festival d’Aix reimagines Bizet’s opera as a radical therapy session for a disturbed young man.
Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Carmen) and Michael Fabiano (Don José)
© Patrick Berger | artcompress
Read the full review on Bachtrack.