Événement

Opera Film: CARMEN

From the Opernhaus Zürich

Conductor - Franz Welser-Möst
Director - Matthias Hartmann
Set designer - Volker Hintermeier
Costume designer - Su Bühler
Lighting designer - Martin Gebhardt
Video designer - Felix Breisach
Choral Director - Ernst Raffelsberger
Choreographer - Teresa Rotemberg

Carmen - Vesselina Kasarova
Don José - Jonas Kaufmann
Escamillo - Michele Pertusi
Micaëla - Isabel Rey
Frasquita - Sen Guo
Mercédès - Judith Schmid
Zuniga - Morgan Moody
Moralès - Kreimir Straanac
SmugglerJ - avier Camarena
Smuggler - Gabriel Bermúdez

A typhoon of passion: frenetic applause for Carmen in Zurich Der Standard

With this festival performance from the Zurich Opera, the great Vesselina Kasarova makes her long-awaited debut in one of the greatest mezzo roles in the operatic repertoire: Carmen.

From the moment she appears on stage to the close of the opera just after the heroines death, Kasarova dominates the stage with her amazingly nuanced mezzo and her mesmerizing charisma. This is no brazen gypsy girl who turns mens heads with a toss of her black curls and a sway of the hips; this is a modern, self-confident woman who knows exactly what she wants. This Carmen doesnt need castanets to express her passion: it glows from within.

She has a partner of equal stature in Jonas Kaufmanns Don José, who, in Matthias Hartmanns production, believably undergoes a transformation from repressed mamas boy to passionate, jealousy-crazed hothead. With the looks and nonchalance of a rock star (New York Magazine), Kaufmann is being handled as arguably the greatest tenor of the past 50 years (The Guardian). The Zurich production is Kaufmanns second stage version of Don José, following his role debut in London, which was greeted with standing ovations.

In the orchestra pit, conductor Franz Welser-Möst highlights the crisp, French contours of Bizets 1875 opera rather than its Mediterranean sensuality, weaving a transparent texture that is an ideal foil for the emotional density of the vocal parts. Caressing the soloists voices, the orchestra of the Zurich Opera seems to respond almost improvisationally to the many subtle shadings of the protagonists, especially Kasarovas.