La Tragédie de Carmen
based on Carmen by Georges Bizet
The iconic Carmen in the revised version by Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carrière is almost as legendary as the original.
Opera in concert version
Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière, Marius Constant | adaptation
Julie Robard-Gendre | mezzo-soprano
Marianne Croux | soprano
Sébastien Droy | tenor
Thomas Dolié | baritone
Nicolas Vial, Laurent Evuort-Orlandi | comedians
Fiona Monbet | direction
Ensembe Musical Miroirs Etendus
Young audience workshops Comment ça marche ?
Carmen, indeed, but revised, corrected and tightened up. It is neither quite the same nor totally different. Or so it would seem. In 1980, Peter Brook and Jean-Paul Carrière explored the novella in depth in order to reprise the opera more effectively. Marius Constant reduced and reorganised a score without choruses or secondary characters which neither opened nor closed like the masterpiece familiar to all. With a performance time of just ninety minutes, the “new look” tragedy is obviously reduced to the basics in “an off-beat première which does not diminish either Mérimée or Bizet,” wrote Jacques Lonchampt enthusiastically in Le Monde. Doubtless the virtuosity of seasoned cigar-maker Julie Robart-Gendre, will lead these gentlemen, and primarily Sébastien Droy’s Don José, a merry dance.
Coréalisation Jeanine Roze Production / Théâtre des Champs-Elysées