Overview
- The 16-performance run in Madrid is an international co-production with the Royal Opera House and La Scala.
- Damiano Michieletto emphasizes a psychological reading that elevates Don José’s mother as an oppressive force inspired by Lorca.
- Eun Sun Kim conducts throughout the engagement, with Iñaki Encina substituting on January 3 and 4.
- Three casts rotate in the leads, with Aigul Akhmetshina, J’Nai Bridges and Ketevan Kemoklidze as Carmen and Charles Castronovo and Michael Fabiano among the Don Josés.
- Paolo Fantin’s rotating set places the action in a claustrophobic village, with the Madrid launch aligning with the opera’s 150th anniversary and a Milan transfer scheduled for next summer.