Not because of the music, but because of the content, the premiere of Carmen at the Opéra-Comique was a great failure – the audience did not watch the characters “from the people,” factor workers, smugglers, deserters, losers. It was only after the performance at the Imperial Opera in Vienna that Carmen became one of the most performed operas in the world, and Paris finally performed it in 1883, after the initial shock, but only eight years after Bizet’s death. Since then, that opera has not left the repertoire of all opera houses around the world. Strong, ultimate emotions – passion, jealousy, defiance, contempt, anger – in an opera composed of the hits themselves, from arias to choral works, will overwhelm your soul and body.

The final, key scene of the murder is an eternal challenge for the director, yet Blažević and his team found a way to surprise the audience in a meaningful and moving way. Without beatings, without knives, without strangulation, the madly in love José destroys his idol with a long kiss. An insurmountable passion of the soul, mentally and physically, on the stages and in the stands of life. It has the same name everywhere – violence.
Rosanna Paliaga, Primorski dnevnik

In his work, the director moved away from the clichés imprinted in Bizet’s masterpiece; there is no Spanish exoticism or search for local features that over time have become just a rhetorical convention, no more or less obvious stereotypes of seduction… The director is instead focused on identifying theatrical archetypes contained in the work and offers a very happy synthesis of the same, which explains the fascination with this opera – unchanged since 1875 – present in every audience.
Giulia Vannoni, Il Ponte

Photo: Vladimir Mudrovčić

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