Premiere: December 7, 2007
Bizet’s Carmen had its world-premiere in Opera Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875. The theatre was packed with the intention to bring a unanimous public opinion about the new opera which had developed from the court amusement into burgeois property of the Western civilization. French conservative audience was shocked by Carmen. The power of passion was replaced by brutality, and the suspicion of German influence which Bizet used in his excellent development of the themes only made it even more difficult for the average listener in the early 1870-ies to accept it. The latest Carmen in Zagreb, conducted by Johannes Wildner and directed by Philipp Himmelmann, managed to divide the audience at the beginning of the 21st century, mostly because of its reduced score and therefore the lack of the expected Spanish folklore.
“Carmen in McDonalds package”, as one critic said, is provocative enough to arouse the interest of the new, young opera audience, which was proved at the repeat performances in the last season.
