CARMEN

Zagreb Opera Festival

Slovene National Theatre Maribor

As part of the Zagreb Opera Festival the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor presents Carmen, one of the most popular operas of all time.

When, at the beginning of 1873, Georges Bizet received an order from Camille du Locle, the director of the Paris Opéra Comique, to write the opera Carmen, the novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée, based on which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the libretto, had already been stirring up France, and especially Paris, for three decades. It is assumed that the novella was created according to a true story, which Countess María Manuela Kirkpatrick de Montijo confided to Mérimée during a study trip to Spain. He condensed the most exciting events from the life of the gypsy Carmen into a coherent narrative with the tragic story of the (anti)heroine who had to die because of the vengeful jealousy of her rejected lover (Don José). As an interesting fact that confirms the authenticity of the opera's plot, it is worth mentioning the preserved travelogue of Mérimée, in which the writer mentions his chance meeting with Carmen, and later with José, who in the meantime was already serving a prison sentence, awaiting the death penalty. José's testimony about his fateful meeting with Carmen is preserved in Mérimée's novella, which was first published in its entirety in 1846.