Carmen
Opéra comique in four acts by Georges Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
German text version by Bettina Bartz and Werner Hintze
Komische Oper 'Festival
Wednesday, 04.07.2012, 19:30
Tickets 12 - 85 €
Friedrich Nietzsche said of Carmen, »This music does not sweat«, and elected the work as the counterpoint to Wagner's orchestral sound. Even if his polemic against his erstwhile idol is not wholly objective, Nietzsche's praise of Bizet's opera does hit on central points of the composition. The fact that the music retains its lightness despite all the disastrous events is not only utterly French, but also utterly opéra comique. And its characteristic juxtaposition of banality and a violently ending amour fou creates operetta-like qualities in the best sense of that term – which may be the very reason why Carmen is the most often-staged of all operas. Although Georges Bizet never crossed the Pyrenees, his musical vision, including its exotic artificiality, has become so synonymous with all things Spanish that one can barely distinguish between imitation and reality.