Carmen

War-torn Seville in 1936 and the city has just fallen to the brutal Nationalist Forces. On the outskirts of the city the women workers from the munitions factory are taking their break under the distrustful and lecherous eyes of the local militia. Thrown together in this mix of suspicion and danger comes Carmen, a free spirited and mercurial young women, secretly allied with the Republican movement and Don José, a naïve and unworldly soldier whose obsessive and possessive love dooms them into a dangerous spiral of jealousy, betrayal and violence. 

Set amongst the early days of the Spanish Civil war and culminating in the ritualistic savagery of the bullfight, this production is Opera Worcester’s re-imagining of Bizet’s masterpiece that thrilled and shocked Parisian society and introduced opera lovers to the world of verismo, or realism.

One of the most popular and frequently performed opera’s of all time, Bizet‘s Spanish-inflected score is bursting with passionate melodies and famous numbers such as Carmen’s seductive ‘Habanera’ and Escamillo’s ‘Toreador' song.