It is the most famous opera in the worldand this time it is made here. It is within the framework of LabOpera Périgord Dordogne thata real anthill was put in place using the talent of the Perigord. Talent in the plural. 400 people mobilized. Pros and non-prosincluding college and high school students.
Gersende Michel directs comic opera which isn’t funny. Carmen ends up in a bloodbath. In 1875the piece makes scandal.
The subject is singular for the time, current (in Korean 2022.
We feature a female character who frees herself from codes, takes sidesteps. Carmen is the representation of a liberated, independent woman, both rebel and victim.
“I wanted to enhance the character of Carmen. Today it seems crucial to me to talk about this feminicide. I wanted to give reason to Carmen who made the choice to leave patriarchal society” explains Gersende Michel.
Is Carmen a manipulator, a seductress? If it was only a woman free of her choices who does not ask anyone for her rest? – Gersende Michel director
Full respect. What was written and described in the original work is copied for the two performances at the Palio de Boulazac. “I do not make the work lie, I am faithful to what is written”. Like the subject, the staging wants to be timeless. However, there is no question of having Carmen switch to her smartphone.
For several months, we therefore worked, shared and multiplied the energies to make such a project possible. There is only two performances. What two? No more ? “Let’s already put on a great show on its two dates… We’ll see, maybe for others,… we’ll talk about it again” eludes the director.
What is certain is that great applause are expected at the end.