Car­men

There is probably no stronger motive for hatred and murder than disappointed love. In Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, the simple soldier Don José quickly becomes a murderer. When he met the attractive Carmen, he was hopelessly in love with her, but Carmen soon turned to the bullfighter Escamillo. To this day, Bizet's Carmen has lost none of its fascination. The middle-class audience at the premiere in 1875 at the Paris Opéra Comique (chosen by director Andreas Homoki as the setting for his production) initially reacted with rejection of Bizet's work. It was perceived as too bright and too immoral. With her anarchic desire for freedom and her lustful femininity, the title character represented a threat to the established order. But the opera soon began its triumphant march and became an opera myth of modern times.