Carmen

»L’amour est un oiseau rebelle« – »Love is a rebellious birdl« sings Carmen in her famous Habanera with which she makes Don José fall in love with her. Don José thus forgets his well-mannered upbringing and plunges himself head over heels into an »amour fou« with her. But Carmen places her personal freedom above everything else. And when José finally has to realize that he will never »own« her, the tragic disaster runs its course.

The score’s Spanish colouring and enthralling atmosphere have made Carmen into one of the opera repertory’s most loved compositions. Sebastian Nübling’s staging has carved out the dark and absurd sides of Bizet’s blockbuster by using a grotesque form of humour – not least by introducing the additional character and pantomime »Surplus«, who brings all of Don José’s bad attributes to the surface.