Carmen (Part 2), performed by Opera Novella (acts 3 & 4)

The description to part 1 of this production was about the whys and wherefores of its development. Perhaps it’s not too late to set out a short sketch of the story:

Georges Bizet’s Carmen is a classic tragedy; a tale of love, obsession, rejection, death and destruction.

But wait!

Bizet transmutes this miserable arc into something wild, vivid and exhilarating: not a scintilla nor iota of emotion is left unsung as his prismatic score refracts the passion, glamour, vivacity, machismo, attitude and sheer joy of living whilst reminding us that life and fate are always keeping score.

Set in Seville, Spain, our version plays out during the Spanish Civil War, charting this obsessive love through the doomed infatuation of Don José, a naïve Nationalist soldier, for the fiery, free-spirited Republican Carmen, factory worker by day, force of nature by right.

It begins when Carmen injures a workmate in a savage brawl and Don José is tasked with arresting her. Instead, already captivated by her allure, he allows her to escape - ending up in his squadron’s dungeon for his troubles. Upon his release, Don José is once more led astray from his military duties - and his sweet-natured fiancée, Micaëla - by Carmen’s continuing seduction, which soon involves him in a fierce fight with his superior officer who is also vying for her attention.

Cashiered and on the run, he is forced to join Carmen and her Republican comrades in their hideout in the Sierra Morena, just north of Seville. At close quarters, Carmen soon tires of his increasingly possessive and jealous behaviour and things go from bad to worse when she shifts her attention to the glamorous bullfighter, Escamillo.
When Carmen goes to watch Escamillo at the Seville bullring, a desperate and derelict José confronts her outside the arena. He pleads with her to return to him but she refuses, stating she was born free and will die free, and throws back the ring he gave to her.
Consumed by rage and jealousy, Don José fatally stabs Carmen - even as the crowd cheers for a triumphant Escamillo inside the arena - then, bereft and hopeless, takes Carmen in his arms as she dies.

Видео Carmen (Part 2), performed by Opera Novella (acts 3 & 4) канала Opera Novella