Bizet’s free-spirited feminist fatale is the kind of woman your mother warned you about—and secretly wanted to be. We meet Carmen as she’s arrested by the soon-to-be-smitten soldier, Don Jose. So potent is her beauty and passion that he lets her escape, leaves behind a career in uniform, and follows her into a new life among her people: smugglers and fortune tellers. After a tarot card reading foretells death for both Carmen and Jose, their budding romance becomes Fortune’s first victim, when she takes up with a bullfighter named Escamillo. Fueled by jealousy and obsession, Jose tracks her to a bullfight and confronts her. Here, we’ll find out if the ever-cunning Carmen can pull off one more daring escape, or if her fate is as inevitable as she feared.
Carmen: Ginger Costa-Jackson
Don Jose: Eric Fennell
Escamillo: Christian Pursell
Micaela: Celine Byrne
Conductor: Emmanuel Plasson
Director: Kathleen Belcher