On Thursday 28 May 2026, our Opera Lovers Group met to enjoy Georges Bizet’s Carmen as performed at Glyndebourne in 2002.

The all star cast included Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role, supported by Marcus Haddock as Don José, Lisa Milne as Micaëla, Laurent Naouri as Escamillio, and many more international stars too numerous to mention here. All were under the baton of Philippe Jordan. A special credit also goes to the children of Stoke Brunswick School, East Grinstead for the way they ragged and teased the soldiers in Sevilla.

Carmen was played as a spikey, fearless Gypsy girl, and Don José was helpless in her net. After persuading him to release her when she had been arrested for a knife fight and then insulting an officer, she quickly falls for another man, Escamillio the Torreador. There is then a smuggled cargo from an English ship to be delivered to the city, and Don José must decide where his loyalties lie. When Carmen finally betrays him outside the bull ring of Sevilla, there is a price to be paid and she pays it almost without regret.

The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the “Habanera” and “Seguidilla” from act 1 and the “Toreador Song” from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias.

The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue and comes in four Acts.

Our next opera will be on Thursday 23 July 2026 at 1pm and will feature Norma by Vincenzo Bellini.