This is a screening of Bizet's opera Carmen, filmed at the Arena di Verona in 2022 as a revival of Franco Zeffirelli's monumental 1995 staging, one of the most famous and spectacular productions in the arena's repertoire.
The story follows Don José, a dragoon whose obsessive love for the gypsy Carmen drives him into desertion, smuggling and robbery, until he kills her when she refuses to return his love. Opposite him stands Carmen herself, for whom freedom to choose love matters more than life itself.
Elina Garanca, one of the most celebrated Carmen interpreters of recent times, headlines the cast alongside Brian Jagde as Don José, Gilda Fiume as Micaëla and Luca Micheletti as Escamillo. Marco Armiliato conducts.
