With its tremendous success in 2018, Opera Hong Kong’s production of Bizet’s Carmen will return this year on May 13-16 at the Grand Theatre of Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Apart from the popular household melodies and the dramatic story relived by the new overseas casts, audience will also be dazzled by the exquisite costumes and the innovative nested rotating set embellished with creative lighting. Georges Bizet’s Carmen is a four-act opera with the story set in Seville, Spain in around 1830. Carmen is a gypsy cigarette factory worker who persuades a soldier Don José to release her from custody through cunning manipulation. For her, he gives up everything, abandoning his post, career, family and childhood sweetheart Micaëla, only to be rebuffed when she makes clear her preference for bull-fighter Escamillo. Unable to cope with this rejection and Carmen’s refusal to comply with societal norms, Don José’s jealousy consumes him, and he stabs her to death in the final scene. Written in 1875, the opera was panned by critics and many believe the terrible response contributed to Bizet’s early death. The raw sexual connotations and lack of morality on display proved far too-high-a-dose of realism for French audiences, and the opera did not gain true acceptance until far after the composer’s lifetime. Today, it remains one of, if not, the most performed operas of all time, featuring one of the world’s best-known arias: Habanera, which has been featured countless times in popular culture, from a Doritos’ Super Bowl advert to Pixar’s Up. Carmen’s character and her absolute belief in her right to liberty in her life and love choices has made her character increasingly relatable and heroic with time. While the set and costumes will remain period in feel and intention, the direction of all the singers and the set design will be completely contemporary, allowing the audience to fully immerse themselves in harshness of the Sevillian environment and the huge variety of characters on stage. Conductor Gianna Fratta began her career as a pianist winning many international competitions. In 1998, she had her conducting debut in Strawinsky’s ballet Pulcinella. Since then she has worked with prestigious orchestras including Berliner Symphoniker, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia in the Festival della Valle d’Itria, Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Opera Orchestra and many others. The great Russian conductor Yuri Ahronovitch described her as “a musician so gifted with heart and arm”. Revival Director Enrico Castiglione is one of the internationally acclaimed theatre and video directors and set designers. He was also a television director of mega concerts featuring artists of high caliber like José Carreras and Lorin Maazel. He was the Founder and Artistic Director of Taormina Opera Festival, Euro Mediterranean Festival, Easter Festival in Rome and Italian Bellini Opera Festival. He was also a President of Una Vita per la Musica Award conferred each year for the recognition of greatest musical figures worldwide. Starring as Carmen will be Carolyn Sproule and Gosha Kowalinska. Canadian mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule is the winner of 2019 George London Prize winner. She made her Pacific Opera Victoria debut as Carmen. Highlights of past seasons include a critically acclaimed European debut singing Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Wexford Festival for which critics praised her performance as “vocally and theatrically flawless performance”. Polish mezzo-soprano Gosha Kowalinska won the first prize in Spazio Musica in Orvieto in 2010 and special prize in the International Armell Opera Contest in Budapest. She has been well experienced in singing as title role of Carmen, Amneris in Aïda and Azucena in Il Trovatore. Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world. Audience who has never seen an opera can still recognize the beautiful melodies of the world’s best-known arias “Habanera” and the “Toreador Song”. With its multi-dimensional art-form comprising music, sets, lighting, stage management, singing and dancing...Carmen is properly one of the best operas for beginners and first-timers.