Bizet’s Camen in Concert with The National Symphony Orchestra.

Bizet’s Carmen comes to irresistible life in this concert performance with Natalia Kutateladze – whose ‘sheer style and poise sets her in a class of her own’ (The Guardian) – as the free-spirited femme fatale.

Acclaimed by Tchaikovsky as ‘a masterpiece in every sense of the word’, 150 years after its controversial premiere, Carmen still has the power to shock with the torrid passion at its heart and the seductive sensuality of its music. 

One of all opera’s most lyrical and memorable scores includes the sultry Habanera, rousing ‘Toreador Song’, and irresistible Seguidilla.

Rising star Irish soprano Sarah Brady sings the peasant girl, Micaëla; Noah Stewart, ‘the most talked-about young American tenor these days’ (Ars Atlanta), is the murderous Don José; GyulaNagy, a ‘giant of a baritone’ (The Arts Desk), the handsome toreador Escamillo. 

National Symphony Chorus Ireland and Cór na nÓg join forces to bring the thronging bystanders to vivid life.

Pre-concert Talk

Kevin Barry Room, 6.15pm

Join Deirdre O'Grady, NCH Friend's Opera Course Director and Professor of Italian & Comparative Studies at UCD. The talk will focus on how the figure of Carmen encapsulates an age of socio-political, literary and musical transition from a romantic to realist vision of society. She provides an image of a new working woman in a cigarette factory who smokes, stabs and shocks, heralding Verismo opera before the age of Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini and Cilea. A new world in which contrasts, opposites and conflicts coexist through Bizet’s new musical vision. Carmen - an opera for all seasons.

Presented by NCH