Schwetzingen SWR Festival: CarMEN

Bizet's famous opera in a colorful version with the Queens of Mannheim. What a template! "Love is a wild bird that no one can ever tame," sings Carmen in the famous Habanera from Georges Bizet's opera. This piece was, of course, essential when the Amsterdam Club Classique decided to expand its portfolio of unusual classical adaptations in unusual locations and transform Carmen into CarMEN. In this new staged fantasy, Maayan Licht, a dazzling and exalted star soprano who will perform the title role in the Schwetzingen excavation of Johann Christian Bach's Amor vincitore in 2025, takes on the lead role. Tenor Mitch Raemaekers plays Don José, the instrumental ensemble consists of violin, cello, clarinet, and piano, and instead of a choir, a group of drag queens takes the stage. Thus, the old genre of opera becomes a contemporary and lively performance about gender fluidity, gender-specific clichés, and role assignments. "It is the other one that I prefer, he said nothing, yet I like him. Love! Love! Love! Love!" sings Carmen in her Habanera. Today, CarMEN shows that not only men lay helplessly at her feet, but all people who can be erotically touched – no matter how and by whom.