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ADVANCE SALE TICKETS
are available to Tri-Cities Opera
Season Ticket Holders.
April 27th, May 4th 2018 – 7:30 PM
April 29th, May 6th 2018 – 3:00 PM
Tri-Cities Opera Center
Savoca Hibbitt Hall
315 Clinton St
Binghamton, NY 13905
CLICK HERE for accessibility and parking information or call 6077720400.
La tragédie de Carmen, The Tragedy of Carmen , the original Bizet re-imagined by Stage Director Peter Brook, is a 90 minute, up close and personal look at Carmen, her loves, and her rivals.
Stage Director James Kenon Mitchell returns after his remarkable double bill last season, Brettl-Lieder & L’heure espagnole. Conductor Braden Toan returns after conducting TCO’s very successful Hydrogen Jukebox last season and Sweeney Todd in 2016.
Micaëla, a young country girl, arrives in Seville looking for her childhood sweetheart, Don José. She brings him a letter from his mother. A gypsy, Carmen, throws a flower to the young corporal and sings an erotic love song.
The two girls fight and José’s superior, Zuniga, appears. Unable to control Carmen, he orders José to take her to jail. En route, Carmen promises José that if he lets her escape she will meet him at the inn of her friend Lillias Pastia. José lets Carmen go, whereupon Zuniga locks him up and takes away the corporal’s rank. Carmen arrives at the inn with stolen goods. Zuniga comes to see Carmen and offers money for her favors. Carmen accepts, but shortly thereafter Jose enters.
Carmen abandons Zuniga and sings for José. At this moment the bugles blow, summoning José back to the barracks. Carmen is furious and taunts him; the situation becomes tense. José discovers Zuniga, loses control and kills the officer.
The body is quickly hidden as Escamillo, a famous bullfighter, enters. Buying drinks all around, he announces that he, too, wants Carmen. José, jealous, picks a fight with Escamillo. Carmen separates them and Escamillo withdraws, inviting all to his next bullfight.
José, who has now killed for Carmen, sings of his love for her. They go to the mountains where an old gypsy woman unites them.
While they are sleeping, Garcia appears at the camp. He is Carmen’s husband, though she has hidden his existence from José. The two men challenge each other and as they go off to fight, Carmen reads her tragic fate in the cards. The song ends, Garcia returns wounded and falls dead at Carmen’s feet.
Micaëla appears again searching for José; the two women seem to understand each other. They sing while José, twice a murderer and abandoned by Carmen, flees. Carmen becomes Escamillo’s mistress. José returns to persuade her to leave with him to start a new life. She refuses, knowing she is putting her life in jeopardy.
Escamillo is killed in the bullring. Carmen still refuses José’s offer, but she goes with him as far as the place where the cards have foretold that she will die.
Synopsis Courtesy of The San Diego Opera
Martin Schmidt
Evan Nelson
William Snyder
315 Clinton Street
Binghamton, New York 13905
Phone: (607) 729-3444
Box Office: (607) 772-0400
We recognize the indigenous peoples whose land Tri-Cities Opera’s facilities were built on. This land has been sustainably stewarded throughout generations by Haudenosaunee and Algonkian speaking peoples. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
Tri-Cities Opera is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Productions are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. General Operating Support is provided to Tri-Cities Opera by grants from the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation, the United Cultural Fund of the Broome County Arts Council, and the Community Foundation for South Central New York.
