Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 5, 2002

Volume 30, Number 24

Yale Opera production is a retelling of Bizet's 'Carmen'

Some of the original elements will be gone, but the love and the tragedy will remain when Yale Opera presents "La tragedie de Carmen," an adaptation of Bizet's masterpiece realized for the stage by British director Peter Brook.

The production, a "deconstructed" version of French composer Georges Bizet's operatic masterpiece "Carmen," will be presented on Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, at 8 p.m. in Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College Streets.

Brook's controversial 1983 adaptation -- here directed by Garnett Bruce -- retells the story about the doomed romance between the gypsy vixen and Spanish army officer, but eliminates the chorus and strips the drama down to its core of four characters: Carmen, Micaëla, Don José and Escamillo.

The production will feature singers from the Yale Opera program, a nationally renowned opera training program that is part of the School of Music. The artistic director of Yale Opera is Doris Yarick Cross, professor of voice and opera at the School of Music.

Tickets, all general admission, are $10; $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased by credit card by calling (203) 432-4158 or accessing www.yale.edu/schmus.

Director Bruce makes his Yale Opera debut with this production. In recent years, he has directed major works for many of the country's leading opera houses, including Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" for the San Diego, Pittsburgh and Dallas opera companies, Donizetti's "Elixir of Love" for Houston Grand Opera and Puccini's "Turandot" for San Francisco Opera. In January, he directed in Europe for the first time with a production of "Turandot" for Italy's Teatro San Carlo.

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Campus Notes