NEW ARRANGEMENT FOR A CROSS-GENRE ENSEMBLE

‘I have been warned that I must fear for my life,’ explains Carmen – foreseeing her own doom – in the finale of Bizet's ‘opera of all operas’. A few minutes later, she is dead, stabbed by her former lover Don José. Was it a crime of passion or a crisis of society? Does freedom itself die with Carmen? What void does she leave behind? What happens next? 
 
Following their two successful productions Die Zauberflöte – The opera but not the opera and Schachnovelle at the Burgtheater, Nils Strunk and Lukas Schrenk are now adapting another repertoire classic for the Volksoper. Together with musician Gabriel Cazes, they are developing a new adaptation of Carmen for a cross-genre ensemble with Katia Ledoux in the title role. With her powerful voice and charismatic presence, Katia Ledoux has established herself as one of the most promising mezzo-sopranos of her generation. She made her debut this year at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Opéra de Lille and the Dutch National Opera, and has been celebrated at the Volksoper Vienna for her performances as Carmen in Georges Bizet's opera. Anton Zetterholm as Sergeant Don José is known for leading roles in Tarzan at the Metronom Theater in Oberhausen and in The Phantom of the Opera in Vienna. He thrilled audiences at the Volksoper as Tony in West Side Story. With Stefan Cerny as Escamillo, Julia Edtmeier as Micaëla and Florian Carove as Morales, the stage is graced by a versatile ensemble that is well known to Volksoper audiences.
 
Bizet's famous melodies meet a wide variety of musical styles: jazz, flamenco, western, musical, pop, chanson and much more. The adapted libretto sheds new light on the events surrounding Carmen's murder: ‘I was born free, I will die free,’ she proclaims in the opera's finale. For her self-determined way of living and loving, she is demonised, idealised and ultimately killed. Who is to blame? And how will she be remembered? 

INTRODUCING: THE DREAM TEAM! 

It is rare for creative teams to elicit such euphoric and downright love-at-first-sight reactions at all levels: from the ensemble to the interns, from journalists to our artistic director, without exception, everyone loves the Killing Carmen team! And it seems that the whole of Vienna feels the same way, because as soon as a performance staged by Nils Strunk and Lukas Schrenk – such as Die Zauberflöte – The opera but not the opera or Schachnovelle at the Burgtheater – appears on the programme, you have to be really quick to get your hands on tickets. Vienna loves these exceptional artists, and so do we! Together with French musician Gabriel Cazes, they are now developing a multilingual and multi-musical adaptation of Bizet's Carmen for the Volksoper under the title Killing Carmen.
 
What distinguishes the artists in this dream team? Firstly, they refuse to be pigeonholed into one profession and always work collaboratively: Nils Strunk, for example, is an actor, musician, composer and director. Every rehearsal with him shows that none of these talents are a matter of vanity or coquetry. He quickly picks up his guitar and improvises, comes up with the most amazing directorial ideas in no time at all, and generally develops everything from the music.
 
Lukas Schrenk is also an all-rounder and comes from a background in acting, but for the premiere of Killing Carmen, he is primarily responsible for the script and also co-directs with Nils Strunk. What certainly distinguishes the directing style of the two is that they enthusiastically and boldly tackle material that experienced directors often avoid like the proverbial devil avoids holy water... The two of them used their theatrical magic tricks to transform The Magic Flute, so often conjured up by directors as a ‘problem play’, into an intelligent feel-good piece at the Burgtheater. ‘Theatre should always be careful not to come across as moralistic and didactic or to turn away from the audience in a self-referential manner. I particularly like inviting, stimulating and dreamy theatre,’ Lukas Schrenk sums it up.
 
The two are now joined in their creation of Killing Carmen by Gabriel Cazes, who describes his ideal theatre as a ‘stage where many great worlds and disciplines come together and where music is the magical glue that binds these worlds together’.