Next month the Merola Opera Program will present two performances of La Tragédie de Carmen. When I announced this event on this site at the end of last month, I described it as “a starker adaptation” of Georges Bizet’s four-act opera Carmen. It was created by stage director Peter Brook in 1983, who collaborated with Jean-Claude Carrière in writing the script. Music was composed by Marius Constant. As in Bizet’s version, the text will be in French; and English supertitles will be provided.
Ariana Maubach, who will be singing the title role in La Tragédie de Carmen (from the Web page for the Merola 2026 emerging artists)
The objective was to distill the “source text” by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy into a 90-minute performance (without intermissions). There are no choruses, and instrumentation was scaled down to a chamber orchestra. The cast is significantly reduced, limited to the major characters in the plot. Vocal ranges are, for the most part (but not entirely), based on Bizet’s original score. The Merola performers will be mezzo Ariana Maubach in the title role, tenor Charles Styles as the hapless Don José, soprano Anna Thompson as the even more hapless Micaëla, baritone Raúl Morales Velazco as the flamboyant toreador Escamillo, tenor Ryan Bryce Johnson as Lieutenant of Dragoons Zuniga, and tenor Logan Wager as Lilas Pastia. Carriére’s script also endowed Carmen with a husband, Garcia, who will be sung by bass John Mburu. Staging will be directed by Mo Zhou, and Stephanie Rhode Russell will conduct.
This production will be given two performances: at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 9, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 11. Tickets will be sold for $75 with a $25 rate for those aged 25 and younger. Tickets can be purchased online with separate Web pages of Thursday and Saturday. They may also be purchased by calling the San Francisco Opera Box Office at 415-864-3330. The venue will be the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at 50 Oak Street.
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