– Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest

Date: Saturday, 14 November 2026
Time: 18:00
Duration: 03:15
Venue: Hungarian State Opera House
Address: Budapest, Hungarian State Opera, Andrássy út 22, 1061 Hungary
City: Budapest
Organisation: Hungarian State Opera
Language: French

About this event

The productions by the Catalan director Calixto Bieito, often called the “Quentin Tarantino of the opera stage”, cut incisively into the reality of their stories, making them shockingly provocative. Bieito relocates this opera—originally set in 19th‑century Seville—to post‑Franco Spain and depicts a savage, cruel world with unflinching realism, avoiding folkloric flamenco clichés. The staging strips away romanticised Andalusian tropes in favour of a raw, confrontational approach that foregrounds violence and obsessive passions. Bieito’s Carmen has toured worldwide and arrived in Hungary in 2021. Set designer Florez Tarres Ildefonso and costume designer Merce Paloma collaborate to realise the austere post‑Franco aesthetic. Categorised by the Hungarian State Opera as “contemporary Opera 16”, the production emphasises psychological realism over convention, presenting a militarised environment as a system of oppression that shapes Carmen’s agency and the tragedy’s inevitability.