In the last two years of his short life, after repeated false starts and changes of direction, Georges Bizet finally succeeded in creating the work he was born to write, Carmen. For this opera Bizet and his librettists, Meilhac and Halevy, turned to a short story by Prosper Merimee which recounts the jealous love - ending in degradation and murder - of a soldier, Don Jose, for the gypsy girl Carmen. The sexually liberated heroine takes center stage to express her own ideas on love in the famous "Habanera". This was strong stuff for the family audiences frequenting the Opera-Comique where Carmen was premiered in March 1875, not least because in Bizet's music the charaters truly come to life; their emotions seem utterly real, their actions inevitable.

In 1981, the stage director Peter Brook and the writer Jean-Claude Carriere collaborated on a chamber version of Bizet's original, reducing the cast to four singers and three actors, the orchestra to a 12 piece ensemble, and the running time to just 80 minutes. This revolutionary and compelling new version of Carmen has sold out wherever it has played in the world to date, and we are proud to present the Indianapolis premiere in collaboration with the Indianapolis Opera and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.