La tragédie de Carmen

Merola Opera Program 2026

Adapted from Georges Bizet's opera by Marius Constant, Jean-Claude Carriere, and Peter Brook Stage

Conductor: Stephanie Rhodes Russell

Projection Design: Camilla Tassi

Carmen: Ariana Maubach • Don José: Charles Styles • Micaëla: Anna Thompson

Escamillo: Raúl Morales Velazco • Lillas Pastia: Logan Wagner • Zuniga: Ryan Bryce Johnson • Garcia: John Mburu

Photo Credit: Kristen Loken

Directorial Concept

I approach La Tragédie de Carmen as the internal psychological crucible of Don José. Rather than treating it as a story of unrequited love, the production examines fundamental delusion and obsession, where every character is a projection of José’s unexamined ego and longing. Drawing on the Diamond Sutra’s teaching that “all that has form is illusory and unreal,” and on the prominent Chinese author Eileen Chang’s Red Rose, White Rose, the staging presents Micaëla as the silver-white ideal and Carmen as the cinnabar-red obsession he cannot possess. José’s final act is not a crime of passion but the terminal destruction of the very mirror reflecting his own illusions.