The story of Carmen is famously marked by death. Written in 1875 by composer Georges Bizet, the opera’s title character is presented as both a powerful force and a troublesome seducer. In its traditional telling, Don José is haplessly led astray by Carmen; her murder at his hands framed as the result of her own actions. It has been reinterpreted many times over the years, most recently, by artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang, whose experience as director at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus brings a rich insight into live performance.
Tsang has been researching the story for the last eight years, culminating in an opera-theatre hybrid show with interdisciplinary artist group Moved by the Motion, and a film installation that has recently premiered at MACBA in Barcelona (until 3 November 2024). The film installation ‘La gran mentira de la muerte’ takes death as its central theme, exploring the multiple ways in which this threads through Carmen’s story. In the creation of these works, Tsang has studied both flamenco and classic interpretations of the opera and wanted to build a bridge between them as someone straddling multiple art forms.
