CARMEN Will Open Dallas Opera's 2025/2026 Season
TDO presents the U.S. Premiere of a reconstruction of Bizet’s beloved opera’s 1875 debut production for its 150th anniversary.
By: Nicole Rosky Sep. 04, 2025
The Dallas Opera (TDO) opens its 2025/2026 Season with the U.S. premiere of a new production celebrating the 150th anniversary of Georges Bizet’s iconic CARMEN opening on Friday, October 17, 2025. This production faithfully recreates the original Carmen from the 1875 premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
A team of incredibly talented artists spent more than two years researching original staging through manuals, lithographs, and more to reconstruct the sets and costumes that audiences saw in Paris 150 years ago. That team includes director Romain Gilbert, who also led TDO’s 2024 Romeo and Juliet, and famed French fashion designer Christian Lacroix.
“This production is a tribute to the original design of the 1875 premiere,” director Romain Gilbert says. “It shows artcraft that people are not used to seeing anymore.”
Leading the cast is Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti, who dazzled the world at the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, as Carmen, and Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu as Don José. Both singers, who sang these roles together last year in Zürich to much acclaim, make their TDO debuts in this production. Also making their Dallas Opera debuts in Carmen are soprano Teresa Perrotta, lyric tenor Matthew Goodheart, baritone Kyle Miller, baritone Laureano Quant, and baritone Eleomar Cuello. Returning to the TDO stage are baritone Gihoon Kim, soprano Diana Newman, and mezzo-soprano Kristen Choi.
Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director Emmanuel Villaume conducts The Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus and the children’s chorus, Greater Dallas Choral Society, in the original score with dialogue, which will be performed in French with English supertitles.
In Bizet’s timeless opera, the infatuated Don José frees Carmen from prison hoping to be together forever, but she longs only for freedom. With some of opera’s most recognizable music, this tragic tale of spurned love has captured audiences’ hearts for generations. This production premiered at Opéra de Rouen in 2023 and was revived this year with Opéra Royal Versailles, Grand Theatre Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and Ho Guom Opera in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Dallas Opera performance marks the production’s first North American appearance.
“Carmen is the ideal season opener,” says Ian Derrer, TDO’s Kern Wildenthal General Director and CEO. “We’re thrilled to bring this historic production to U.S. audiences for the first time. It’s truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”
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