Photos: LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN at Merola Opera Program
See mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach in the title role, plus more.
San Francisco’s acclaimed Merola Opera Program is continuing its 2026 season with La Tragédie de Carmen. This condensed adaptation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, created by visionary theatre director Peter Brook presents the opera in a raw and psychologically intense form, with a revised score edited by composer Marius Constant, and a libretto by French writer and dramatist Jean-Claude Carrière that more closely hews to the original Prosper Mérimée novella on which Bizet's opera was based. See photos!
Two Merola alumnae, Conductor Stephanie Rhodes Russell (’09) and Director Mo Zhou (’15), lead this production, which focuses on the gripping tension between Carmen’s insistence on absolute freedom and Don José’s obsessive control. Prioritizing intimacy and inevitability over spectacle, the performance unfolds as an intimate tragedy driven by desire, jealousy, and fate. La Tragédie de Carmen will be presented 7:00pm, Thursday, July 9, and 2:00pm, Saturday, July 11, 2026, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, 50 Oak St., San Francisco. La Tragédie de Carmen will be performed in French with English supertitles.
This production features a cast of rising opera artists from the 2026 Merola Opera Program, selected from a highly competitive international pool. These emerging singers represent the next generation of operatic talent, bringing fresh insight and vocal excellence to this powerful work. La Tragédie de Carmen stars Canadian mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach in the title role as the free-spirited, defiant, and fiercely independent Carmen. The obsessive and jealous Don José will be portrayed by English tenor Charles Styles. Fresh off her Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition win, soprano Anna Thompson takes on the role of the gentle and compassionate Micaëla, while Mexican baritone Raúl Morales Velazco appears as the charismatic Escamillo. Tenor Ryan Bryce Johnson will perform the role of the military officer Zuniga; John Mburu portrays Garcia, Carmen’s husband, and tenor Logan Wager rounds out the cast as Lilas Pastia, the tavern and café owner.
Photo credit: Kristen Loken
Ariana Maubach and Charles Styles
Raúl Morales Velazco and Ariana Maubach
Raúl Morales Velazco and Charles Styles
Ariana Maubach as Carmen, Charles Styles and Anna Thompson
Ariana Maubach as Carmen and soprano Anna Thompson
Ariana Maubach and Charles Styles
Charles Styles and Anna Thompson
Anna Thompson Ariana Maubach
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