Special Screening: The Faces of Carmen

Georges Bizet’s "Carmen" is one of the greatest and most popular operas of all time. But who is Carmen herself? A heroine? A victim? A betrayer? Few characters in opera are as open to interpretation as the free spirit at the heart of Bizet’s masterwork.

"The Faces of Carmen," a documentary by Hilan Warshaw and Overtone Films in co-production with Westdeutscher Rundfunk, takes an unusual approach to exploring this evergreen piece. The film follows rising 28-year-old opera star Aigul Akhmetshina as she undertakes a truly unique journey, performing the role of Carmen in five different productions in a single year. Her Carmen year takes her, and us, to some of the world’s greatest opera stages— among them Arena di Verona, Vienna State Opera, London’s Royal Opera House, and the Glyndebourne Festival— as she brings Carmen to life in a range of differing productions.

Akhmetshina, whose career was launched when she sang Carmen at the Royal Opera House at just 21, says of the role: “She’s always in survival mode, which I understand. I’m just an ordinary girl from a small village in the middle of nowhere in Russia. I had to start working very early.” From these humble beginnings she has risen to become, as one London critic recently wrote, “almost universally acclaimed as the Carmen of our times."

In the opera that bears her name, Carmen sings, “My heart is as free as the air… Whoever wants my soul— it’s theirs for the taking.“ Many have believed they understood her; yet two centuries later, she continues to challenge and inspire. She has had many faces. Can we ever truly know Carmen?
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With special guest Aigul Akhmetshina._