Carmen rehearsals underway on Dóm Square ahead of Szeged Open-Air Festival performances

NewsCulture

Jul 28

SZEGED, Hungary – Rehearsals have begun on Dóm Square for Carmen, the next large-scale production at the 95th Szeged Open-Air Festival. The acclaimed staging by the Csokonai National Theatre of Debrecen will be performed July 31 and Aug. 1.

The full company assembled on the festival stage Monday evening for the first time before rehearsals got underway. The production brings together soloists and ensembles from Debrecen with performers from Szeged, including the Szeged Symphony Orchestra, the chorus of the Szeged National Theatre and the Bartók Children's Choir of the Juhász Gyula Primary School of the University of Szeged.

Welcoming the company, Szeged National Theatre Director-General László Barnák noted that Carmen has a long history at the festival, having first been staged on Dóm Square in 1969. He described the production, which premiered in Debrecen in March 2025, as a visually rich and contemporary interpretation of Georges Bizet's opera that offers something new for longtime opera audiences while remaining accessible to first-time viewers.

The opera will be performed in Hungarian using Emil Ábrányi's translation in a revised version by Tamás Blum and Géza Oberfrank.

Director Tamás Juronics said the original rehearsal process in Debrecen was marked by a strong sense of collaboration and expects the festival atmosphere in Szeged to further strengthen the combined Debrecen and Szeged company. He also highlighted Dóm Square as Hungary's largest outdoor opera stage and said he was pleased that Carmen would be part of this year's festival program.

As rehearsals began, technical crews continued installing the expanded outdoor set on the approximately 1,000-square-meter stage. Juronics' production relocates the opera's story to present-day Mexico, where the familiar characters and tragic events unfold against a backdrop of mysticism, violence, and social conflict.

The cinematic visual concept was created by Jászai Mari Prize-winning set and costume designer László Erkel Kentaur, with lighting design by János Madarász. The production will be conducted by Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, with choreography by Edit Domoszlai.

Mezzo-soprano Viktória Mester will perform the title role. She will be joined by tenor Gergely Boncsér as Don José, baritone Levente Molnár as Escamillo, and soprano Brigitta Kele as Micaëla. The cast also includes Imre Ürmössy, Péter Udvarhelyi, Ágnes Rendes, Zsófia Janovicz, Sándor Böjte, and Imre Donkó.

The performances will take place on July 31 and Aug. 1 on Dóm Square as part of the 95th Szeged Open-Air Festival.