Saturday 24 / May / 2025
Muscat: With just a week to go before the new exciting season at the Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) gets underway, it has been guaranteed that audiences are in for a bigger treat this season.
One of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon, Carmen, will be appearing once again at the ROHM after eight years. It first came to the ROHM as a specially commissioned production for the landmark Inaugural Season in 2011.
Speaking to Times of Oman, Umberto Fanni, Director General of the ROHM Muscat, said the new season will be full of colours and amazing sets staged by an Oscar winning art director.
“The season will open with a wonderful production of Carmen by Georges Bizet. This is our ROHM production that was commissioned and performed in 2011. After eight years we are presenting it again, a wonderful opera title with magnificent production, full of colours and superb sets staged by Oscar winner Gianni Quaranta,” Fanni said.
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This compelling work, by late nineteenth-century French composer Georges Bizet, returns to the ROHM with the original sets that transformed the stage from a bustling city scene to a dark hideaway in the mountains and then into a grand stadium and realistic bullring.
With the added enhancement of brilliant new choreography by the famous Spanish dance company led by Antonio Gadès, Carmen will be performed by the most prestigious theatre in South America, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, complete with Orchestra and Choir under the baton of the renowned conductor, Antonello Allemandi.
“There will be a new choreography this season from one of the most famous flamenco dancers in the world, Antonio Gadès, and his company in the second act of the production. This is going to be very sparkling,” Fanni said.
Capping this extraordinary production, José Cura, one of the greatest tenors, will perform as Don José, the naïve soldier who loses his heart to a beautiful gypsy, the fiery and capricious Carmen, sung by the charismatic mezzo-soprano, Elena Maximova.
Carmen will be presented on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, September 11, 12 and 14 at 7:00 pm.
“In addition to that, we have a lot of incredible Arab performances and concerts coming up this month. We have the great star Ahlam and also the new Royal Opera House of Musical Arts venue where another incredible oud player and composer from Lebanon, Marcel Khalife, will be performing on September 26 and 27. So, there are a lot of great productions that must be seen at the ROHM in the two venues including the big one and the new Royal Opera House of Musical Arts this season,” Fanni said.
