Best bets

NCPA Production of Bizet's Opera Carmen. [Photo/China Daily]

NCPA Production of Bizet's Opera Carmen

Date: Feb 26-March 2-7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-880 yuan

Originated from the novel by Prosper Merimee, the opera Carmen was completed in the autumn of 1874. It was the last work of Georges Bizet, and also is the most popular opera on the stage in the world until now. Bizet, through his music, told us a tragic story behind brightness, and depicted the optimistic, straight forward but wild personality of a Gipsy girl, Carmen. The opera discloses the bald-faced passions, describes the eternal confrontation between men and women, shows the ruthless but beautiful life, and proves the perpetual co-existence between love and death. In this opera, Bizet managed to create vivid dramatic melodies with Spanish elements. Some excerpts such as Habanera, Les Toreadors and the Prelude have been highly cherished by many artists and performed again and again in the past century.