A ‘Carmen’ That Stops Blaming the Victim Premieres at Paax Festival

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — A new production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen is aiming to change the narrative. Opening today at the Festival Paax GNP, @Carmen the real story is a semi-staged reinterpretation that, 151 years after the opera’s premiere, shifts the focus from blaming the victim to holding the murderer accountable.

Director Bárbara Lluch told Excélsior that revisiting Carmen was long overdue. Her first encounter with the opera came as a child while her grandmother, actress and stage director Núria Espert, prepared a production at London’s Covent Garden.

“When (artistic director) Alondra and I started talking about the project, we were very aware that she is an artistic director and I am a stage director, and that there aren’t that many women who have directed Carmen, because it’s still a field completely controlled by men,” Lluch said.

The key moment, she explained, is when Don José kills Carmen out of jealousy and desperation after she falls for Escamillo. “Everything else you can strip away — it’s like an onion, you’re left with the core. Based on that, having seen so many versions of Carmen and not wanting to repeat it — why do something already well done? — we tried to find a perspective more relevant to our times, from a gender standpoint.”

The production draws inspiration from the Gisèle Pelicot case, BBC investigations into rape cases, and feminicide statistics. “Through social media, these violent men have found a darker, deeper hiding place where they’re not alone — anonymity gives them the ability to say whatever they want, and they have support because we’re all connected,” Lluch warned.

In @Carmen the real story, Don José remains a man with strong principles tied to law and duty. Carmen, meanwhile, “could be any of us,” Lluch said. “I couldn’t stand any more Carmens where the women are throwing themselves at men — that’s not true. Neither by text does she have the desire or time to seduce one after another. The attention men give Carmen is not because she provokes it, but because she’s pretty and attractive.”

The director also eliminated the character of Micaela, whom she deemed non-essential. Reflecting on how the Carmen of 150 years ago would view this production, Lluch said: “I think Carmen, poor thing, has always been the same — it’s the perception that has changed. Not blaming the victim is very recent. Removing Carmen’s guilt is something we owed her. I hope she says, ‘Finally!’ Because the fault lies with the murderer, not the victim.”