CARMEN
Music by Georges Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy
Directed by Colm Summers
Conducted by Kynan Johns
Opera Theater Rutgers + Rutgers Symphony Orchestra
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center
April 11–14, 2025
ABOUT
For my production of Bizet’s Carmen at Rutgers, we moved the opera into the world of an American rodeo. Escamillo became a rodeo champion. Carmen moved through a culture built around public displays of masculinity, competition and possession. The rodeo gave us a way to make the opera’s gender politics physical. It is an arena in which masculinity is performed before an audience: men prove themselves through control, violence and spectacle.
The production increasingly turned its attention toward the spectators watching that conflict. Live video and media imagery brought the audience closer to the spectacle while asking what happens when violence against a woman becomes another image to consume.
Voce di Meche, whose reviewer explicitly acknowledged a dislike of contemporary updated Carmens, concluded after seeing the production:
“they succeeded.”
ARTISTIC TEAM
Music
Georges Bizet
Libretto
Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy
Director
Colm Summers
Conductor
Kynan Johns
Chorus Master
Stephanie Tubiolo
Assistant Stage Director
Isabella Rossi
Scenic & Costume Designer
Stephanie Bahniuk
Lighting Designer
Ben Levie
Video Designer
Jesse Itskowitz
Choreographer
Nava Chefitz
Intimacy Coordinator
Danielle Liccardo
Assistant Choreographer
Meira Klafter
Assistant Conductors
Tomás García Dueñas
Nathan Sawyer
Head Vocal Coach
Joel Harder
Répétiteur
Carlos Avila
Production Stage Manager
Gray St. Burdick
Production Manager
Sydney Crutcher
Props Supervisor
Macy Clarke
VOCE DI MECHE
Joan Greenberg
A New Carmen for the Ages
“they succeeded.”
“Our compliments to … the performer and stage directors.”
PRESS
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LIVE CINEMA
Video Design: Jesse Itskowitz
Live cinema and projected media became part of the production’s examination of spectatorship.
The camera could transform a private encounter into a public image. Carmen and Escamillo existed not only as people inside the story but as figures being watched, celebrated and consumed. The production asked what it means to watch violence against women through images - and how quickly spectacle, celebrity and entertainment can make violence feel distant even while bringing it closer.
The final confrontation therefore belonged simultaneously to the intimate world of Carmen and Don José and to the larger culture watching them.
CAST
Two principal casts alternated across four performances.
CARMEN
Micaëla Aldridge
Shengnan Yang
DON JOSÉ
Jeremy Blossey
Heejae Kim
MICAËLA
Lu Huang
Youjin Cho
ESCAMILLO
Yantian Sun
KwanSoon Yim
ZUNIGA
Ziliang Hao
FRASQUITA
Hayun Lee
Hyune Kwon
MERCÉDÈS
Yimeng An
Jessica Vargas
LE REMENDADO
Sehyun Lee
Yuhang Huang
LE DANCAÏRE
Abdon Andahur
MORALÈS
Julian Figueroa
with the Opera Theater Rutgers Chorus and Rutgers Symphony Orchestra.
RUTGERS OPERA
“This new production, conducted by Kynan Johns and directed by Colm Summers, aims to find fresh relevance in Bizet’s critique of patriarchy.”
COLM AT MASON GROSS
From 2024–2026, my work at Rutgers extended beyond directing individual productions.
I served in the artistic leadership of Opera Theater Rutgers at Mason Gross School of the Arts, ultimately as Director of Opera, working alongside conductor Kynan Johns, Head of Opera, Eduardo Chama and the opera faculty on the development and production of work for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral vocal artists. As the students professor, I also taught Acting for Singers to undergraduate and graduate students in the music division.
Opera Theater Rutgers operates simultaneously as a producing company and a training environment. Its seasons encompass canonical operas with full orchestra, contemporary chamber work, and new opera.
My work there centered on stage direction: giving emerging opera singers a rigorous theatrical process alongside their musical training and approaching canonical repertoire as living dramatic material rather than museum work.
The scale of the program allowed that training to happen inside fully realized productions with professional directors, conductors and designers, the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, and collaborators from across Mason Gross.
Carmen was followed by further directing work with Opera Theater Rutgers, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2026.