Elīna Garanča sings the title role opposite Roberto Alagna as Don José in director Richard Eyre’s new production of Bizet’s masterpiece. Barbara Frittoli is Micaëla and Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays the matador Escamillo. Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts. Renee Fleming hosts the broadcast.

“Her sexuality is a life force, it’s a defining force,” he explains. “Carmen is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom.” As for her portrayal of the free spirited gypsy, Elīna Garanča says, “You don’t get to develop productions of Carmen from scratch too often. Carmen is defined by her unwillingness to settle. She is constantly searching and never satisfied. It may be sex or, more broadly, approval by men. It could also just be a zest for life, and in that she is uncompromising.”  Under the baton of acclaimed young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Garanča is joined by Roberto Alagna as the obsessed soldier Don José, Barbara Frittoli as his devoted girlfriend Micaëla, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the toreador Escamillo.