A debut by Khachatur Badalyan

Bizet’s Carmen is arguably one of the most popular operas in the world. Theatre statistics invariably give it a top rating in terms of the number of its performances. Even the most inexpert audiences can sing at least a few melodies from Carmen. It is, however, a well-known fact that at its premiere the opera received a great many catcalls. Carmen’s unprecedented international success began in October 1875 with a production in Vienna, the contract for which the composer had signed immediately prior to his death. Bizet’s great contemporaries, however, were united in their commendation of the opera. Friedrich Nietzsche was among its many proponents. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who had heard the original Paris production of Carmen, predicted that a great future awaited the opera: “It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word,” the composer wrote in a letter, “I am convinced that in about ten years Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world.” Admirers of the opera have included such diverse composers as Wagner and Prokofiev, Debussy and Mahler, Brahms and Puccini...

Khachatur Badalyan, who will be performing the role of Carmen’s jealous lover the corporal José, “has an enchanting timbre and fine ‘innate’ technique” and critics have likened his voice to “pure silver,” “powerful and pliant with ‘loaded’ upper notes.”