Tickets are already on sale for members of the Savonlinna Opera Festival Patrons’ Association! Gold, Platinum and Diamond members receive a -20 % discount 9.–22.6. U29 and Silver members can purchase tickets with a -15 % discount 16.–22.6. Read more and join as a member here. General ticket sales open 23.6. at 10 am. The early bird discount -10 % on price categories 1–4 and box seats is available until 30.6.2026.
Carmen is the embodiment of wildness: fierce, untamed and unwilling to take orders from anyone. The opera tells a story of desire, jealousy and the inescapable force of fate. In Carmen’s world, love does not settle into safe patterns or obey familiar rules, but follows its own unpredictable paths. Nothing can stand in Carmen’s way, and nothing — not even death — can hold her back. Look beneath the surface, and one of the world’s most beloved operas reveals new layers.
Full of love, desire and firery temperament.
Bizet’s music glows with the rhythm and colour of Seville, while at the same time carrying the refinement, clarity, and lightness of French opera. Carmen is full of melodies known far beyond the world of opera: from the fiery “Toreador Song” to the enchanting “Habanera” and longing arias such as “the Flower Song”. This opera finds its way straight to the heart. What awaits is an opera evening filled with love, desire and temperament.
Bizet’s passionate music is brought to life on stage by the stage director Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau: “Carmen is a woman haunted by fate and destiny that run between men and superstitions, religion and paganism. To communicate this, I want to return to the sources of the Carmen “myth”: rediscover the harsh and uncompromising spirit of Mérimée’s heroine”.
The production is a guest performance by the Estonian National Opera. There is cause for celebration, as exactly 40 years ago the Estonia Theatre was the Savonlinna Opera Festival’s first international guest.
