Yekta Kara

As a director, you have staged many works to date. I am sure these are all very dear to you. However, which one of them is of special significance?

I have been a director since 1980. I have staged many works in Turkey and abroad. As you have said, all of them have left their individual marks on me. Yet, Carmen is perhaps the most important of them all. This opera is different from others in many aspects. Composed by George Bizet in 1875, Carmen has been the most frequently performed opera in the world. The plot takes place in Seville, Spain, and is a triangle of love and desire between the beautiful Gypsy girl Carmen, and Don Jose the lieutenant and Escamillo the toreador, both of whom are infatuated with her.

The traditional female characters of operas are usually suffering, downtrodden, crying, sorrowful individuals. However, as opposed to this conventional persona, Carmen stands out in the world of opera with her courageous, strong and assertive personality that defies life and death alike. Think of a woman bold enough to confront the truth when her love for a man withers away, and to explain this truth to the man involved in all honesty. As such, we may call Carmen the first “feminist” in opera literature. The score has also opened up new possibilities for composers.

One of the key issues for me is the appeal of opera to a wide audience. I believe that Carmen is the right choice in this matter. The Carmen premiere in France in 2007 was viewed by an audience of 10.000 at the Bercy, the largest opera hall in Paris.

I have always been excited to see a large audience watching an opera, and Carmen was great in that respect. The production was later taken to Budapest, Geneva, Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, many large cities in France and Germany, and Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Moreover, I worked with a cast and technical crew from seventeen countries. With the help of two hundred performers and a great technical crew, I was able to stage what we may call a "monumental opera". I had the opportunity to benefit from all possibilities of contemporary directing as I prepared Carmen.

The feminist personality of Carmen and your success in having hundreds of thousands watch this performance is impressive. Why did you choose to stage the Abduction from the Seraglio this season? What is the significance of this opera for you?

I have made four productions of the Abduction from the Seraglio in Turkey and Germany. The fact that the opera has a plot surrounding the Turks, takes place in Istanbul, and has Selim Pasha and Osman as the leading characters have resulted in the Abduction from the Seraglio being deemed a "Turkish opera" across the world, and has earned the work a different place in opera writing.

You will remember that I had staged the Abduction from the Seraglio in 2006, on the 250^th anniversary of Mozart, at the Topkapı Palace as part of the Istanbul Music Festival. The conductor and all soloists were foreign at the time. Because it would be staged at the Topkapı Palace, that production was classical in essence. However, the 2004 production in Germany was much more contemporary. This year, the opera will be performed at the Yıldız Palace, so it considers the properties of that venue, and is directed through a different perspective.

What is the main reason for this difference in interpretation?

We are in the 21^st century. Our society and the world at large are undergoing rapid change, which has a great impact on us as individuals. I believe that staging an opera that has been written and composed a century or two ago through a classical perspective is entirely wrong and unnecessary, restricting the opera to the confines of a museum exhibit. This would have no value for the audience as well as for myself, and would be no source of excitement. This is why I try to make a difference by making contemporary adaptations of operas or by adding references to current issues. My experience of three decades shows me that "the different" is always necessary for performing arts.

You have staged the Abduction from the Seraglio at the Yıldız Palace this year. Why did you pick this location, and what was the purpose of this production?

You may consider this production, staged specifically for the Yıldız Palace, as part of the pre-work for the Istanbul International Opera Festival to be inaugurated by the State Opera and Ballet next summer within the scope of the 2010 European Culture Capital events. The production will be reprised in July 2010 within the Festival program. This production is truly different from the classical approach to staging, where actors and audiences are separated by a grand orchestra, and is staged in the manner of a tradition al comedy, where the audience surrounds the action. This allowed for an altogether different exchange and interaction between the actors and the audience, resulting in a warm and intimate relationship.