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.
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