Following Verdi’s Rigoletto, this year it is Carmen, George Bizet’s masterpiece, which is moving into France’s most beautiful chateaux for the summer. For the past ten years this festival has been offering the general public the chance to discover major operatic works in the open-air and in dream settings.

This is also an opportunity to give the younger generation of opera singers their first major role. Beneath the mask of the gypsy seductress, you can alternately discover three young mezzo sopranos (Juliette Mars, Sophie Pondjiclis and Clémentine Margaine) and in the costume of Don José, tenors Marc Haffner and Eric Sahla. Every year, directors often not part of the operatic world are invited to direct the productions.

This year, the tragic destiny of the beautiful Spanish cigarette-seller will be in the hands of journalist and writer Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, a long-standing opera lover, assisted by up-and-coming director Manon Savary. No less than 26 performances are planned under the musical direction of young conductor Paul-Emmanuel Thomas.

The season will begin in the Departmental Park of Sceaux from 3rd to 5th June, passing through Ile-de-France from 25th to 27th June in the Vincennes Chateau and from 7th to 14th September in the main courtyard of the Hôtel National des Invalides, before ending in the splendid Vaux-le-Vicomte chateau from 24th to 26th September.