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Opera lovers around the world will have seen Carmen being killed by her jealous ex-lover, Don José. This is a fate that Bizet’s famous character tragically shares with many women today. In the opera performance, ‘The Undoing of Carmen’, the romanticization of a partner killing is being challenged.

The opera is an artistic experiment that weaves together Bizet’s classic opera, newly written compositions and science based criminology. Based on criminologist Jane Monckton Smith theory “ 8 predictable steps leading up to femicide”, the show dissects Bizet's characters and drama and offers a new perspective on the classical opera canon.

Criminologist Jane Monckton Smith is the first expert who proves that partner killings aren’t tragic acts of spontaneous passion and jealousy, but typically follow an eight step pattern that creates a homicide timeline.

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‘The Undoing of Carmen’ uses these eight steps as the leading conceptual framework and dramaturgy in the show. Three female soloists alternately take on the roles of perpetrator, victim and martyr and a different and agitating opera performance comes to life. The opera is the first in a series of works that analyze opera classics with a critical eye

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Director and concept Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg
Composer and concept: Kirstine Fogh Vindelev og Georg Bizet
Set and costume design: Pelle Staack
Koreograf: Liva Lopez
Expert in femicides: Katrine Amalie Keller