(Credits: © Holger Hage / Deutsche Grammophon / Semperoper Dresden official website)

The Belgrade Summer Festival has announced that mezzo-soprano superstar Elīna Garanča will perform the title role in a concert performance of George Bizet‘s operatic masterwork “Carmen” on July 4, 2021.

Garanča will be joined onstage by American tenor Jonathan Tetelman in the role of Don José, and Lithuanian bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas in the role of Escamillo. Serbian soprano Marija Jelić will perform the role of  Micaëla. Karel Mark Chichon will conduct the Orchestra of the Opera of Serbian National Theater.

The Latvian mezzo-soprano has performed the role of Carmen to a critical acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and Royal Opera House Covent Garden, among others. She has been continually praised for her “rich sound, an unerring feel for the nuance and subtext of a phrase, and alluring sensuality.”

Garanča is set to perform “Carmen” at the Teatro di San Carlo between June 25 and 27, 2021. The mezzo-soprano next returns to the stage on August 22, 2021 in the role of Marguerite in Berlioz‘s “La Damnation de Faust” at the Salzburger Festspiele, before taking on the role of Princess di Bouillon in Cilea‘s “Adriana Lecouvreur” at the Wiener Staatsoper in October and November 2021.