Opera Arlington will present Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” on June 5 and 6 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Arlington, Texas.

The production transplants the opera’s action to 1920s Spain in the wake of the Spanish national soccer team’s Olympic medal victory. The Mansfield Philharmonic joins the production under the baton of Dr. Eldred Marshall, with stage direction by Eliza Escalante.

The concept recasts Escamillo, interpreted by Erik Danielsen and Isaac Carlin, not as a bullfighter but as the celebrated footballer who scored the winning goal, his swagger intact. Carmen remains a free-spirited Romani woman, her portrayed by Kaswanna Kanyinda and Lauren Salazar whose fateful entanglement with the soldier Don José, played by Jordan Hammons and Matthew Corcoran, drives the opera toward its devastating conclusion.

“With this summer’s playoffs making Arlington a global destination for soccer fans, Opera Arlington is excited to welcome new audiences into the opera house,” said director Escalante, per an official press release. “Opera has always been about passion at its most extreme and so has soccer. This summer, they meet right here in DFW.”