‘Carmen’ will visit familiar sites in Seville

After “Turandot” in the Forbidden City comes “Carmen” in the bullring.

The same team that produced Puccini’s final opera, “Turandot,” in a 1997 site-specific production at the Forbidden City in Beijing is turning its attention to Bizet’s “Carmen.”

The production in Seville, Spain -- part of the Sevilla International Music Festival, Sept. 2-12, 2004 -- will progress through various settings: in front of the cigar factory that Prosper Merimee described in the novel Bizet adapted, outside the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza and in the Plaza de Espana in Maria Luisa Park.

Conductor Lorin Maazel and Oscar-winning veteran filmmaker Carlos Saura will collaborate with a cast set to include Olga Borodina and Denyce Graves, alternating in the title role, and Neil Shicoff and Nicola Rossi-Giordano, alternating as Don Jose. The production will be lighted by Oscar-wining cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Gerardo Vera will design the costumes, Rafael Palmeros the sets.

The production is the brainchild of Michael Ecker, president of Opera on Original Site Inc., which produced the Forbidden City “Turandot.” Future Ecker plans include site-specific productions of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” both of which also take place in Seville region.

Other events are to include performances by the New York Philharmonic, led by Sir Colin Davis, and the Russian National Orchestra, with pianist Mikhail Pletnev, along with solo recitals by violinist Maxim Vengerov and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.