Join us for a fully staged version of Carmen, specially created for those who enjoy a more relaxed opera experience.

If a full-length opera doesn’t feel like the right fit, our afternoon Access performances give you the flexibility and freedom to relax, move about as required, and have a fantastic time!

Access performances are open to all and make coming to a favourite opera as easy and stress-free as possible. With full cast and orchestra and narration to take you through the story, there are extra staff on hand to help and a smaller capacity to allow everyone space. So whether you’re living with dementia or Long COVID, recovering from an operation, struggling to get out to evening performances or would simply benefit from the more relaxed atmosphere, you can enjoy everything opera has to offer.

Dementia Friendly.
Groups welcome.

Kindly supported by Scottish Opera's Education Angels

Georges Bizet’s classic opera of jealousy, lust, and life outside the dictates of society gets a bold new update to conclude Scottish Opera’s 60th Season.

With such hit melodies as the Habanera, Flower Aria, and Toreador Song – alongside Bizet’s magnificent orchestral interludes and rousing chorus numbers – the opera has musical riches for all.

‘Director John Fulljames’ version is a stunning, constantly surprising spectacle’
— The Skinny on Nixon in China 2020

But Carmen is not merely one show-stopping number after another. With director John Fulljames (Nixon in China 2020) at the helm and a design team led by Sarah Beaton and Christina Cunningham, Carmen’s iconic images are delivered amidst the unrest and upheavals of 1970s Spain, where the investigation into Carmen’s murder runs alongside the systems that led to her death. Carmen is the eternal outsider, carving out a life by her own rules in a militaristic and patriarchal society. The contrast of an often buoyant score and much crowd-driven action with the libretto’s introspective psychological darkness – here thrown into greater prominence in an English translation – makes Carmen an endlessly fascinating work.