There won’t be any yellow police tape around the Winspear  Opera House on Friday but the stage will become the gritty crime scene of a murder driven by jealous rage. It all takes place in The Dallas Opera’s production of Bizet’s ever-popular opera Carmen, which is filled with sex and smuggling, violence and victimization, theft and terrorism, desertion and destruction—and that’s just in the first act!  It also is filled with some of the most beautiful music ever written.

TDO is presenting this opera with a world-class cast. The French mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac will sing the title role of Carmen, the bad girl gone worse. The American tenor Stephen Costello will sing the role of Don José, the hapless soldier that Carmen uses, loves and discards. Baritone Alexander Vinogradov sings the role of Escamillo, the self-assured matador. Soprano Sara Gartland sings the role of Micaëla, the nice girl José left behind. Others in the cast are Ben Wager as Zuniga, Gideon Dabi as Moralès, Sarah Tucker as Frasquita, Lindsay Metzger as Mercédès, and Rafael Moras as Remendado.