Carmen

Presented by Boston Lyric Opera. At Boston Opera House, Sept. 23-Oct. 2. 617-542-6772, www.blo.org

To open its 40th anniversary season, Boston Lyric Opera is returning to Bizet’s ever-popular “Carmen,’’ but this production will differ from its last “Carmen’’ in two major ways. First, it will be staged at the Boston Opera House, where no professional opera has been heard since 1991. And second, the production is the brainchild of Catalan director Calixto Bieito, who has won fame and notoriety in European opera circles for the modern grit and violence he often finds in scores of the distant past.

Bieito’s “Carmen,’’ which premiered in 1999 and is being mounted as a co-production with San Francisco Opera, marks the director’s US operatic debut. Speaking recently by phone from Switzerland, he shared his perspective on Bizet’s immortal cigarette girl, on the influences behind this widely traveled staging, and on what it means to view an opera with contemporary eyes.

Q. What made you choose to stage “Carmen’’?

A. It’s really a perfect opera, especially if you can concentrate it, the whole plot and music, on the real life of the world. This is not a folk piece — it’s a piece about real people living at a border, a metaphorical and a literal one. They are trying to live and dream their lives very fast. There is an authenticity of emotions, of love, of the wild feelings, of tenderness and violence. It’s the first “Lulu,’’ the first “Lolita.’’ It’s got everything inside of it. It is just so wonderful.

Q. How do you view the title character?

A. She is a real woman — not just a seducer, or kind of folk gypsy. She’s a woman trying to live her life, to live her freedom. Carmen is also a victim because she wants to escape from this man, to escape from her destiny. But she is ultimately killed for no reason. Don José is a man who is suffering. We know it today as an obsessive jealousy. The piece is full of tension between all the characters, and full of violence. And we are living in a very violent world, which is why I say the piece is very near to all of us.

Q. How would you describe the setting of your production?

A. It’s set in a borderland, the space between two countries. It could be the Mexican border with the US, it could be any border. I didn’t want to do a political piece, I wanted to do a human piece, and I wanted it to be close to the passions and to the emotions, and at the same time close to the thoughts, the trafficking and the poverty of the people. . . . In a way “Carmen’’ is a masterpiece that belongs to the whole humanity. But my own culture is Spanish and, much more, European. I grew up with Buñuel, with Goya, with Picasso. This is in my blood and it comes out in this “Carmen.’’

Q. Why did you choose to make cuts in the score?

A. Because I wanted it to be very pure. I think it’s really extraordinary music. But I didn’t like all the recitatives. I thought they were not near to the same quality. And people don’t need that text to understand the plot anymore. Everything is in the music. I didn’t really cut the music. Some conductors sometimes make a few very traditional cuts.

Q. In broader terms, your work obviously tends to elicit very strong opinions. It has been hailed as visionary and attacked as vandalism. How do you describe your broader philosophical approach to staging opera?

A. We are people from today and we need to see art with the eyes of today. We cannot pretend we are living in the past. Nobody is wondering why Picasso did not do the same thing as Velazquez. He was doing an interpretation. This is what, finally, we are doing. All stagings of operas — even the most conservative stagings — are an interpretation, because the audience is not coming with the same associations as the audience in Verdi’s day. And, anyway, when they came to “Nabucco’’ they were actually thinking about political stuff in Italy!

I never sit at my desk and think about what would shock or provoke an audience. It’s just what is right for the piece in this moment. Nobody is asking Spielberg whether he was trying to destroy the audience when he created the first 20 minutes of “Saving Private Ryan.’’ He was clearly just showing how terrible war is. This is also in my “Carmen.’’ When a man kills a woman, the audience must feel pity, compassion for both of them. If you try to make this all about beauty and costumes, people forget what is going on in the scene. They shouldn’t only be thinking “Oh, this is such beautiful music.’’

There is space for all kinds of operas. I also like going to see very traditional stagings. It’s just important to communicate to people that they must not be afraid. I say, let’s try to open the doors and windows of the mind. Because opera could be a fantastic art, for the young people, for the future.

Carmen

Presented by Boston Lyric Opera. At Boston Opera House, Sept. 23-Oct. 2. 617-542-6772, www.blo.org

Interview was condensed and edited. Jeremy Eichler will be on leave from the Globe through June 2017. Follow him on Twitter at @Jeremy_Eichler.