As the FIFA World Cup 2026 makes its way to Texas, one local opera company hopes to score new fans by adding a soccer-themed twist to a classic production.
Opera Arlington will host a reimagined version of “Carmen” where the role of Escamillo is transformed from a bullfighter to a soccer player on Spain’s 1920 Olympic silver-medal team.
“Escamillo, whether he's fighting a bull or in front of thousands of adoring soccer fans, he is sort of manhood encapsulated in a person,” said Jordan Hammons, who plays Escamillo’s rival, Don José.
The company was planning its season when it learned that AT&T Stadium would house more World Cup matches than any other host city.
Playing off Cristiano Ronaldo's swagger
For Eliza Escalante, co-founder and general director of Opera Arlington, substituting soccer for bullfighting felt like a no-brainer.
“To me it was more about ego and character than it was about the actual sport and I really personally didn't see much difference between the swagger of a toreador and the swagger of Cristiano Ronaldo,” Escalante said.
Ronaldo, the Portuguese football star, doesn’t have a cameo in this production, and the show’s cast list is much smaller than the average team roster. However, the sport is a shorthand that’s easy for audiences to understand.
“We're playing with our modern perception of the glamour of soccer and projecting it back into 1920, but I fully suspect that there were similar rivalries, conflicts. There's something kind of gritty and exciting about the newness of this sport that created this national iIntrigue and excitement amongst not just Spain, but Europe in general,” Escalante said.
Opera Arlington was founded in 2022 to create more opportunities for early career artists to gain experience performing full-length operas on professional stages. To that end, the company double-casts many roles to create twice as many opportunities with each production.
In “Carmen,” one cast will perform Friday and the other will take the stage on Saturday.
Attendees of either night are encouraged to dress up in their favorite soccer jerseys or their best 1920s glam.
The company hopes productions like this will make opera less intimidating to people who have never been to one before.
'Love triangles and entanglements'
Kaswanna Kanyinda plays Carmen. Songs from this opera are referenced throughout pop culture, so many people will recognize its music even if they didn’t know its origins, she said.
“It's gonna be really exciting for people to see the story in a different context and be reintroduced to pieces that they've heard in commercials or shows,” Kanyinda said. “I am excited for kids, or even adults, to point out things like, ‘I know that.’”
The lyrics are in French, and the performance will include English subtitles. Still, Hammons said, you don’t need to understand every word to enjoy the show.
“It's love triangles and entanglements and that feeling of the guy who has a nice girlfriend back home, but then he meets this girl who turns his world upside down,” he explained.
“Everything falls apart, and you throw a professional athlete in the mix and it sounds more like a TMZ story than something from a museum.”
So, while audiences shouldn’t expect a full on soccer match, they can count on high stakes, hot heads and a whole lot of drama.
DETAILS: 7 p.m. June 5 and 6 at Trinity UMC Arlington, 1200 W. Green Oaks Blvd., Arlington. Tickets start at $15.
