Carmen's musical makeover: Amaya's Flamenco traditions carried on.

Sometimes even the world's most famous Spanish seductress needs a makeover. Carmen, the tale of a beautiful gypsy's doomed romances, has been one of the world's most performed operas since its debut in 1875. This month, director Franco Dragone, choreographer Sarah Miles, and flamenco dance royalty Omayra Amaya collaborate to take the tale of love and betrayal from opera house to contemporary dance stage in their new Carmen.

Dragone's mark on the theatrical world is unmistakable. The creative vision behind Cirque du Soleil's Mystere and O in Las Vegas, this Belgian director's work is full of lithe bodies that hurl through the air in acrobatic feats, leaving audiences breathless. For Carmen, he has traded the cavernous stages of Sin City for the intimate quarters of the acclaimed La Jolla Playhouse near San Diego, where the show runs June 5-July 22.

Carmen is the passionate story of love and loss from the perspective of an enraptured Spanish soldier. The production has a cast of 18. Grandniece of the great Carmen Amaya, Omayra says, "This production gives us the chance to use flamenco in a new way to tell a tale that is set in the south of Spain, flamenco's home." In his reinterpretation, Dragone has not abandoned his style of blending elements from diverse artistic disciplines. "I want to make a performance that pushes the dancing, singing, and acting to the highest levels," he says. As Dragone's chief choreographer, Miles will combine modern dance, ballet, and athletic movement to achieve this artistic vision. Miles, who trained at The Royal Ballet School and performed with the Paris Opera Ballet, has choreographed for film, television, and Broadway--including Victor/Victoria and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Miles is working with Amaya, who is known for a modern take on famenco that incorporates elements of jazz and ballet. "Carmen Amaya was known for taking risks in flamenco," Omayra says of her world famous relative. "In this way, working on a project that mixes flamenco with other dance styles continues her legacy."

This new Carmen will not use Bizet's original operatic score. Dragone admits that for the most part, he did not like the original opera, finding it "too simplistic." Instead, he is using a new score by the European songwriter Jon Ewbauks.

But why make another version of Carmen now? Miles says that the story is not just about love, but touches on themes of war and the obsession to destroy what one cannot change. Dragone wants to present Carmen in a way no one has seen before, "with dance that will make the audience's eyes pop." The story, he says, "is not just about a gypsy's passion, but about human love, life, and death."