In 2009, a young unknown Georgian mezzo-soprano made her operatic debut in the title role of Bizet's "Carmen."

The production starred Jonas Kaufmann and Erwin Schrott and it was conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The occasion was the opening night of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano.

The singer in question was Anita Rachvelishvili, and the debut put her on the map as the performance was broadcast live around the world. Two years later, she would make her Metropolitan Opera debut and become one of the most sought-after Carmens of our time.

And now, the 30-year-old Rachvelishvili, who is just five years into her career, has returned to the Met to sing "Carmen," just three years after her debut at the famed opera house. But this occasion is made all the more special by the fact that the performance will be part of the company's award-winning "Live in HD" series and will be broadcast in movie theaters around the world.

"It's going to be a beautiful experience," Rachvelishvili said about being broadcast live during a recent interview with Latin Post. Last year, Rachvelishvili made her HD debut in the small role of Konchakovna in Borodin's "Prince Igor", but for her, this time will be different.

"This time it's not going to be a small role. Konchakovna is really important but Carmen is always on stage and it's going to be hard and amazing at the same time," she said.

Rachvelishvili actually relishes the opportunity to have an HD broadcast because she thinks it elevates her performance.

"You don't need special preparations. You just need to remember the difference between the people seeing you from the audience and the people seeing you in the movies with the cameras in your face. You need to express more," she noted. "Usually in the theater and the stage...we tend to act more with our body than with our faces to show people our emotions.

"But when you're doing HD you need to express yourself and emotions on your face. So it's a little bit different."

After hundreds of performances of Bizet's opera, Rachvelishvili admits this is the role that best describes who she is.

"I think Carmen is pretty close to my personality. Maybe not 100 percent but at least 70 or 80 percent. So I am singing the role that fits me perfectly," Rachvelishvili said.

She also says that singing the iconic character numerous times has helped her interpretation evolve.

"It's changed a lot because first of all now I have more experience, I know more about the character. I feel it more and it's more familiar to me," she revealed. "In 2009, I studied the role in every way possible, but after all these productions and all these years, you change your opinion on what you do on stage."

Working with numerous directors has helped in that regard.

"Sometimes, it changes because of the directors. So there are different point of views about the character. So it also changes my interpretation of the role," she said.

Despite the evolution of her interpretation, there are aspects of Carmen's character that have remained consistent for her, particularly in when examining the central relationship of the opera.

"My way of seeing Carmen and the relationship with Don Jose is always the same. Carmen is really in love with Don Jose, so I always try to show that and try to make it clear that she is in love," Rachvelishvili explained.

She also believes that the relationship between Escamillo, the bullfighter, and Carmen is essentially a means of escaping reality.

"Being with Escamillo at the end is just an [escape from] a really jealous and crazy man like Don Jose," she stated. "Carmen knows that the cards are not lying and she knows she is going to die. So she tries to change her destiny. That's my opinion. In the end, she is not in love with Escamillo. If you read the book by [Prosper] Merimee, you see that she is crazy about Don Jose exactly like he is crazy about Carmen."

"There are difficult relationships in which you realize that no matter how much you love somebody you can't be with that person. This is the case with Carmen and Don Jose."

For this revival at the Met, Rachvelishvili had a new experience. Although she has sung the current Richard Eyre production twice, Rachvelishvili actually never had the chance to work with the famed director.

This season, however, Eyre returned to direct the performance. "Richard Eyre was here directing the 'Marriage of Figaro' so he had time to stage 'Carmen,'" she explained. "So we worked for two weeks on the production. Of course, Richard made it possible for the role and production to fit me.

"A couple of things were more violent and more physical because he realized that I could do it so he changed it and added a couple of fights. So it's a little different and I think it's better than before," Rachvelishvili added.

One of the biggest changes was during the Act 3 confrontation. In this scene, Don Jose pushes Carmen to the ground and the direction is so vivid that Rachvelishvili's fall had audiences questioning whether she was hurt or not.

"When I was doing this production in 2011, they taught me the right way to fall without hurting myself. Now I know it and every time I do it, it looks real. It looks like I am hurting myself, but it is always really safe," she said. "This is the good thing about the stage directors at the Met. They do their job really beautifully."

For this revival of "Carmen," Rachvelishvili worked with Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is widely recognized for his interpretation of Don Jose. Rachvelishvili noted that he was "an amazing singer with a great technique. I can learn a lot from him and he's a great artist with a lot of experience. I'm so happy to work with him and to be in the same space together."