Carmen Tickets

Carmen, a searing depiction of a woman who craves love, but creates obsession and jealousy, is one of the most popular operas ever written.

Bizet‘s Spanish-inflected score is bursting with passionate melodies and famous numbers such as Carmen’s seductive ‘Habanera’ and Escamilo’s ‘Toreador song’.

Act I

Soldiers parade in the square. Micaëla arrives, looking for José. Moralès tells her that José is on the next watch. He tries to persuade her to wait with them, but Micaëla decides to return later. A crowd of street children appears, followed by the relief guard headed by Zuniga.

The square fills up with soldiers and women from the factory. Carmen attracts the most attention. Before returning to the factory, she throws a flower to José, which he picks up when everyone else has dispersed.

Micaëla returns and gives José the letter from his mother. Suddenly there is uproar in the factory and a crowd of women rushes out. They accuse Carmen of drawing a knife during a fight with another girl. Carmen refuses to answer Zuniga’s questions and he decides to send her to prison. While Zuniga is writing out the warrant, Carmen seduces José, who lets her escape.

Act II Two months later

Carmen and her friends, Frasquita and Mercédès, are entertaining Zuniga and Moralès. A crowd of soldiers arrives with the celebrated bullfighter Escamillo. He is instantly attracted to Carmen.

Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès are left alone with Dancairo and Remendado, who have a plan for which they need the girls’ help. Frasquita and Mercédès are ready, but Carmen says she cannot join them because she has fallen in love with José and is expecting him.

José’s voice is heard in the distance. He declares his love for Carmen, who dances for him. When the roll-call sounds from the barracks, José is torn between his military duty and his feelings for Carmen. At the moment José decides to leave, Zuniga returns. José is fiercely jealous and starts a fight with his superior officer. Carmen’s associates return and deal with Zuniga. José realizes that his army career is over and he now has no choice but to join them.

Act III Several months later

Black-market smugglers come by night to the border. Carmen’s and José’s love affair has run its course: she has grown tired of him and he, though still obsessed with her, is tense and unpredictable. Frasquita and Mercédès hope to read their fortunes in a pack of cards; when Carmen cuts the cards, they foretell only her death. The women leave to decoy some customs guards, and José remains behind in the camp.

Micaëla and Escamillo converge on the deserted encampment, seeking José and Carmen respectively. Micaëla hides as José confronts and fights Escamillo. Carmen and the smugglers return and stop them, and Escamillo invites the whole party to his next bullfight.

Micaëla is discovered. She begs José to return to his dying mother.

Act IV Outside the bullring

A crowd has gathered for Escamillo’s bullfight. The toreros enter to enthusiastic acclaim; Carmen is with Escamillo. After Escamillo has entered the arena, Carmen meets José. She taunts him and he kills her.

Place: Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills
Time: Around 1820

Act 1

A square, in Seville. On the right, a door to the tobacco factory. At the back, a bridge. On the left, a guardhouse.

A group of soldiers relaxes in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on the passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears, seeking José. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later. José arrives with the new guard, who is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante").

As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence.

As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). He reads that his mother wants him to return home and marry Micaëla, who retreats in shy embarrassment on learning this. Just as José declares that he is ready to heed his mother's wishes, the women stream from the factory in great agitation. Zuniga, the officer of the guard, learns that Carmen has attacked a woman with a knife. When challenged, Carmen answers with mocking defiance ("Tra la la... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi"); Zuniga orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with a seguidilla, in which she sings of a night of dancing and passion with her lover—whoever that may be—in Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. José is arrested for dereliction of duty.

Act 2

Lillas Pastia's Inn

Two months have passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from two months' detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away.

When only Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès remain, smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and reveal their plans to dispose of some recently acquired contraband ("Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercédès are keen to help them, but Carmen refuses, since she wishes to wait for José. After the smugglers leave, José arrives. Carmen treats him to a private exotic dance ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... La la la"), but her song is joined by a distant bugle call from the barracks. When José says he must return to duty, she mocks him, and he answers by showing her the flower that she threw to him in the square ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Unconvinced, Carmen demands he show his love by leaving with her. José refuses to desert, but as he prepares to depart, Zuniga enters looking for Carmen. He and José fight, and are separated by the returning smugglers, who restrain Zuniga. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").

Act 3

A wild spot in the mountains

Carmen and José enter with the smugglers and their booty ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"); Carmen has now become bored with José and tells him scornfully that he should go back to his mother. Frasquita and Mercédès amuse themselves by reading their fortunes from the cards; Carmen joins them and finds that the cards are foretelling her death, and José's. The women depart to suborn the customs officers who are watching the locality. José is placed on guard duty.

Micaëla enters with a guide, seeking José and determined to rescue him from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. José's pleasure at meeting the bullfighter turns to anger when Escamillo declares his infatuation with Carmen. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). As Escamillo leaves he invites everyone to his next bullfight in Seville. Micaëla is discovered; at first, José will not leave with her despite Carmen's mockery, but he agrees to go when told that his mother is dying. As he departs, vowing he will return, Escamillo is heard in the distance, singing the toreador's song.

Act 4

A square in Seville. At the back, the walls of an ancient amphitheatre

Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd awaiting the arrival of the bullfighters ("Les voici ! Voici la quadrille!"). Escamillo enters with Carmen, and they express their mutual love ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen"). As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita and Mercedes warn Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. Alone, she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi ! C'est moi !"). While he pleads vainly for her to return to him, cheers are heard from the arena. As José makes his last entreaty, Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her and attempts to enter the arena. He then stabs her, and as Escamillo is acclaimed by the crowds, Carmen dies. José kneels and sings "Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"; as the crowd exits the arena, José confesses to killing the woman he loved.