Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

Carmen

The Story

Act One takes place in a square in Seville. Townspeople and soldiers relax in the summer sun ("Sur la place, chacun passe, chacun vient, chacun va"). Micaëla comes in looking for her sweetheart, Don José. A corporal, Morales, tells her that José will soon arrive, and she leaves. As the guard changes, children parade in imitation of the soldiers ("Avec la garde montante"), whose number now includes Don José. At the sound of the noon bell, girls from the cigarette factory languidly enter the square and comment on how the mysteries of love are as ephemeral as smoke ("Dans l'air nous suivons des yeux"). Carmen appears, and tells of her philosophy of life: Love is a wild bird that cannot be tamed ("Habanera: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). Sullen and distracted, José sits apart from the rest. Drawn by his indifference, Carmen tosses him a flower just as the bell calls the women back to work. Micaëla returns to give Jose news of his mother, who is ill and sends her love to her beloved son ("Ma mère, je la vois!"). No sooner has Micaëla left than a fracas is heard from the factory: Carmen has slashed a fellow worker, and the cigarette girls are hysterical with fear and rage. Lieutenant Zuniga orders Jose to arrest Carmen, but she resists their questions with a brazen nonchalance. Her wrists bound, she is ordered not to talk to anyone, but sings to herself about her situation, pointedly indicating to José that she has fallen in love with him and how she would like to meet him that evening at Lillas Pastia's tavern ("Séguidille: Près des ramparts de Séville"). José, who has been smitten with Carmen ever since she threw the flower at him, allows her to escape and is arrested.

Act Two takes place a month later, at the tavern. Carmen entertains the customers with a lively gypsy song ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") and attracts the attention of the matador Escamillo, who triumphantly enters and boasts of his conquests in the bullring ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre"). When the inn closes, Dancaïro and his friends Frasquita, Mercedes, and Remendado try to get their friend Carmen to assist them on their newest smuggling venture, maintaining that she is perfect in helping them in their deceptive and elaborate plans ("Nous avons en tête un affair"). Carmen protests that her love for José is keeping her from joining them on their newest smuggling venture. They laugh at her newfound constancy, and hide as José approaches, having just been released from prison for allowing Carmen to escape. Carmen sensuously sings and dances for him, but becomes angry when he hears the bugle call and starts to return to the soldier's camp. She accuses him of not loving her, and in response he takes a flower from his pocket, the same flower that Carmen threw at him in the square, saying that the flower has bewitched him and he loves Carmen with all his heart ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). When she suggests that he join her and her friends in the smuggling venture, he refuses. Zuniga breaks in, looking for Carmen, but finds instead José whom he immediately orders back to the barracks. Urged on by Carmen, José refuses, and attacks Zuniga, aided by the gypsies, forcing him to the ground. Zuniga's life is spared, but José, now an outlaw, has no choice but to join the gypsies.

Act Three occurs in a mountain hideout. The smugglers congratulate themselves on their successful trade, but José is homesick and unhappy. Carmen finds this tiresome and busies herself by telling her fortune with cards ("Mêlons! Coupons!"). Frasquita foresees a lover, Mercedes a husband, but Carmen draws the Queen of Spades, foretelling death not only for herself, but for her lover ("En vain pour éviter les réponses amères"). The gypsies leave, and Micaëla enters seeking José, praying for courage to stand up to Carmen and the gypsies ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). A shot rings out, and Micaëla hides. José has shot at an intruder, hoping to scare him away. The intruder turns out to be Escamillo, looking for Carmen, with whom he has been having a clandestine romance. The toreador accosts Don José, and subtly taunts him with the knowledge that he is seeking a gypsy girl who has tired of her current lover. When José determines the true nature of the situation he attacks Escamillo, and is about to kill him when Micaëla bursts in, telling Jose that his mother is dying and is calling for him. Distraught, José leaves the gypsy camp, but threatens that he will see Carmen again, and soon. Escamillo jauntily leaves the camp, after inviting everyone to his next bullfight in Seville.

Act Four takes place in Seville's Plaza de Toros. The crowd gathers for the bullfight, hailing Escamillo as the King of the Toreadors. He and Carmen declare their true love, vowing to love each other for the rest of their lives ("Si tu m'aimes"). Carmen waits in the square, even though she has been warned that José has been seen lurking nearby. Carmen, a fatalist, knows that she must face him eventually. He enters and begs her to begin their life anew ("Carmen, il est temps encore"). At first sympathetic, she soon tires of him, telling him that Carmen was born free, and shall die free, throwing the ring he gave her into the sand. As the crowd cheers Escamillo, Carmen runs to the bullring. As she runs past Jose to her lover, the crazed Don José stabs her in the heart. The crowd pours out of the bullring, and José surrenders, saying that Carmen was his only love ("Vous pouvez m'arrêter").

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