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Running times approximately 2 hours 55 minutes

Read an article by Phillip Pullman on Carmen

Supported by the Friends of WNO and WNO Sponsors' Group

Act 1
A square in Seville, between a tobacco factory and a military guard-post.

Corporal Moralès and other soldiers are watching and commenting on the crowd of passers-by.

Micaëla, a country girl from José’s home village, has come in search of him. Micaëla declines Morales’ invitation to wait for him and leaves.

José leads in the guard. Moralès tells José about his visitor.

Lieutenant Zuniga questions José about the girls who work in the tobacco factory. A bell sounds, signalling the break.

The cigarette-girls mock the inconstancy of love. The men look for their favourite, the gypsy Carmen.

Carmen refuses to promise that she will love any of them: love cannot be commanded. Carmen notices José who is ignoring her. When he sees Micaëla approaching, he hides a flower that Carmen threw at him.

Micaëla brings money, a kiss and a letter from his mother. The letter recommends him to marry Micaëla.

A fight breaks out in the factory.

Zuniga orders José to find out what has happened. José arrests Carmen and reports that she fought with another woman in the factory and cut the woman’s face.

Carmen refuses to say anything and sings insolently. Left with José guarding her she pretends to be a fellow Basque. When that does not work, she tells Jose that it is clear he is in love with her. Forbidden to speak, she sings that she will go with her new lover to Lillas Pastia’s tavern. José agrees to help her escape, in return for her promise of love.

Zuniga returns with the warrant for Carmen’s arrest, and orders José to take her away. José has untied her, and she knocks him over and escapes.

Act 2
Lillas Pastia’s tavern

Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès are singing a gypsy song. Zuniga attempts to flirt with Carmen. He tells her that José has recently been released, having been demoted and imprisoned for letting her escape.

The crowd is heard saluting the bullfighter Escamillo as he arrives. He replies to Zuniga’s toast with a vivid depiction of the Toreador’s encounter in the bull-ring. He notices Carmen and suggest that he will wait for her to love him.

Zuniga interrupts to explain that he is leaving but will come back later. Carmen advises him not to.

The bandits Le Dancaïre and Le Remendado join the gypsies Carmen, Mercédès and Frasquita and demand that they play their part in a smuggling operation.

Carmen refuses to leave immediately since she is in love. The others are perplexed and then mock her.

As he comes to find Carmen, José can be heard singing a folk-song.

Carmen tells José that she will pay her debt to him, and dance for him alone. The bugles sound, signalling that José must return to barracks. Carmen feels shame that she offered love to a man who then puts duty first. He tries to leave but, stung by her reproaches, stays to explain that he does love her. She calls on him to desert and join her and the other outlaws in freedom. José is determined to leave her but suddenly Zuniga enters and orders Jose back to barracks. Carmen calls in Le Remendado and Le Dancaïre who disarm and humiliate the officer. José is forced to join the bandits.