THE PLOT

Act I

Corporal Moralès and the soldiers while away the time watching the passers-by, among whom is Micaela, a peasant girl from Navarre. She asks Moralès if he knows Don José, and is told that he is a corporal in another platoon expected shortly to relieve the present guard. As the guards are changed, Moralès tells José that a girl is looking for him. Lieutenant Zuniga questions Corporal José about the tobacco factory and its dangerous atmosphere. The factory bell rings and the men of Seville gather round the female workers as they return after their lunch break. When the men gather round the gypsy Carmen, she tells them love obeys no known laws. Only José pays no attention to her. Carmen throws a flower at him. Micaela returns, bringing news of José’s mother. She has sent Micaela, who lives with her, to give him a letter, suggesting that he should marry her. A fight is heard from within the factory. Carmen and one of her fellow workers quarreled, but she refuses to answer any of Zuniga’s questions, therefore is took to prison. Carmen seduces José, who agrees to help her escape. When Carmen slips away, Don José is arrested.

Act II

Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès entertain Zuniga and other officers. Zuniga tells Carmen that José has been released this very day. A torchlight procession in honour of the bullfighter Escamillo is heard, and the officers invite him in. Escamillo then propositions Carmen, but she replies that she is engaged for the moment. He says he will wait. Carmen refuses to leave Seville, because she is in love. José’s song is heard in the distance. When Carmen is intent on seducing José, bugles are heard sounding the retreat and José must return to barracks. Though he adores him, he must obey. As he leaves, Zuniga bursts in and attacks him. Dancaïre and Remendado separate them, and put Zuniga under temporary constraint.

Act III

The gang enters with contraband and pauses for a brief rest while Dancaïre and Remendado go on a reconnaissance mission. The women turn the cards to tell their fortunes: Frasquita and Mercédès foresee rich and gallant lovers, but Carmen’s cards spell death, for her and for José. Micaela appears, saying that she fears nothing so much as meeting the woman who has turned the man she once loved into a criminal. But she hurries away in fear when a shot rings out. It is José firing at an intruder, who turns out to be Escamillo, transporting bulls to Seville. When he refers to the soldier whom Carmen once loved, José reveals himself and they fight. José is at the end of his tether. Micaela begs José to go with her to his mother, because she is dying. José promises Carmen that they will meet again. As José and Micaela leave, Escamillo is heard singing in the distance.

Act IV

Among the excited crowd cheering the bullfighters are Frasquita and Mercédès, who warn Carmen that José has been seen in the crowd. Carmen enters on Escamillo’s arm. José enters and implores her to start a new life with him. But everything between them is over. She will never give in: she was born free and free she will die. While the crowd is heard cheering Escamillo, José tries to prevent Carmen from joining her new lover. Carmen finally loses her temper, takes from her finger the ring that José once gave her, and throws it at his feet. José stabs her, and then confesses to the murder of the woman he loved.