Everyone gathers around her, however, she takes an interest in none of them. Carmen, a young gypsy woman, is amongst them. As the bell of the tobacco factory sounds, a number of young men arrive to watch the cigarette girls emerge. The relief guard arrives, accompanied by a band of children mimicking the soldiers. Disconcerted by his proposal, Micaela takes her leave and vows to return later. Morales, the sergeant, informs her that he will not arrive until the changing of the guard and then tries to convince the young girl to stay. Micaela, a young peasant girl, questions them as to the whereabouts of Don José. A tantalising and indomitable vamp, she lives life in the fast lane, in an urgent desire to fully exist.Ī group of soldiers are parading in a square. This rebel, however, is a thoroughly contemporary creature. From Mérimée’s original character, Bieito’s Carmen retains her profoundly Iberian contours and the ardent temperament of a woman living off small‑time trafficking. Her irrepressible liberty, coupled with the necessity to live on a knife’s edge, ever more intensely, is captured by Calixto Bieito’s production as by none other. Born free, she will die free”, sings the heroine to Don José at the end of the opera. Although the success of this work can be attributed to its unforgettable melodies, it also owes much to the independent character of the celebrated cigarette factory worker: “Carmen will never give in. At the premiere of Carmen on March 3 rd 1875 at the Opéra‑Comique, the audience, shocked by its “Castillian wantonness”, cried scandal! Georges Bizet, who died three months later, never knew that his opera was to become one of the most widely performed in the world.

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