Short Summary
The freedom-loving Carmen is desired by all men. Although none of their relationships last, the soldier Don José falls madly in love with her after she coquettishly throws a flower at his feet.
He deserts, renounces a budding relationship with Micaëla, a girl from his village, and joins Carmen's band of smugglers. This time too, Carmen's feelings grow cold and she is only interested in the bullfighter Escamillo. An argument between Don José and Carmen escalates in front of the arena: Filled with jealousy, Don José kills his former lover.
Storyline
Soldiers stand guard outside a cigarette factory in the south of Spain under the command of Private Moralès.
Micaëla, a young woman from the Basque country, is looking for Don José, with whom she grew up. He is not on duty at the time. When the soldiers become intrusive, Micaëla flees.
After the changing of the guard, when José starts his shift, there is a break in the cigarette factory. The female workers enter the square - enthusiastically watched by the men. Carmen is the most eagerly awaited. She arrives and sings a song about the unpredictability and uncontrollability of love. At the end, she throws José a flower.
Micaëla hands José a letter and tells him that José's mother told her to kiss him from her. José is moved and confused by this surprising reminder of his former life.
The factory workers alert the guards: Carmen has injured a colleague in a fight. When interrogated by Lieutenant Zuniga, Carmen only answers provocatively. José is given the task of guarding Carmen. Flirting and with the prospect of a reunion in Lillas Pastia's pub, Carmen persuades him to neglect his duty. Carmen manages to escape.
On the outskirts of the town, Lillas Pastia runs an impromptu tavern where Zuniga and Morales are guests and are entertained by Frasquita and Mercédès.
Carmen sings an inciting song. Accompanied by celebrating soldiers, the bullfighter Escamillo arrives, is cheered and moves on. The smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado propose a criminal maneuver to the women in which they are to use their feminine charms.
Frasquita and Mercédès join them, but Carmen refuses. She is in love with José and wants to wait for him.
José has been in prison for two months because of Carmen's escape, and today he sees her again for the first time. When the signal for the curfew sounds a short time later, Carmen is furious that José wants to follow him. The argument escalates. Just as José is about to leave, Lieutenant Zuniga returns, who is also after Carmen. José defends her aggressively. As José and Zuniga come to blows, the smugglers return and put Zuniga out of action. José has ignored the tap and attacked his superior officer, choosing a life with the smugglers' gang.
The smugglers meet in the border area and wait for an opportunity to bring their goods across the border.
Carmen and José argue, not for the first time: she doesn't want to be told what to do, he sees "the devil" in her at times like this. Frasquita, Mercédès and Carmen read each other's cards: Mercédès foresees great love for herself, while Frasquita predicts a rich husband and his imminent demise. Carmen recognizes death in the cards: first her own, then José's.
The smugglers get to work. Micaëla has made her way to the smugglers and narrowly misses their trigger. She hides to wait for José.
José, who has remained near the smugglers' camp as a guard, meets Escamillo, who wants to see Carmen. José attacks him with a knife. The returning smugglers separate the fighters. Escamillo bids farewell, confident of victory, and invites everyone to his next bullfight. The smugglers discover Micaëla, who urges José to return to his mother. José hesitates because he fears that Carmen might turn to Escamillo in his absence. Micaëla finally tells José that his mother is dying and manages to persuade him. Escamillo's song can be heard from afar.
There is great excitement in front of the arena: The crowd cheers the bullfighting participants as they enter.
The last to arrive is the enthusiastically welcomed matador Escamillo. Before the fight begins, he and Carmen profess their love for each other. Frasquita and Mercédès warn Carmen about José, whom they have seen in the crowd, but Carmen does not want to avoid the confrontation and stays behind alone.
When Carmen was premiered, the region of the plot - Andalusia - was dangerous, certainly without any tourist idyll. In order to recreate the original atmosphere of the material, Calixto Bieito searched for a setting in Spain that corresponded to Andalusia at the time. He found what he was looking for in the African part of Spain, in Ceuta: the prevailing mixture of poverty, smuggling, lack of prospects, refugees and soldiers inspired Bieito to create this production. We experience a society characterized by violence, which nevertheless tries to wrest a certain joy, beauty, freedom and love from life.
For this production, we recommend a minimum age of 14.
