Episode 001: Carmen with Nikola Printz
Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz helps us kick off Decanonized with a discussion of what many consider to be the greatest opera. Topics include fate, othering, hating cops, whether Carmen really has to die, and why Don José would make the worst camping partner, and the dream blunt rotation of Alexander Chee, Tank Girl, and Susan McClary.
For this episode, we saw Carmen live via an organ trafficking-coded production by Ole Anders Tandberg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, so bonus digressions on kidney harvesting and bull testicles!
Simon says:
“Carmen is, I believe, the most widely popular of all operas.… It is not hard to see why it is popular. It has so many good tunes! It is so dramatic! It is so bright and clear! And all these characteristics can be heard in the prelude. It starts bright and clear—like a sunny day in Spain; it continues with the famous tune of the Toreador Song; and it becomes suddenly dramatic with the Fate theme—the one that suggests Carmen and her violent death.”
Carmen: The story
-
Seville in the early decades of the 1800s. An army of dragoons waits for the changing of the guard in a city square, commenting on the “droll” people who pass by.
Micäela, a young village girl from Navarre, enters in search of Don José. Moralès, the commander of this troop, tells her that José is not on duty yet, but he and his men are happy to entertain her (or, more accurately, to have her entertain them) until the guard changes. Reading between the lines, Micaëla flees.
The guard changes, mocked by a crowd of children. As José’s unit enters, the women who work at the nearby cigarette factory also enter on break — one of the highlights for the soldiers. Carmen enters with her coworkers, to the demands of the men who desire her love. She sings a habanera, calling love a rebellious bird, a child of travelers who will never bow to any law of reason. She throws a flower at Don José, the one man onstage who does not spend this aria lusting after her.
With the factory break over, the women go back inside and Micaëla returns to the barracks to find José. She delivers a letter from his mother, which urges José (who has been forcibly enlisted with the dragoons after killing a man in Navarre) to return home and marry Micaëla, who once again exits out of modesty as José weighs this proposal. Just as he’s about to accept his mother’s wishes, the women from the factory pour out again. Zuniga, José’s commander, intervenes and learns that Carmen has attacked another worker after an argument escalated.
Zuniga orders José to arrest Carmen, who seduces José with a séguidilla. José agrees to help her escape this arrest, and the act ends with her spiriting away as José is arrested.
-
A tavern in Seville run by Lillas Pastia, two months later. Carmen and her comrades Frasquita and Mercédès entertain guests, among them Zuniga, when she learns that José has been released from prison.
The entertainment is interrupted by the arrival of Escamillo, a leading toreador who immediately spots Carmen and likes what he sees. Pastia clears out the inn so that Dancaïre and Remendado, two smugglers who employ Carmen, Frasquita, and Mércèdes, can arrive and talk business. They have some new supplies to move, but Carmen refuses to help on this job; she is in love. Dancaïre and Remendado are skeptical: Carmen’s love affairs never last long.
Carmen hears José singing offstage and everyone clears out for their reunion. She dances in his honor, but is interrupted by a distant bugle call. José has to return to camp. Carmen mocks him for his fealty to the army over her, which trips a wire in José’s head — he will not have his loyalty to Carmen questioned. He shows her the flower he kept with him throughout prison, but Carmen tells him he doesn’t really love her. If he loved her, he would join her and her fellow smugglers in the mountains.
José refuses to desert the army, but as he prepares to return to his barracks, Zuniga enters. His argument with José now escalates, and Carmen calls in for reinforcements to restrain Zuniga. With a new crime to his name and no other choice apart from prison again, José agrees to join the smugglers.
-
In the mountains, the smugglers awake to a new day after an unspecified amount of time from the previous act. Carmen has tired of José, who seems like the most annoying person to go camping with, and suggests that he return to his mother. He threatens her against speaking once more of their breaking up, and she finishes the threat for him: “You’ll kill me, perhaps.”
Frasquita and Mercédès read their fortunes from a deck of cards, predicting more and more generous errors in their favor. Carmen takes her pull of the cards and finds that they invariably foretell her death, then José’s. They then join Dancaïre and Remendado for an assignment, as Micaëla enters the area around the camp with a guide. Frightened, she nevertheless is intent on finding José and rescuing him from Carmen (and himself).
Alone on guard duty, José meets Escamillo, who enters in search of Carmen, assuming that her last fling was over and done with. José threatens the bullfighter and the two prepare to fight before Carmen and her comrades return. Escamillo prepares to return to town, but invites everyone to his next bullfight, adding that “those who love me will be there.” José sees the writing on the wall.
Dancaïre and Remendado then discover Micaëla in the camp, and José recognizes her. He refuses to leave, but then Micaëla tells him that his mother is dying. Carmen suggests he leave as her life is not for him, but he promises that this is not over for them. As he and Micaëla go off, everyone hears Escamillo’s toreador song in the distance.
-
Outside the bullring in Seville, a crowd gathers to see the arrival of the toreadors, including Escamillo with Carmen on his arm. He enters the ring, but Carmen is stopped by Frasquita and Mercédès, who say that José is back in town and seems worse for the wear. They urge her to leave town, but Carmen refuses to yield.
In her final showdown with José, he begs her to come back to him, that there is still time for them and that he still loves her. Carmen turns him down, and tells him to let her pass or to kill her. When José won’t quit, Carmen pulls off the ring he gave her earlier on (the same ring his mother had given him for Micaëla) and throws it on the ground. As Escamillo triumphs in the ring, José stabs Carmen. He admits his crime to the crowd as they leave the arena.
Recordings cited
Maria Ewing, Royal Opera House, Zubin Mehta: Carmen (Arthaus Musik, 1991)
Grace Bumbry, Herbert von Karajan, Salzburg Easter Festival: Carmen (Deutsche Grammophon, 1967)
Anne Sofie von Otter, Philippe Jordan, Glyndebourne: Carmen (Opus Arte, 2002)
Magdalena Kozena, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Rattle: Carmen (Warner Music, 2012)
Further reading
Catherine Clément (Betsy Wing, trans.): Opera, or the Undoing of Women (1988)
Prosper Merimée (George Burnham Ives, trans.): Carmen (2013)
Hugh MacDonald: Bizet in Italy: Letters and Journals, 1857-1860 (2021)
Jennifer M. Wilks: Carmen in Diaspora: Adaptation, Race, and Opera’s Most Famous Character (2025)
Clair Rowden and Richard Langham Smith: Carmen Abroad: Bizet’s Opera on the Global Stage (2022)
Playlist
“Près des remparts de Séville” (Seguidilla)
Rihab Chaieb / 2024
Finale from Peter Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen
Zehava Gal, Laurence Dale / 1983
“That’s Love” from Carmen Jones
Dorothy Dandridge (voiced by Marilyn Horne) / 1954
“If Looks Could Kill (You Would Be Dead)” from Carmen: A Hip Hopera
Beyoncé / 2001
As a Bookshop.org affiliate, Decanonized may earn from qualifying purchases made from the books linked on this page.
This helps finance the show and also supports independent bookstores. We occasionally use other links (including Amazon when necessary—especially for DVD recordings), but do not have an affiliate account with Amazon. Eat the rich.