Don José, in despair, charges at Carmen, stabbing her. A haggard Don José appears at the arena and begs, then demands, Carmen to return to him, but she refuses. On the day of the great bullfight, Carmen and Escamillo swear their love to each other. A fight ensues between Don José and Escamillo but is interrupted by Micaëla who has come to tell Don José that his mother is dying.

Escamillo, who has followed them in search of Carmen, arrives. In the end, he has no choice but to desert his company and flee into the mountains with Carmen and the band of smugglers.Īs the smugglers move through the mountains, Carmen becomes fed up with her lover’s possessive and controlling behaviour. Don José, torn between duty and desire and jealous of Zuniga’s affection for Carmen, picks a fight with Zuniga. Meanwhile, Zuniga has caught up with Don José and tries to convince the corporal to come home with him. Don José soon arrives at the tavern and Carmen demands that he give up his commission and follow her into the mountains with the smugglers. Zuniga, Don José’s lieutenant who is in love with Carmen too, tells Carmen that Don José has been released from jail. Falling under her spell, the corporal allows her to escape, landing him in jail for two months.Ĭarmen and her friends gather at a tavern, when a passing parade celebrates the victorious bullfighter, Escamillo. A short time later, the beautiful Carmen is arrested following a fracas with another factory worker, and Don José is assigned to arrest her. One of them, Carmen, has many admirers but she tries to attract the attention of Don José who remains indifferent to her, despite the flower she has tossed at him. During the changing of the guard, a group of women take a break from their work at a cigar factory. Micaëla, a young peasant girl, is searching for her beloved, the soldier Don José. But when she spurns him for the dashing toreador Escamillo, Don José cannot accept her rejection…to fatal consequences. She takes Don José, a young soldier, as her latest lover, who defects from the army to join her in her smuggling life. Carmen is a seductive, freedom-loving woman, desired by many.

Carmen opera richmond va