James Baquet

    Georges Bizet (1838-1875) was by all accounts a talented composer, but he is remembered today only for his final work, “Carmen.”

    Most of us can hum along with some of the songs in “Carmen,” like the “Habanera” and the “Toreador Song,” though we may not be able to name them.

    The story is this: The titular character Carmen is a beautiful Spanish Gypsy woman with a fiery disposition, who works in a cigarette factory. She flirts with a group of soldiers, but one of them, Don Jose, shows little interest in her.

    As Jose makes plans to go home and marry Micaela, his mother’s choice for him, Carmen is arrested for attacking another woman with a knife. Jose is set to guard her, but she talks him into untying her hands; as another guard leads her away, she pushes him down and flees. Jose is arrested for failing to do his duty.

    A month later, Escamillo, a bullfighter, woos Carmen; but having learned that Jose has been released from prison, she waits for him. After he arrives and she tries to get him to stay, he determines to return to his duty. But he fights with a superior officer, and now has no choice but to run away with Carmen and a group of smugglers.

    Staying in the mountains, Carmen becomes bored with Jose, and tells him to return to his mother. Meanwhile, Jose and the bullfighter Escamillo fight over Carmen. Micaela then appears, and tells Jose to come home, because his mother is dying. He promises Carmen that he will return.

    Back in the city, Escamillo is preparing to fight a bull; Carmen, now his lover, is with him. A friend tells Carmen that Jose is nearby, and she goes to meet him. As he begs her to return to him, she throws down the ring he has given her and tries to go back into the arena where Escamillo is to fight the bull. Jose stabs her, and she dies. As the crowd leaves the arena, Jose kneels down and confesses he has killed the woman he loves.

    The racy opera was not terribly successful until, three months after its premiere, Bizet died of a heart attack at 36. The critics who had hated it changed their opinion, and declared Bizet a genius.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. from whom or which a title is taken

    2. admits

    3. hot temper

    4. tries to make one’s lover

    5. stadium

    6. member of a group of people who move between cultures in Europe

    7. runs away

    8. people who move goods illegally

    9. sing with the lips closed, without words

    10. sexy