Carmen

Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. With a plot based on the 1845 novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée, Bizet’s Carmen was groundbreaking in its realism, and it rapidly became one of the most popular Western operas of all time.

It is the source of many memorable and widely recognized songs, notably those known by the popular names “Toréador Song” and “Habanera.” Carmen also is the best-known example of opéra-comique, a genre of French opera not necessarily comic but featuring both spoken dialogue and sung portions. Despite its current reputation, however, it was condemned by the earliest critics, who were unaccustomed to seeing the lives of the common folk, much less the world of gypsies, smugglers, deserters, factory workers, and various ne’er-do-wells given centre stage.