Carmen

Music by Georges Bizet

WOMEN, EN GARDE

In 1875, critics panned Bizet’s now-indisputable masterpiece, and audiences were shocked by its frankness.

Though Bizet would die without realizing his work would become one of the most famous and beloved operas of all time, he was sure of its import for him. As he finished the piece, he wrote to a friend that he had “absolute certainty of having found my path.”

The dynamic and fiercely independent Carmen has become a feminist icon; she lived a passionate and self-directed life on her own terms, owing nothing to any man. But patriarchy will inevitably punish such freedom, in often extreme ways. Carmen eventually knew that—and even she could not escape.