LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Carmen: Don Jos
built 194 days ago
Carmen was extremely innovative in its drama: no longer was French Opera confined to one-dimensional comic characters. The descent of Don José from a faithful lover and soldier to an obsessed lunatic is portrayed through both music and libretto. The music ... ensures that Carmen does not become a destructive figure like Elektra or Lulu: she does not chase men; they run after her.[6] Because Bizet shied away from the traditional image of an operatic femme-fatale, Carmen became a difficult character to understand (or portray on stage). She is fatalistic and hedonistic, living entirely in the present moment. Her beauty unintentionally entraps men, who are then led to their downfall by their own misguided ideas of love. Carmen's character is best illustrated in the card-playing scene, in which she accepts the premonition of death as unavoidable.
Source:
Carmen is preparing for the bullfight. She has taken a new lover. Frightened by the vision of Fate in her mirror, she is relieved to find it is only José. He desperately tries one more time to possess Carmen but she will not be tamed. When he threatens her with a knife, Carmen only laughs at her fate . . . she will not be possessed or caged.
Source:
The story is set in Seville, Spain, circa 1830, and concerns the eponymous Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. Free with her love, she woos the corporal Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny against his superior, turn to a criminal life, and ultimate jealous murder of Carmen. Although he is briefly happy with Carmen, he falls into madness when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo.
Source:
At the tavern where Carmen is enjoying herself with friends, Escamillo arrives boasting of his success in the bullfighting ring. He is attracted to Carmen, but she ignores him and sends her friends off on a smuggling trip, waiting instead for Don José to join her. When the bugle calls the soldiers back to camp, he prepares to leave and she angrily mocks his love. When his lieutenant appears looking for Carmen, Don José jealously attacks him and, having broken the law, now has no other choice but to join the gypsies in their smuggling.
Source:
Carmen appears in disguise among the women of society in order to lure the wealthy men into her net. In the shadows, the fugitive José tries to steal a moment with Carmen. Rejected, José reflects upon his life . . . although he has lost forever his old life and its values, he does not have Carmen's love. He is whisked away by two gypsies. Carmen is successful in leading the wealthy men into the shadows where José and the gypsies rob them.
Source:
Corporal Don José deserts his fiancée and his regiment to run off with the bewitching Gypsy, Carmen. But the lady is as fickle as she is alluring and shifts her affections to the dashing toreador Escamillo. In the shadows outside Seville’s bull-ring, Carmen meets her fate in the form of Don José’s knife blade, while inside the crowd cheers Escamillo’s victory.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Don Jos