Spotlight Festival 2026

What are you going to listen to?

Rehearsals for the first production of Bizet’s *Carmen* were certainly not without their problems. The chorus members—and especially the female singers—initially refused to smoke and fight on stage. Musically, too, Bizet demanded more of them than they were used to. Instead of singing a simple melody together, they were divided into smaller groups with separate parts. After two months of rehearsals, the choir even threatened to go on strike. There was also grumbling from the orchestra: some musicians found their parts nearly unplayable.

At the premiere on March 3, 1875, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, reactions were mixed. The story, with its rough characters, jealousy, violence, and tragic ending, shocked some members of the sophisticated audience. Yet *Carmen* was certainly no flop, as has often been claimed since. Dozens more performances followed in its first season—more than for any other opera by Bizet. The composer himself did not live to see its great international success. Exactly three months after the premiere, Bizet died at the age of just 36—not of a broken heart over the reception of his opera, but after suffering from serious health problems. After his death, interest in his music grew rapidly. His former classmate Ernest Guiraud played an important role in this. Among other things, he adapted the spoken dialogues in *Carmen* and compiled music from the opera into two suites, which were published in approximately 1885 and 1887, respectively.

The two Carmen suites include many of the most famous passages. In the end, it was the music itself that proved irresistible: short, intense bursts of tension, exotic colors, and melodies that immediately stick in the memory. Bizet’s vision of Spain was based primarily on the Romantic French ideal of a land full of passion, heat, and dance. In this way, he anticipated the “Spanish craze” that would later inspire composers such as Ravel and Debussy.

In the suites, some of the opera’s most famous moments follow one another in succession, including the fiery “Prélude,” the seductive “Habanera,” the proud “Toreador Song,” and the exuberant “Danse Bohème.” This music ultimately made *Carmen* one of the immortal works of the opera repertoire.