Act II
Relayed from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
In the second Act of Bizet's Carmen we witness the throw of fate which first casts the net of tragedy about the two chief actors. When the curtain rises the stage is possessed by Carmen herself. A warm-blooded, tempestuous, fascinating, dangerous gipsy beauty, she is a cigar-maker by day, a confederate of smugglers when she chooses. Just now she is having a gay evening among her lawless friends at an inn just outside Seville. Presently she is to meet her new lover, Don Jose, a young soldier who, to get her out of a scrape, cheerfully went to prison wearing her rose beneath his tunic. As the appointed time approaches, in comes a handsome Toreador, who makes a song of his bravo deeds. No need to say what song this is; but it is new to Carmen, and surges in her head like a fiery wine. This dashing, proud fellow, the idol of the crowd. She is less pleased now at having to wait for her chivalrous friend from the barracks. Still, she waits. while the smugglers, after singing a gay quintet, depart. Then Don Jose arrives, melodious, at the inn, and Carmen dances to him, singing a wild melody and punctuating her steps with the castanets.
Slowly, sadly, Don Jose draws the crushed flower from his breast and sings the famous 'Flower Song,' a declaration of passionate, imperishable love. Carmen answers: 'Then come with me, over the hills and far away' (in a tuneful duet, of beguilement and despairing resistance.) He almost yields, but duty holds him, and he is at the point of leaving her for ever, when a loud knock is heard at the door and in strides one of Don Jose's officers, with a confident, amorous glance upon Carmen. Jealousy inflames the distracted Don Jose. He draws upon his officer, and from that mad moment he is a destroyed man. The smugglers rush in and seize the fighting pair, and the Act is at on end.
In the third Act Don Jose is a smuggler and Carmen's gloomy lover, while she does not disguise her preference for the dashing Toreador. In the fourth Act Don Jose kills her.
