In Bizet’s sizzling epic of dark passion, Don José, a soldier with a checkered past, is seduced by Carmen, a fiery gypsy woman with an appetite for smuggling. Abandoning both his childhood sweetheart and his military career, José pursues Carmen’s attention with a desperation that grows into obsession.

It features some of the most loved and listened to music in the world, inspiring Brahms to say (after the twentieth time he saw it) that he would have “gone to the ends of the earth to embrace Bizet.” The Habanera, The Toreador Song, and the glorious overture all are fixtures on concert stages, in addition to the opera house.