Carmen

At the beginning of 1873, when Georges Bizet received a commission from Camille du Locle, the director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, to write the opera *Carmen*, Mérimée's novella of the same name, on which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy based the opera's libretto, had already been captivating French, especially Parisian, society for nearly three decades. The novella's content is allegedly derived from a true story recounted to Mérimée by Countess María Manuela Kirkpatrick de Montijo during his study trip to Spain. Mérimée condensed the most thrilling events from the life of the gypsy Carmen into a coherent narrative with the tragic end of the (anti)heroine, who had to die due to the vengeful jealousy of her spurned lover, Don José. As an interesting note confirming the authenticity of the opera's plot, it is worth mentioning Mérimée's preserved travelogue, in which he noted his chance encounters with both Carmen and later José, who was already serving a prison sentence awaiting execution. José's account of his fateful encounter with Carmen is also preserved in Mérimée's novella, which was first published in its

entirety in book form in 1846.

Source: https://www.sng-mb.si/event/carmen/