Accompanied by celebrating soldiers, the bullfighter Escamillo then arrives. On the outskirts of the city, Lilia Pastia hosts an improvised bar in which Zuniga and Morales are guests entertained by Frasquita and Mercédès. By flirting and the promise of possibly meeting her later at Lilia Pastia’s bar, Carmen makes José neglect his duties. José is ordered to guard and keep a watch on Carmen. During questioning by the lieutenant Zuniga, Carmen answers provocatively. The female workers alarm the guarding soldiers: during a fight Carmen has injured one of her co-workers. José is moved and confused about this surprising remembrance of his past life. Micaëla gives José a letter and tells him, that his mother has also instructed her to give José a kiss for her. At the end, she throws a flower to José. She arrives and sings a song about the unpredictability and uncontrollability of love. The woman most eagerly awaited is Carmen. The female workers enter the square – watched enthusiastically by the men. When the soldiers start to scare her making strong advances, she runs away.Īfter the changing of the guard, as José goes on duty, the cigarette factory employees take a long break. Micaëla, a young woman from the Basque region, is looking for a man she grew up with, Don José. Under the command of their corporal Moralès, soldiers are on guard duty outside a cigarette factory in the South of Spain.

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