Carmen stamps her feet, tosses back her hair and draws you into her world. Men fall instantly under her spell, and once you’ve heard her sultry Habanera, you’ll fall for opera’s favourite femme fatale, too.

Small-town boy Don José is serving with the army far from home. His fellow soldiers — indeed the whole town — are captivated by the strange allure of a gypsy woman, Carmen. He thinks only of home, his mother, and the pretty Micaëla, a young girl who comes to deliver a letter from home. Carmen has no patience for the men that fawn at her feet, but she is intrigued by the shy Don José.

Arrested for beginning a fight, Carmen seduces Don José to win her freedom, and convinces him to desert the army to join her in the gypsy life of liberty. But her wandering eye has already found another lover: the dashing bullfighter, Escamillo.Don José’s jealousy is fierce, Escamillo’s passion is determined, Carmen’s fate is set in the cards…