In the finale, when the victorious torero is cheered in the bullring while the stabbed Carmen collapses at the gates, the two melodies come together. Two musical motifs characterize the opera: the self-confident refrain of the famous �Tor�ador� song and a mysterious, sombre motif associated with Carmen's premature and violent death, which she perceives as fateful.

It was not until the Vienna performance series that the triumphal march of Carmen began that same year. Not to mention that the dying title heroine was refused a farewell aria � which was also felt to be an expression of harshness and violence. The fact that the opera is set exclusively in the lower strata of society, among soldiers, smugglers, Spanish Roma and factory workers, was considered shocking to the Paris audience at its premiere in 1875.

While Escamillo hunts down a bull in the arena, Jos� stabs his former girlfriend in the forecourt. Although Carmen is aware of Jos�'s tendency towards uncontrolled violence, she faces the confrontation. When he returns from a visit to his mother, he finds that Carmen is now in love with the successful bullfighter Escamillo. Yet while living together, Jos� puts Carmen under pressure with his jealousy and loses her affection. Both of them now live in a gang of smugglers. After Carmen�s arrest due to a bloody scuffle, Jos� enables her to escape and follows her into illegality. But when he notices Carmen, the worker coveted by all his comrades, he also falls for her. Her murderer is the dutiful soldier Don Jos�, who until now only had eyes for his mother and the young Mica�la, with whom he grew up together. But the highest price in this web of dysfunctional relationships is paid by Carmen � a woman who loves her independence more than anything else, including men. It's a story full of misunderstandings: Love is confused with desire, an affair with an exclusive relationship, affection with possession, and violence with passion.

Carmen opera vienna