Carmen

In a square in Seville, the girls from the cigarette factory nearby come out for a break. One of them, the gypsy Carmen, flirts with the soldiers while she sings her habanera song. As she leaves, she throws a flower at corporal Don José. At that moment, Micaëla, José childhood sweetheart from his home village, brings a letter from his mother, putting him in a nostalgic mood. A fight erupts between Carmen and another girl, and Carmen is arrested. José is ordered to guard her, but seduced by her alluring words, he lets her go.

At Lillas Pastia's inn, Carmen waits for José who has just been released from prison. The bull-fighter Escamillo enters and is attracted by her but she refuses him. José arrives and Carmen starts to dance for him, but soon he is summoned back to the barracks. As he struggles between love and duty, Zuniga, his captain, turns up to see Carmen and José attacks him in a jealous rage. Zuniga is led away by Carmen's smuggler friends Dancairo and Remendado, and José has no choice but to join the smugglers' group.

The smugglers are in their mountain hideout. Carmen is tired of José and they quarrel. Reading her fortune in the cards with her friends, Carmen forsees death. Micaëla appears and begs José to come home as his mother is dying. He leaves, but warns Carmen he will return.

On the day of the bullfight in Seville, Carmen comes to see her lover Escamillo in the fight. Her friends warn her that José is looking for her and to be careful. The two meet outside the arena and José begs her to return to him, but she refuses: she was born free and free she will die. Enraged, José stabs Carmen to death as the cheers for Escamillo's triumph is heard.