This article accompanies the fable
Life as Opera



Mérimée's Carmen

Bizet's Carmen is based on Prosper Mérimée's novella of 1845. So what is the novella based on?

The most interesting explanation focuses on the exotic role of the Gypsies. Mérimée was aware of his friend Pushkin's poem The Gypsies, written in 1824 and published three years later. That poem is a narrative about a young Russian hero, Aleko, who falls in love with a Gypsy girl named Zemfira, who ultimately betrays him, and rage and jealousy overwhelm him. It ends badly... It is believed that Mérimée read the poem in 1840 and had translated it into French by 1852.

Mérimée painted the watercolor above for the 1845 publication of his Carmen.

Also see Mérimée and George Sand here...