Carmen learning resources

Learning resources for middle school and high school classrooms

We are excited to give teachers and students a glimpse into the story, music and images of Lyric’s 2023 production of Carmen. The presentation below serves to prepare classes for the performance experience. It can be used as a quick reference or a longer study guide with prompts for deeper consideration both before and after coming to the theater.

This slide deck contains:

A list of characters
A summary of the story
Literary and artistic themes
Listening examples
About the writers
Discussion Prompts

You may also elect to use the “speaker notes,” which contain additional information. Simply click on the three dots next to the slide number to gain access to them.

Additional resources

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Get to know: Bizet's Carmen

Who could believe that this Bizet opera was considered a failure when it premiered in 1875? Since then, it has become one of the most widely performed operas in the repertoire. This spring, fall in love with Carmen all over again.

Carmen's freedom

In any list of the most-performed operas, Georges Bizet's Carmen (1875) ranks at or near the top. It has even been called a "perfect opera," and this seems justified. The work has everything: daring, melodically and harmonically complex music, with superb orchestration and intricate ensembles; local color and a vivid sense of place and time; and, perhaps above all, compelling characters who have fascinated audiences for many decades — ever since its disastrous first night, when it was denounced on all sides for immorality.