A thin novel by the French writer Prosper Merimée about Don José, whose foolish passion for a wild Gypsy girl forces him to leave the army and become a smuggler and murderer, served as the base for one of the most famous opera. The success won its author, the French composer Georges Bizet, international fame. Bizet had never been in Spain but he loved exotic motives and the atmosphere of the story fascinated him. In his music, he masterly connected Spanish motives and French charm, giving the operatic world several immortal hits. Carmen directed by Tomáš Pilař returns more to the original story and reveals further layers of individual characters, who are mainly people coming from completely different environments. It is not only Carmen’s volatile and unchained love with which the jealous José cannot cope. It is the conflict of two worlds – the organized and tidy world of José and Micaëla, made up for preconcieved rules, and the world of gypsies and smugglers living from one day to another, without any law and governed by their impulses. These worlds suddenly intersect and the differences creates tension and conflict leading to the complete destruction of both the worlds. Nobody is able to prevent the inevitable because nobody is willing, or able, to give in.
