Place—Seville, Spain.
Photo by White
Calvé as Carmen with Sparkes as Frasquita and Braslau as Mercedes
Act I. A square in Seville. On the right the gate of a cigarette factory. At the back, facing the audience, is a practicable bridge from one side of the stage to the other, and reached from the stage by a winding staircase on the right beyond the factory gate. The bridge also is practicable underneath. People from a higher level of the city can cross it and descend by the stairway to the square. Others can pass under it. In front, on the left, is a guard-house. Above it three steps lead to a covered passage. In a rack, close to the door, are the lances of the dragoons of Almanza, with their little red and yellow flags.
Morales and soldiers are near the guard-house. People are coming and going. There is a brisk chorus, "Sur la place" (O'er this square). Micaela comes forward, as if looking for someone.
"And for whom are you looking?" Morales asks of the pretty girl, who shyly has approached the soldiers lounging outside the guard-house.
"I am looking for a corporal," she answers.