He, a corporal who has drawn his sabre against an officer, an act of insubordination for which severe punishment awaits him, is ready now to follow his temptress to the mountains.
Act III. A rocky and picturesque spot among rocks on a mountain. At the rising of the curtain there is complete solitude. After a few moments a smuggler appears on the summit of a rock, then two, then the whole band, descending and scrambling down the mass of rocks. Among them are Carmen, Don José, El Dancairo, El Remendado, Frasquita, and Mercedes.
The opening chorus has a peculiarly attractive lilt.
Don José is unhappy. Carmen's absorbing passion for him has been of brief duration. A creature of impulse, she is fickle and wayward. Don José, a soldier bred, but now a deserter, is ill at ease among the smugglers, and finds cause to reproach himself for sacrificing everything to a fierce and capricious beauty, in whose veins courses the blood of a lawless race. Yet he still loves her to distraction, and is insanely jealous of her. She gives him ample cause for jealousy. It is quite apparent that the impression made upon her by Escamillo, the dashing toreador and victor in many bullfights, is deepening. Escamillo has been caught in the lure of her dangerous beauty, but he doesn't annoy her by sulking in her presence, like Don José, but goes on adding to his laurels by winning fresh victories in the bull ring.
Now that Don José is more than usually morose, she says, with a sarcastic inflection in her voice:
"If you don't like our mode of life here, why don't you leave?"
"And go far from you! Carmen! If you say that again, it will be your death!" He half draws his knife from his belt.
With a shrug of her shoulders Carmen replies: "What matter—I shall die as fate wills." And, indeed, she plays with fate as with men's hearts. For whatever else this gypsy may be, she is fearless.
While Don José wanders moodily about the camp, she joins Frasquita and Mercedes, who are telling their fortunes by cards. The superstitious creatures are merry because the cards favour them. Carmen takes the pack and draws.