Vienna Music and Film Festival

At the beginning of 1873, Georges Bizet was commissioned by Camillo du Locle, director of the Paris house Opéra Comique, to write the opera Carmen. The eponymous novella by Prosper Mérimée, according to which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the libretto, had been stirring French and especially Parisian society for almost three decades by then. It is assumed that the novella was based on a true story that Countess María Manuela Kirkpatrick de Montijo told Mérimée during a study trip to Spain. Mérimée summed up the most exciting events from the life of the gypsy Carmen in a coherent narrative with a tragic ending of an (anti)heroine who had to die due to the vengeful jealousy of a rejected lover (Don José). An interesting fact that confirms the authenticity of the plot is the preserved travelogue of Mérimée, in which the writer mentions his chance encounter with Carmen, and later with José, who was already serving a prison sentence in the meantime, awaiting the death sentence. José's testimony of his fateful encounter with Carmen is preserved in Mérimée's novella, which was first published in its entirety in 1846.

Note:
In case of poor weather on the preceding day, instead of the video projection of Carmen, a concert of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and opera stars will be held, starting at 9 p.m.