Carmen is a tale as old as gender politics: man falls for woman, woman prefers other man, first man gets jealous, kills woman.
She first appeared in an 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée but became an icon thanks to Georges Bizet’s dada-da-DA opera, which scandalised audiences when it premiered in Paris in 1875.
Since then, the story has been reimagined scores of times, shifting to reflect the anxieties of the age. Carmen started as a gypsy working in a Seville cigarette factory, moved to making parachutes in the with its groundbreaking all-black cast. Rita Hayworth played her as a peasant in; a 19-year-old Beyoncé made her film debut in, where this time she’s a struggling actress who becomes a victim of US gun violence.
