From the 'old world' to the 'new' and back again, this transnational history of the performance and reception of Bizet's Carmen – whose subject has become a modern myth and its heroine a symbol – provides new understanding of the opera's enduring yet ever-evolving and resituated presence and popularity. This book examines three stages of cultural transfer: the opera's establishment in the repertoire; its performance, translation, adaptation and appropriation in Europe, the Americas and Australia; its cultural 'work' in Soviet Russia, in Japan in the era of Westernisation, in southern, regionalist France and in Carmen's 'homeland', Spain. As the volume reveals the ways in which Bizet's opera swiftly travelled the globe from its Parisian premiere, readers will understand how the story, the music, the staging and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse geographical, artistic and political contexts.

2021 Outstanding Edited Collection Book Prize, RMA/Cambridge University Press

‘… Richard Langham Smith … shows us previously unconsidered sides of the seductive cigarière, first described by French author Prosper Mérimée.’

Source: Opera Now

'… an intriguing, productive assembly of Carmen’s sojourns around the globe that will enrich our understanding of Bizet’s opera and provide new paths for future research.'

Susan Rutherford Source: Revue de musicologie