Carmen

   Carmen, the fictitious story of a Spanish Gypsy, was written by Prosper Mérimée in 1846 after he visited a Spanish cigarette factory, and it was turned into an opera by Georges Bizet in 1875. It is said that Mérimée wrote the story in just eight days. The story of a love triangle (or quadrilateral, if we count Carmen's husband) has been filmed by, among others, Jean-Luc Godard, Cecil B. De Mille, Francesco Rosi, and Carlos Saura. It has recently been turned into a flamenco opera by Antonio Gades and an ice-show - the latter with a sequence of Irish step-dancing on skates that has no parallel in the original story or opera. It was adapted as the musical Carmen Jones-with a black cast-in 1943 (and later filmed). James Robinson produced a play in 1997 at the Court Theater in Chicago based on the original novel with moderate success. In 2004 South African film director Mark Dornford-May set the story in a shantytown with the libretto delivered in the Xhosa language (U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha). The story carries the essentially misogynistic message that female sexual liberation is ultimately punishable by death, but this has not served to diminish its enduring appeal.