His eyes linger on Carmen, who returns his gaze.
Suddenly the clamour of a celebratory crowd is heard from outside, and the famous toreador Escamillo arrives. Lieutenant Zuniga longingly watches Carmen dance. Two months later, the Gypsies and soldiers are carousing in Lillas Pastia’s tavern. When Zuniga returns, Carmen shoves José and races off. The bewitched soldier goes ahead and releases her bonds. Left alone with José, the girl attempts to use her feminine allure to convince the corporal to set her free. Zuniga withdraws to write out the order for Carmen to be locked up. José leads the accused into the square, but she refuses to say anything about the matter. Shouting over each other, the cigarette girls explain to Lieutenant Zuniga that Carmen has slashed another girl’s face. Micaëla returns to deliver the letter and money that José’s mother has sent to him and then departs. Carmen throws a flower to the corporal and hurries back to work. The bell of the nearby tobacco factory rings, and the men gather to admire the working girls going on their break – especially Carmen, the sensual Gypsy girl, who has every eye locked on her, except José’s. He realizes that this can only be Micaëla, the orphan girl whom his mother has been raising in the countryside. José duly arrives with the new watch and learns from Moralès that a pretty girl has been looking for him. Evading the soldiers’ flirting, she decides to come back later. She is searching for a corporal named Don José, who – as it turns out – will be arriving in the square later when the guard changes. In a bustling Seville square, a girl from the countryside addresses Moralès and his fellow soldiers as they observe the crowd.
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