The Plot

In 1931, Sir Malcolm Sargent – then a rising young conductor – acted as musical director for this first filmed musical version of Prosper Mérimée’s classic story of passion and fatal jealousy, Carmen. With a score based on Bizet’s opera, Gipsy Blood features celebrated American soprano Marguerite Namara as the capricious gypsy girl from the cigarette factory; her co-performers include Thomas Burke as Carmen’s tormented lover, Don José, and New Zealand-born baritone Lance Fairfax as his rival, the toreador Escamillo.