Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon ; the " Habanera " and " Seguidilla " from act 1 and the " Toreador Song " from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias.
The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent. Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until Thereafter, it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad.
The music of Carmen has since been widely acclaimed for brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere, and orchestration, and for the skill with which the emotions and suffering of the characters are represented. At his death Bizet was still in the midst of revising his score and because of other later changes notably the introduction of recitatives composed by Ernest Guiraud in place of the original dialogue there is still no definitive edition of the opera.
The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in , and the story has been the subject of many screen and stage adaptations. In the Paris of the s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed.
The orchestration consists of two flutes doubling piccolo , two oboes the second doubling cor anglais , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , harp , and strings.
