She can be provocative, she can be sincere, she can be funny, she can be dark, she's everything, she's one thing and the opposite at the same time all the time.

From WQXR in the Metropolitan Opera,

this is Ariacode. I'm Rianna Giddens.

So we have someone who is very powerful within her own indigenous community,

but who is both lusted after and despised.

Every episode, we peek behind the curtain

of a single Aria so we can see what's going on

behind the scenes.

Today, it's maybe the most famous Aria ever the habanera from Bisez Karman

Flamenco dancing is an emotional act because it's asking you as a dancer to access sadness, grief, happiness, joy,

all maybe in a matter of five minutes.

Carmen is one of the top three most performed operas on the planet.

But when it premiered in 1875, it was more of a scandal than a success.

An opera in which the title character is a central liberated woman who makes her own dang choices,

thank you very much, was bad enough. But then the fact that she was,

spoiler alert, it is opera, murdered on stage at the end. Yeah, people in Paris weren't

really cool with that at the time. But the music was just so good and the

character of Carmen was so complex that audiences ultimately couldn't help but be

seduced by it all. Fast forward 150 years and Carmen is still just as

mismerizing as ever. Today we'll bask in the glory of this wonderful music

but also we'll ask a few crucial and often ignored questions about what and whom Carmen represents.

The opera is set in Seville.

...