There is a moment in the first act of Bizet’s Carmen when the title character walks onto the stage, tosses a flower at a soldier she has barely glanced at, and walks away. No grand entrance. No trembling aria. Just that. And the soldier — and the audience — is already lost.
That soldier is Don José. He is decent, dutiful, engaged to a good woman back home. Within the hour he will have helped Carmen escape from custody, thrown away his career, and started down a road that ends with a knife outside a bullring. Carmen did not chase him. She never chases anyone. That is the whole point.
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