pela primeira vez em 1845, decidiu tranforma-la em opera, com libreto escrito por Henri Meilhac e Ludovic Halevy. Sem nunca ter posto os pes na Espanha, Bizet pesquisou alguns elementos da musica espanhola e acrescentou alguns outros, derivados deles, mas fruto de sua propria imaginacao. Isso levou parcela da critica da epoca a denunciar um certo artificialismo da composicao, que soaria como "musica francesa querendo se passar por espanhola". Enquanto a parcela mais conservadora da critica insistia em ver defeitos de ordem estetica e moral em Carmen, a obra comecava a chamar a atencao de importantes compositores contemporaneos de Bizet. Morto aos 36 anos, o compositor nao testemunhou a extraordinaria repercussao que sua opera conquistaria logo a seguir. Nos dez anos seguintes, ela seria apresentada cerca de mil vezes, em diferentes montagens, em toda a Europa. Depois de arrebatar as plateias em sua versao lirica, Carmen tambem seria celebrada no seculo 20, com varias versoes cinematograficas, entre elas as dirigidas pelos cineastas Carlos Saura e Jean-Luc Godard.Roberto Alagna was born on 7 June 1963 in Clichy-sous-Bois, France, of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to France. He has described his family as "a typical Southern European artistic family consisting of generations of acrobats, mandolin players and singers." His first wife (nee Florence Lancien) and mother of his daughter Ornella, died in 1994. He remarried on 26 April 1996 to the soprano Angela Gheorghiu.Shortly after winning first prize in the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition in Philadelphia in 1988, he made his stage debut as Alfredo in La Traviata with Glyndebourne Touring Opera in Britain. He went on to sing that role in Toulouse, Montpellier, Monte Carlo, Venice, Naples, Messina, and in La Scala Milan where he had a triumphant house debut in 1990.His roles, especially in the early years, were decidedly in the lyric tenor repertoire Rodolfo in La Boheme, Nemorino in L'Elisir d'amore, Roberto in Roberto Devereux, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Romeo in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. Since then he has moved into somewhat heavier repertoire adding Don Jose in Carmen, Don Carlo, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Canio in I Pagliacci, and Manrico in Il Trovatore.Alagna's substantial discography, predominantly with EMI, includes the operas Rigoletto, Don Carlo, La Rondine, Romeo et Juliette, Werther, La Boheme, Il Trittico, and Tosca released on film and CD in September 2001. Solo recital discs include Sanctus Sacred Songs, French Opera Arias, Serenades,Verdi Arias, and his most recent release, Nessun Dorma. In May 2004, Alagna signed an exclusive contract with Universal Music France, and his future recordings will be released worldwide on Universal's Deutsche Grammophon label. He takes a special interest in filmed opera, with film versions of both Tosca and Romeo et Juliette already released. Future projects include I Pagliacci, Werther, and Cyrano de Bergerac.Before his opera career began he sang cabaret in Paris - everything from Jacques Brel to opera arias to 'Hava Nagila'. However, contrary to fancifully embroidered reports in the tabloid press, he was not a 'singing waiter'. Although largely self-taught, he was also