When he first heard Carmen, Tchaikovsky enthusiastically predicted it would become the world's most popular opera. Wagner, too, was an admirer of this dramatic masterpiece, and Brahms claimed to have seen it 29 times. At its premiere in Paris in 1873, however, Carmen did not succeed with the public or the critics. Indeed, it created a scandal. But in time, as Tchaikovsky foresaw, it would become the favorite opera of audiences worldwide. And in over a century Carmen has never relinquished its po...