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Carmen
A Selected Cultural and Historical Timeline
Romani with their wagon, photographed in the Rheinland of
Germany in 1935.
Georges Bizet in 1875.
1478
1614
1838
1845
1848
The Spanish government issues the first
documented laws discriminating against
the Romani people, also known as gypsies.
(Bennahum) By the time
Carmen
premieres,
Romanis—as well as Jews and Moors—will
have endured centuries of government-
sanctioned persecution. Romani settlements
will be broken up; Romanis will be barred from
speaking their language, from holding public
office, or from being guild members.
Bizet is admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, a
prestigious music academy, two weeks before his
10th birthday.
On October 25, Georges Bizet is born in Paris. His
father works as a hairdresser and wigmaker before
becoming a singing teacher. His mother will give
Bizet his first piano lessons.
King of Spain Philip III commands that
all tobacco grown in the Spanish new
world be shipped to Seville, Spain,
making it the heart of the tobacco trade.
Prosper Mérimée’s novella
Carmen
is published.
According to a letter from Mérimée to his friend, a
Spanish countess, his inspiration was a story she’d
told him on a six-month trip to Spain. The daughter
of the countess, Eugenia, will marry Emperor
Napoleon III of France in 1853.
< > CONTENTSBy Maia Morgan