Carmen: “Votre toast, je peux le rendre … Toréador, en garde!”

The Toreador Song - an even more popular operatic aria than “Non più andrai” - comes from the second act of Carmen, where Escamillo makes his entry as a celebrity toreador and first sets eye on Carmen. Hailed by Carmen her companions and their soldier admirers in their favourite drinking den, Lillas Pastia’s, Escamillo returns their toast by regaling them with a colourful account of heroism of the bull ring. In the famous march-time refrain “Toréador, en garde!” he declares that, for the bull fighter, love is as exciting as the contest itself. The truth of that is confirmed, with tragic consequences, later in the opera.