Watch VoirFilms. Deemed too scandalous by the bourgeois audience at the Opéra-Comique, Georges Bizet’s "Carmen" received a frosty reception on the night of its Paris premiere, March 3, 1875. Devastated by the scandal, the composer died three months later of exhaustion and despair, at the age of just 36. A fascinating exploration of this work that has become a universal classic.