María del Carmen María del Carmen María del Carmen is an opera in three acts composed by Enrique Granados to a Spanish libretto by José Feliú i Codina based on his 1896 play of the same name. It was Granados's first operatic success and although largely forgotten today, he considered it to be his best opera. At the end of its initial run in Madrid where it premiered in 1898, Queen Maria Cristina awarded Granados the Charles III Cross in recognition of his work. The opera, sometimes described as a Spanish version of Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" with a happy ending, is set in
Herva Nelli del destino", Puccini's "Tosca" (conducted by Eugene Ormandy), and "Un ballo in maschera". In 1951, Nelli reappeared with the New York City Opera, in "Cavalleria rusticana" again, as well as "Aida"; the next year, she portrayed Maddalena de Coigny in Giordano's "Andrea Chénier" (in Theodore Komisarjevsky's production). With the San Francisco Opera, in 1951 and 1952, the soprano sang in "Otello", "La forza del destino" (with Robert Weede), "Aida" (with Mario Del Monaco), "Cavalleria rusticana", "Il trovatore", and "La bohème" (this last on tour to Los Angeles); in 1957, she returned for "Un ballo in maschera". With the Baltimore Civic