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.

[1] 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.

Granados and Feliú i Codina put a fair amount of work into making the libretto 'authentic', travelling to rural Murcia to observe the region's landscape, culture, songs and speech patterns.

[4] The composer Amadeo Vives was instrumental in securing the first performance of the opera in Madrid and helped coordinate the production with the Teatro Parish.

During the orchestral rehearsals, Granados was assisted by Pablo Casals, who also conducted a private performance of the opera at the Teatro Principal in Madrid prior to its official premiere.

It then sank into virtual oblivion, apart from a 1935 revival at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu conducted by Joan Lamote de Grignon with the famous soprano Conchita Badía in the title role, and a few other performances in Spain in the 1960s.

The production which opened on 23 October 2003 at the Theatre Royal, Wexford marked the first and (so far) only fully staged performances of María del Carmen outside Spain.

The Wexford production was conducted by Max Bragado-Darman with stage direction by Sergio Vela and Diana Veronese in the title role.

In order to save Pencho's life when he returns, María nurses Javier back to health, only to find that he has fallen in love with her too.

María del Carmen – Diana Veronese (María del Carmen); Larisa Kostyuk (Concepción); Silvia Vazquez (Fuensanta); Jesús Suaste (Pencho); Dante Alcalá (Javier); Gianfranco Montresor (Domingo); David Curry (Don Fulgencio); Aleberto Arrabal (Pepuso); Stewart Kempster (Migalo); Ricardo Mirabelli (Antón); Alex Ashworth (Roque); Nicholas Sharratt (Andrés); Vicenç Esteve (Un cantaor huertano).