Ah what the heck, it  takes place in Spain right, Seville  LOL.

 

A performance of Carmen at the The Metropolitan Opera. in New York City.

 

Never knew this song had singing, just thought it was only instruments, nor it was sung in French, always thought it was in Spanish LOL

 

 Les voici! Voici la quadrille! (Here they are, Here They Are, Here is the quadrille!)
Here is the quadrille!

 

What a Master peace that song is. 

 

 

Moving on to the military aspects, I am impressed by the wardrobe got all those Spanish Police hats, I always knew these were worn by Spanish Cops, but thought they were civilian city and town police, and worn you know like British Bobby hats. But the organization is the Guardia Civil and are a para military organization in some respect, like they pull UN Peacekeeping duty, and even were in Afghanistan. Even found that they had some units on Cuba and in Puerto Rico during the Spanish American War.

 

The hat of course is still worn today.

In Afghanistan I believe

 

On Cuba during the period that would see the Spanish American War, wearing your standard Army Tropical Uniform, White with Blue Pin Strips, though in this drawing looks solid and Grey , and Hat we see. may  be the straw one.

Guardia Civil here on Cuba 1893, as we see the hats are not the Army Straw one, but a cloth one, with a light colored trim on the brim, just like see in the pervious illustration above.

Checking around  bit I found this good description of the nature of the Guardia Civil.

 

the Guardia Civil is a unique Spanish law enforcement agency with a military nature (a gendarmerie), organized along military lines and responsible for civil policing, but falls under the dual authority of the Ministry of the Interior (for civil policing) and the Ministry of Defence (for military missions), acting as a bridge between military and civilian security. It's not a branch of the Army but a separate armed body that handles public safety, rural policing, border control, and customs, distinct from the regular Armed Forces but sharing military structure and discipline. 

They were also in Iraq, there to train Police. A good view of the Spanish Army Jump Wings, shows they do attend some Army courses

Here's a Combat Fatality of the Guardia Civil in Iraq. a High Ranking Officer.

 

Comandante Gonzalo Pérez García Pérez García, KIA in an insurgent  attack at Diwaniya on February 4, 2004

An interesting thing we found, AH Der Führer  pretty much liked Carmen.

 

Here's two talks on the subject.

 

While there's no direct evidence Adolf Hitler had a personal fondness for the opera Carmen, the Nazis, including Hitler, were actually quite keen on Bizet's opera, despite its themes clashing with Nazi ideology, with Hitler often pushing for performances of it and other non-German works, though the party faithful weren't always enthusiastic. Hitler's musical tastes leaned towards Wagner, but he enjoyed Carmen and Madama Butterfly, showing a broader, if complex, appreciation for opera beyond purely "German" works

 

Adolf Hitler had an affinity for the French opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. While he is most famously associated with the works of German composer Richard Wagner, historical accounts indicate that Carmen was also among his preferred musical pieces. 

Hitler was a known opera enthusiast, and his musical preferences were often complex

Perhaps Adolf liked this priceless one, A Deux Cuartos, this is actually the scene right before of the one I first posted  of the Toreador Escamillo and his  group of assistants,the  picadors and banderilleros etc etc , and is the opening as you'll see of Act IV of Carmen.

 

 

 

Looks like they did a decent job with the uniforms, I'm imaging they went for this performance to take place in the 1920s early 30s pre civil war, some times performances by virtue of the clothing worn takes place at various time periods, like the 1880s 1890s etc.

 

Here we get good views of the uniforms from this ACT I scene, with the Children and the Guardia.

 

Avec la garde montante song is called.

 

 

Voyez un uniforme de la Guardia Civil des années 1920s, il a pratiquement la même couleur marron.

Great photo, didn't know where to post it, so we post it here.

 

Not a Guardia Civil  Female Personnel, but from the Army, being honored, maybe a rank promotion, a medal decoration, this somewhere in the world on UN Duty, location and date not mentioned, unit not mentioned. Tried a search of the current Spanish units on WIKI, but got no match for the unit patch she's wearing 

Hey Just discovered this, the Military Police Company of the Spanish Blue Division, 250th Infantry Division in the Heer line, Feldgendarmerie Trupp 250 was composed of men of the Guardia Civil, seems exclusively composed of. Though obliviously wearing German Uniforms ,

 

Here's a fantastic site on it, its in Spanish, if you don't speak Spanish like me you'll have to do the old Copy and Paste on Google Translate.

 

https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=2565

Neat.  I was completely unaware of this unit.

 

 

Relooking at my Osprey Men at Arms Battle of San Juan Hill book, its got an Order of Battle towards the rear of book, seen listed in the Spanish section 200 Guardia Civil  troops present for the Battle of Santiago, this  in that region, there was probably more Guardia Civil personnel in the Havana area as well, Santiago being in the Eastern part of Cuba, Havana is to the West,

Interestingly, I just picked up one of the black lacquered caps worn by these troops.  I wonder if they wore them while serving as a Feldgendarmerie unit ? 

5 hours ago, SARGE said:

Interestingly, I just picked up one of the black lacquered caps worn by these troops.  I wonder if they wore them while serving as a Feldgendarmerie unit ? 

Can you post it here please SARGE.

 

But I don't know if they took there uniforms with them to Russia, it's possible they wore them traveling to Germany, and once at Graf put them in storage when issued Heer uniforms

Sorry but my camera is broken so no photos I am afraid.  The same cap shown in picture #2 above though.