Carmen
Encyclopedia
Carmen is a French opéra comique
by Georges Bizet
. The libretto
is by Henri Meilhac
and Ludovic Halévy
, based on the novella of the same title
by Prosper Mérimée
, first published in 1845
, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies
(1824) by Alexander Pushkin. Mérimée had read the poem in Russian by 1840 and translated it into French in 1852.
The opera premiered at the Opéra-Comique
of Paris on 3 March 1875, but its opening run was denounced by the majority of critics. It was almost withdrawn after its fourth or fifth performance, and although this was avoided, ultimately having 48 performances in its first run, it did little to bolster sagging receipts at the Opéra-Comique. Near the end of this run, the theatre was giving tickets away in order to stimulate attendance. Bizet died of a heart attack, aged 36, on 3 June 1875, never knowing how popular Carmen would become. In October 1875 it was produced in Vienna, to critical and popular success, which began its path to worldwide popularity. It was not staged again at the Opéra Comique until 1883.
Bizet's final opera not only transformed the opéra comique
genre that had been static for half a century, it virtually killed it. Within a few years, the traditional distinction between opera
(serious, heroic and declamatory) and opéra comique (light-hearted, bourgeois and conversational with spoken dialogue) disappeared. Moreover, Carmen nourished a movement that was to win both celebrity and notoriety first in Italy and then elsewhere: the cult of realism known as verismo
.
The early death of Bizet, and the negligence of his immediate heirs and publisher led, as with most of Bizet's operas, to major textual problems for which scholars and performers only began to find solutions in the 1960s.
The story is set in Seville
, Spain, around 1820, and concerns the eponymous Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. Free with her love, she woos the corporal
Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny
against his superior, and joining a gang of smugglers. His jealousy when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo leads him to murder Carmen.
, the artistic director of the Opéra-Comique
, commissioned Bizet to write an opera based on Mérimée's novel in early 1873 to be premiered at the end of the year. However, difficulty in finding a leading lady delayed rehearsals until August 1874. Bizet bought a house at Bougival
on the Seine
, where he finished the piano score
in the summer of 1874, and took a further two months to complete a full orchestration.
After approaching the singer Marie Roze
, who declined the part, du Locle offered the part to the famous mezzo-soprano
Galli-Marié
. Financial negotiations over her fees ensued, and she accepted it in December 1873 (she agreed to 2,500 francs per month for four months). She apparently did not know the Mérimée novella.
During rehearsals, du Locle's assistant de Leuven
voiced his discontent about the opera's plot, and pressured Bizet and the librettists to alter the tragic ending. De Leuven felt that families would be shocked to see such a "debauched" opera on the stage of the Opéra-Comique, which had a reputation as a family-friendly theatre, with many boxes used by parents to interview prospective sons-in-law. The librettists agreed to change the ending, but Bizet refused, which led directly to de Leuven's resignation from the theatre in early 1874.
The librettists had toned down some of the more extreme elements of Mérimée's novella, although it has been argued that this and Bizet's close involvement in shaping the libretto are more to do with his wish to get closer to the Pushkin source.
Full rehearsals finally began in October 1874. The Opéra-Comique's orchestra declared the score unplayable, and the cast were having difficulty following Bizet's directions. However, the greatest opposition came from du Locle, who liked Bizet personally, but hated the opera. At this stage, the Opéra-Comique was in financial difficulties, leading du Locle to believe the opera would topple the ailing company, which had failed to produce a true success since Charles Gounod
's Faust
.
The librettists, for whom Carmen "had little importance" (they had four other operas on stage in Paris at that time), secretly tried to induce the singers to over-dramatise in order to lessen the impact of the work. However, much to Bizet's delight, the final rehearsals seemed to convince the majority of the company of the genius of the opera.
. In the audience were not only various composers: Charles Gounod
, Jules Massenet
, Léo Delibes
, Charles Lecocq and Jacques Offenbach
, but also singers Hortense Schneider
, Zulma Bouffar
, Anna Judic
, Jean-Baptiste Faure
; publishers such as Heugel, Choudens and Hartmann
; Jules Pasdeloup, Alphonse Daudet
and Dumas fils
.
According to Halévy's diary, the premiere did not go well. Although there were curtain calls after act 1, and the entr'acte
to act 2 and Escamillo's song were applauded, acts 3 and 4 were greeted with silence, with the exception of Micaëla's aria in act 3. The critics were scathing, claiming that the libretto was inappropriate for the Comique. Bizet was also condemned by both sides of the Wagnerian
debate, Ernest Reyer and Adolphe Jullien criticising him for not sufficiently embracing Wagner's style, while others condemned him for making the orchestra more important than the voices.
However, a few critics, such as Joncières and the poet Théodore de Banville
, praised the work for its innovation. Banville lauded the librettists for writing characters that were more realistic than those normally seen at the Opéra-Comique. Nevertheless, with the negative reviews, the opera struggled to make 48 performances in the first production and closed the following January. Towards the end of the run, the management was giving away tickets wholesale in a vain attempt to fill the seats. D'Indy, who had been engaged early in the run to play a harmonium
offstage to keep Lhérie in tune for "Halte-la, dragons d'Alcala!" in act 2, saw the audiences gradually dwindle up to the last night, 15 February 1876.
Bizet did not live to see the success of his opera: he died on 3 June, just after the thirtieth performance. The day before his death he signed a contract for a Viennese production of Carmen. Before long three leading composers in Europe would be counted among his admirers: Richard Wagner
, Johannes Brahms
and Pyotr Tchaikovsky
. Friedrich Nietzsche
(in The Case of Wagner
) hailed Bizet and exalted the exotic elements of the score, as well as its structural clarity: "it builds, organizes, finishes."
At this second production at the Hofoper
in Vienna on 23 October 1875, the public had no stake in the traditions of the Opéra-Comique or the genre, and on the home turf of German music nothing recalled Wagner in the least, so they were able to appreciate Carmen on its own terms.
Following the well-received run in Vienna, the opera was seen in 1876 in Brussels (February), Antwerp (April) and Budapest (October); by 1878 it was being performed in St Petersburg, Stockholm, London, Dublin, New York and Philadelphia and in 1879 it reached Australia (Opera House, Melbourne
, 14 May). The first performance in Spain was on 2 August 1881 at the Teatro Lirico Barcelona with Galli-Marié; Madrid saw it on 2 November 1887 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela
. Galli-Marié re-created her portrayal of the title role in the first performance in Italy (Naples) in 1879, then Barcelona and England, and from 27 October 1883 in Paris again.
After the 1883 revival in Paris, it swiftly became popular there as well, reaching its 500th performance at the Opéra-Comique on 23 October 1891 and the 1,000th on 23 December 1904. Over the following century, it has remained part of the standard operatic repertoire.
The title role was written for a mezzo-soprano, but the full score published in 1877 introduced higher (soprano) alternatives for Carmen, and this has led to soprano
s performing and recording the role; contraltos have also occasionally portrayed Carmen. The singer must not only have a great range, but also exhibit superior dramatic skills in order to portray Carmen's complex character, and be able to dance convincingly on stage.
Several pieces from this opera have become popular away from the stage. The "Flower Song", the "Toréador's Song
" and the "Habanera
" are favourites with singers. Two suites for orchestra were arranged by Fritz Hoffmann: the first consisting of the prelude and entr'actes, and the second of vocal numbers arranged for orchestra.
Since the 1880s it has been one of the world's most performed operas and a staple of the operatic repertoire. Carmen appears as number three on the Operabase
list of the most-performed operas worldwide.
The prelude consists of music taken from the act 4 preparations for the bull fight and the Toreador's Song.
Moralès and the soldiers loiter before the guard house commenting on passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears seeking Don José, a corporal, but is told by Moralès that he is not yet on duty, so why does she not stay and wait with them? She runs away saying that she will return later. Zuniga and José arrive with the new guard, imitated by a crowd of street-children ("Avec la garde montante").
The factory bell rings and the cigarette girls emerge from the factory, greeted by young men who have gathered to flirt with them ("La cloche a sonné"). The girls enter smoking cigarettes, and finally Carmen appears, and all the men ask her when she will love them ("Quand je vous aimerai?"). She replies in the famous Habanera
("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"): "Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame ... He has never known law. If you don't love me I love you, if I love you watch yourself!" When they plead for her to choose a lover from among them, ("Carmen! sur tes pas, nous nous pressons tous!") she tears a bunch of cassia from her bodice and throws it at Don José, who has been ignoring her, before going back into the factory with the others. José is annoyed by her insolence.
Micaëla returns and gives him a letter—and a kiss—from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). José longingly thinks of his home, and reading the letter sees that his mother wants him to return and get married. Micaëla is embarrassed and leaves, but Don José declares that he will marry her.
As soon as she leaves, screams are heard from the factory and the women run out, singing chaotically ("Au secours! Au secours!"). Don José and Zuniga find that Carmen has been fighting with another woman, and slashed her face with a knife. Zuniga asks Carmen if she has anything to say, but she replies impudently with a song ("Tra la la"). Zuniga instructs José to guard her while he writes out the warrant for prison. The women go back into the factory and the soldiers to the guardhouse. To escape, Carmen seduces José with a seguidilla
("Près des remparts de Séville") about an evening date with her next lover who is "only a corporal"; José relents and unties her hands. Zuniga returns, and Carmen allows herself to be led away but turns, pushes José to the ground, and laughing cigarette girls surround Zuniga as she escapes.
A month has passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès sing and dance ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient"). Lillas Pastia is trying to get rid of the officers, so Zuniga invites Carmen and her friends to come with him to the theatre, but she can only think of José, who was demoted and has been in jail since letting her escape, and was released the day before.
The sound of a procession hailing Escamillo passes by outside, and the toreador is invited in ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Escamillo sings the Toreador song
("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre"), and flirts with Carmen, but Carmen tells him that for the time being he need not dream of being hers.
When everyone except Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès have left, the smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and tell the girls of their plans to dispose of the contraband they have smuggled via Gibraltar
(Quintet: "Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Carmen refuses to accompany them, saying to their amazement that she is in love.
As José's voice is heard ("Halte là!"), Dancaïre tells Carmen she must try to get Don José to join them. Alone together, José returns a gold coin Carmen had sent him in jail and she orders fruit and wine to be brought.
Carmen vexes him with stories of her dancing for the officers but then dances with castanets for him alone ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... Lalala"). During her song the sound of bugles is heard calling the soldiers back to barracks.
Carmen's temper flares when José says he must leave, but he makes her listen by producing the flower she threw at him, which he kept while he was in prison and is proof of his love (the "Flower Song"—"La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Carmen is unmoved and asks him to join her gypsy life if he really loves her ("Non, tu ne m'aimes pas").
Her picture of a life of freedom tempts him but he finally refuses saying he will never be a deserter. He begins to leave when Zuniga enters hoping to find Carmen. Don José draws his sword on his superior officer, but before they can fight the smugglers burst in and disarm both of them. Zuniga is made a prisoner ("Bel officier") and José has no alternative but to flee with Carmen ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").
The smugglers along with Carmen and José are travelling with the contraband ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"), but Carmen has grown tired of José, and does not conceal this, taunting him to return to his village.
Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès read the cards ("Mêlons! Coupons!"): Frasquita and Mercédès foresee love and romance, wealth and luxury; but Carmen's cards foretell death for both her and José ("En vain pour éviter les réponses amères"). The smugglers ask the girls to come and charm the customs officers ("Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire") and everyone goes off, leaving the jealous José to guard the goods.
Micaëla arrives with a guide seeking José. She sends the guide away and vows to take Don José away from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). She sees José firing a gun, and hides in the rocks. It was Escamillo whom José had fired at, but when he arrives José welcomes him, until he says he is infatuated with Carmen and tells José the story of her affair with a soldier, not realising José is that soldier.
José challenges Escamillo to a knife-fight, but Escamillo fights defensively, infuriating José. They start again and José finds himself at the mercy of Escamillo who releases him, saying his trade is killing bulls, not men. The third time they fight Escamillo's knife breaks, but he is saved by the return of the smugglers and Carmen ("Holà, holà José"). Escamillo leaves, but invites Carmen and the smugglers to his next bullfight in Seville.
Remendado finds Micaëla hiding, and she tells José that his mother wishes to see him. Carmen mocks him and at first he refuses to go ("Non, je ne partirai pas!"), until Micaëla tells him that his mother is dying. Vowing that he will return to Carmen, he goes.
As he is leaving, Escamillo is heard singing in the distance. Carmen rushes to the sound of his voice, but José bars her way.
It is the day of the contest to which Escamillo invited the smugglers. The square is full of people, with merchants and Gypsies selling their wares ("À deux cuartos!"). Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd and the girls tell Zuniga that Carmen is now with Escamillo.
The crowd and children sing and cheer on the procession as the cuadrilla
arrive ("Les voici! voici la quadrille"). Carmen and Escamillo are greeted by the crowds and express their love, Carmen adding that she had never loved one so much ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen").
After Escamillo has gone into the fight, Frasquita warns Carmen that José is in the crowd ("Carmen! Prends garde!"), but Carmen scorns their fears. Before she can enter the arena she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi? C'est moi!").
He begs her to return his love and start a new life with him far away. She calmly replies that she loves him no longer and will not give way—free she was born and free she will die.
Cheers are heard from the bull-ring and Carmen tries to enter, but José bars her way. He asks her one last time to come back, but she scornfully throws back the ring that he gave to her ("Cette bague, autrefois").
He stabs her ("Eh bien, damnée") as Escamillo is acclaimed in the arena, to the strains of the chorus of the 'Toreador Song', she dies. Don José kneels in despair beside her. The spectators flock out of the arena and find José ("Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"), confessing his guilt over her dead body.
Carmen was extremely innovative in its drama: alternating comic or sentimental scenes found traditionally in opéra comique with stark realism. The initial controversy, even before the premiere, was about shocking aspects of the story, despite Bizet and his librettists' toning down of some elements of Mérimée's novella. The trouble with Carmen was that, while retaining the externals of the genre, such as spoken dialogue, it not only took its characters from proletarian life – a corporal, a promiscuous Gypsy, a sporting idol – it dared to treat their emotions with absolute seriousness.
Carmen will always be a challenge for great singing actresses. Her availability to men (as she explains in the Habanera) is strictly on her terms. She is fatalistic
and hedonistic
, living entirely in the present moment. Carmen's fatalism is well illustrated in the card-playing scene, much revised by Bizet, in which she accepts the premonition of death. In act 1 her reply to Zuniga when she is arrested is a translation from the Pushkin poem: ""J'en aime un autre et meurs en disant que je l'aime"", and anticipates phrases she will use at the end of the opera.
Carmen is a woman prepared to give herself completely, aware of the magnitude in human terms of this decision but in turn she will demand the same from the one to whom she surrenders herself. Portrayed as "free, independent and mistress of all her decisions," Carmen's strength and capacity of expression, her calm acceptance of her fate, and especially of her death show her "interior security, strength of temperament, personality and beauty ..."
José is ill-suited to Carmen's whims, expecting fidelity, unlike the other men in the opera, who perceive her as available to them. He dreams that he can possess and redeem her. Don José's descent and moral disintegration from a simple and honourable soldier to a murderous brigand is plotted by librettists and composer "from connivance at Carmen's escape, through desertion, armed resistance to an officer and smuggling, to murder."
Carmen and José's scenes together represent the stages of their relationship. The Seguidilla in act 1 is the seduction, the second in act 2 is the conflict, and the last in act 4—which the librettists by a brilliant stroke moved from the mountains (Mérimée) to outside the bullring—is the tragic resolution.
Micaëla and Escamillo are not as developed as the two protagonists and would not be out of place in a traditional opéra comique. Micaëla, who is not in the novella, corresponds to José's character and psychological environment before he met Carmen. Escamillo was adapted from an "offstage" character in the novella; he represents a more typical male attitude to Carmen. Micaëla's music is developed from Gounod
's lyric operas, and Escamillo is a musical cousin of Ourrias in Gounod's Mireille
. In Escamillo's "'Toreador Song"', Bizet knew that the song would be popular, but commented "They want their trash, and will get it."
, though there are parallels with Verdi
as well. Mozartian likewise is the compound of richness and clarity in the orchestration and the unfailing aptness of musical form to dramatic situation.
The Prelude is in three sections: in A major the flamboyant act 4 'Spanish' music of the bull-fight, then the 'Toreador Song', and finally a plunge into D minor and the motive marked by the augmented second, linked both to Carmen, and to Don José's fatal attraction to her, finishing on a diminished 7th chord.
Bugle calls signal the change of guard, but a March for urchins led by piccolos undermines any military seriousness. Solo violin and cello in canon accompany the mélodrame where Moralès tells José that Micaëla has come to see him. A chorus in shifting metre brings the women on stage whose music evokes swaying languor; enharmonic slips in and out of flat keys reach a cadence, at which the men call for "Carmencita." The flourishes for her entrance are a speeded-up version of the augmented second theme from the Prelude. Bizet modelled the Habanera with graceful dotted rhythm and teasing chromatic melodies on a Cuban-style song then popular in cabarets, lending an aura of exoticism; after each verse Carmen sings a seductive countermelody on the word 'l'amour' over the chorus. The scene is set for Carmens aria in the graceful dotted rhythm of the Habanera. Based on a descending chromatic scale, the Habanera follows a "verse and chorus" form; at the choral verse, and Carmen sings a seductive countermelody on the key word "l'amour." The next short number includes the 'fate' motive from the prelude but with intimations of doom. After the women mockingly sing the Habanera refrain, the orchestra comments in a yearning style that will characterize José's music (he has yet to sing). Throughout this act, Guiraud's recitatives, which replace the dialogue, destroy the balance of music by recalling previous themes.
José's development can be traced by the music alone: in act 1 he is the simple countryman, his music in tune with Micaëla's. His duet with Micaëla begins with his first sung words "Parle-moi de ma mère"; Micaëla's music weaves her own feelings with those of José's mother. In the G major duet José briefly recalls Carmen's motif. After a short spoken scene, high violin trills shatter José's reverie, leading to the women's fight – this F piece where two groups of women exchange short vocal entries requires considerable co-ordination from the chorus. In the following section Zuniga interrogates Carmen in speech, while she answers in wordless song; her insolence is echoed by solo flute, violin and cellos. The Seguidille is an original compound of song, dance and duet, in which Carmen's seduction of José is initiated, developed and carried to the point of capitulation by musical means alone. Muted strings accompany Carmen's plotting, with a hushed four-part fugue in F minor, which will return in a rollicking A major at the curtain when Carmen escapes.
s. A sense of excitement is generated with constant quaver accompaniment; as the toreros enter, the crowds celebrate with the theme from the opening of the Prelude; they burst into the Toreador's song when they see Escamillo. The short duet for Carmen and Escamillo allows them to express their feelings separately, then in unison (unanimity absent from Carmen and José's scenes). The finale opens with short exchanges between José and Carmen; his hysteria has given way to a grim and hard desperation. Bizet here anticipates the device so often used by Puccini of writing for voice and bass in octaves with the harmony in between. Songs and cries are heard offstage (in the arena), and as he stabs her the Toreador's song and the fate motive appear together. It had been conventional in opéra comique to have a joyful chorus at the end, but not off-stage, and not as an ironic counterpart to the stage action. The opera concludes with two open octaves in F.
When asked if he would visit Spain to research his score, Bizet replied "No, that would only confuse me." Several popular Spanish songs are adapted in the score. These include El arreglito, which became the habanera, and the folk-song Carmen impudently sings when interrogated by Zuniga—both written by Yradier
. The habanera
was written to replace an aria that Galli-Marié disliked, and Bizet supposedly wrote over ten revisions. The act 4 entr'acte
seems to be influenced by a Spanish song by Manuel García, incorporating elements of Gypsy music.
The motif associated with Carmen is used in several forms. The first is heard directly after the Prelude and prefigures the ending of the opera. It is heard in this form when Carmen chooses José as her lover, at the beginning of the Flower Song, and during the opera's final moments. It is also heard, in its faster form, at the entrance of Carmen, and notably during the card playing scene. Bizet's use of the motto theme in Carmen is simple but supremely effective. Its appearances are never mechanical; it always carries a load of dramatic irony. The 'objective' and 'subjective' forms occur admirably adapted to its purpose and is never run to death.
The other theme associated with Carmen represents her influence over José. It is heard after José is chosen as Carmen's lover, and when Carmen is taken away by the police to José and Zuniga. In a sequence cut from the original edition, placed in the frenzied chorus of women in act 1, the two themes are played contrapuntally
.
The orchestration has been much praised; Richard Strauss advised young composers "if you want to learn how to orchestrate, don't study Wagner's scores, study the score of Carmen. What wonderful economy, and how every note and every rest is in its proper place."
Bizet dedicated the score to Jules Pasdeloup.
wrote recitative
s for the Vienna premiere in 1875. These were used everywhere except at the Opéra-Comique, where a shortened dialogue version remained in the repertory into the 1950s (with one piece of Guiraud recitative for Micaëla in act 3). On 10 November 1959, Carmen moved to the Paris Opéra
, "in a bloated and spectacular production involving an enormous cast, human and animal ... most of Guiraud's recitatives, and the attendance of President de Gaulle
." The recitatives are seen as damaging to the work as a whole; they destroy Bizet's careful pacing, and disrupt the process of characterization significantly. Found in every score from 1875 to 1964, and inserted without apology by the publisher, they are sometimes still used in large theaters, such as the Metropolitan
, where spoken dialogue is difficult to project.
A new edition in 1964 edited by Fritz Oeser
claimed to have restored Bizet's original vision by including material cut from the premiere as well as restoring the dialogue. Unfortunately, Oeser did not realise that a great deal was cut by Bizet himself before the first performance in order to achieve dramatic concentration. Oeser also made great changes to the stage directions and rewrote some of the libretto. The only score with the authority of the composer is the 1875 vocal score.
Most recordings since the publication of Oeser edition juggle the Opéra-Comique, Oeser and Guiraud versions. The 1970 de Burgos recording includes the act 1 pantomime scene with Moralès and chorus. The recording conducted by Michel Plasson
features an earlier variant of Carmen's Habanera ("L'amour est enfant de bohème"), as well as the familiar one. Sir Georg Solti
's recording mostly follows the Opéra-Comique score, with some additions from Oeser, including a different version of the act 3 opening, an extended fight scene in act 1, and (with some cuts) the original dialogue.
Some of these, such as Pablo de Sarasate
's Carmen Fantasy (1883) for violin and orchestra, Franz Waxman
's Carmen Fantasie (1946) for violin and orchestra and Vladimir Horowitz
's Variations on a theme from Carmen
for solo piano are virtuoso showpieces in the tradition of fantasia
s on operatic themes. Frank Proto
has also written virtuoso showpieces based on the opera for trumpet (for Doc Severinsen
) and double bass (for François Rabbath
).
Ferruccio Busoni
wrote a Sonatina (No. 6) for piano named Fantasia da camera super Carmen (1920), which uses themes from the opera. There are also two suite
s of music drawn directly from Bizet's opera, often recorded and performed in orchestral concerts.
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
by Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
is by Henri Meilhac
Henri Meilhac
Henri Meilhac , was a French dramatist and opera librettist.-Biography:Meilhac was born in Paris in 1831. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront...
and Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris...
, based on the novella of the same title
Carmen (novella)
"Carmen" is a novella by Prosper Mérimée, written and first published in 1845. It has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous opera by Georges Bizet.-Sources:...
by Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
, first published in 1845
1845 in literature
The year 1845 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*April 24 - Alfred de Musset and Honoré de Balzac are awarded the Légion d'honneur.* Robert Browning begins his correspondence with his future wife, Elizabeth Barrett....
, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies
The Gypsies (poem)
The Gypsies is a narrative poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, originally written in Russian in 1824 and first published in 1827. The last of Pushkin's four 'Southern Poems' written during his exile in the south of the Russian Empire, The Gypsies is also considered to be the most mature of these Southern...
(1824) by Alexander Pushkin. Mérimée had read the poem in Russian by 1840 and translated it into French in 1852.
The opera premiered at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
of Paris on 3 March 1875, but its opening run was denounced by the majority of critics. It was almost withdrawn after its fourth or fifth performance, and although this was avoided, ultimately having 48 performances in its first run, it did little to bolster sagging receipts at the Opéra-Comique. Near the end of this run, the theatre was giving tickets away in order to stimulate attendance. Bizet died of a heart attack, aged 36, on 3 June 1875, never knowing how popular Carmen would become. In October 1875 it was produced in Vienna, to critical and popular success, which began its path to worldwide popularity. It was not staged again at the Opéra Comique until 1883.
Bizet's final opera not only transformed the opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
genre that had been static for half a century, it virtually killed it. Within a few years, the traditional distinction between opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
(serious, heroic and declamatory) and opéra comique (light-hearted, bourgeois and conversational with spoken dialogue) disappeared. Moreover, Carmen nourished a movement that was to win both celebrity and notoriety first in Italy and then elsewhere: the cult of realism known as verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
.
The early death of Bizet, and the negligence of his immediate heirs and publisher led, as with most of Bizet's operas, to major textual problems for which scholars and performers only began to find solutions in the 1960s.
The story is set in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain, around 1820, and concerns the eponymous Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. Free with her love, she woos the corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
against his superior, and joining a gang of smugglers. His jealousy when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo leads him to murder Carmen.
Background
Camille du LocleCamille du Locle
Camille du Locle was a French theatre director and a librettist. He was born in Orange, France. From 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law, Émile Perrin at the Paris Opéra, moving in 1870 to the Opéra-Comique....
, the artistic director of the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, commissioned Bizet to write an opera based on Mérimée's novel in early 1873 to be premiered at the end of the year. However, difficulty in finding a leading lady delayed rehearsals until August 1874. Bizet bought a house at Bougival
Bougival
Bougival is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center....
on the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
, where he finished the piano score
Vocal score
A vocal score or piano-vocal score is a music score of an opera, or a vocal or choral composition with orchestra such as an oratorio or cantata, in which the vocal parts are written out in full but the accompaniment is reduced and adapted for keyboard...
in the summer of 1874, and took a further two months to complete a full orchestration.
After approaching the singer Marie Roze
Marie Roze
Marie Rôze , , was a French operatic soprano.She was born in Paris. At the age of 12, she was sent to be educated in England for two years. She then studied with Mocker and Auber at the Paris Conservatoire, where she received the first prize in singing in 1865...
, who declined the part, du Locle offered the part to the famous mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Galli-Marié
Célestine Marié
Célestine Galli-Marié was a French mezzo-soprano most famous for creating the title role in the opera Carmen.-Career:...
. Financial negotiations over her fees ensued, and she accepted it in December 1873 (she agreed to 2,500 francs per month for four months). She apparently did not know the Mérimée novella.
During rehearsals, du Locle's assistant de Leuven
Adolphe de Leuven
Adolphe de Leuven was a French theatre director and a librettist. Also known as Grenvallet, and Count Adolph Ribbing. He was the son of Adolph Ribbing....
voiced his discontent about the opera's plot, and pressured Bizet and the librettists to alter the tragic ending. De Leuven felt that families would be shocked to see such a "debauched" opera on the stage of the Opéra-Comique, which had a reputation as a family-friendly theatre, with many boxes used by parents to interview prospective sons-in-law. The librettists agreed to change the ending, but Bizet refused, which led directly to de Leuven's resignation from the theatre in early 1874.
The librettists had toned down some of the more extreme elements of Mérimée's novella, although it has been argued that this and Bizet's close involvement in shaping the libretto are more to do with his wish to get closer to the Pushkin source.
Full rehearsals finally began in October 1874. The Opéra-Comique's orchestra declared the score unplayable, and the cast were having difficulty following Bizet's directions. However, the greatest opposition came from du Locle, who liked Bizet personally, but hated the opera. At this stage, the Opéra-Comique was in financial difficulties, leading du Locle to believe the opera would topple the ailing company, which had failed to produce a true success since Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
.
The librettists, for whom Carmen "had little importance" (they had four other operas on stage in Paris at that time), secretly tried to induce the singers to over-dramatise in order to lessen the impact of the work. However, much to Bizet's delight, the final rehearsals seemed to convince the majority of the company of the genius of the opera.
Performance history
The first performance took place on 3 March 1875 in Paris, the same day that Bizet was awarded the Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. In the audience were not only various composers: Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
, Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
, Léo Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
, Charles Lecocq and Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, but also singers Hortense Schneider
Hortense Schneider
Hortense Catherine Schneider, La Snédèr, was a French soprano, one of the greatest operetta stars of the 19th century, particularly associated with the works of composer Jacques Offenbach.-Biography:...
, Zulma Bouffar
Zulma Bouffar
Zulma Madeleine Boufflar, known as Zulma Bouffar, born Nérac 24 May 1841, died Couilly-Pont-aux-Dames 20 January 1909, was a French actress and soprano singer, associated with the opéra-bouffe of Paris in the second half of the 19th century who enjoyed a successful career around Europe.-Life and...
, Anna Judic
Anna Judic
Anne Marie-Louise Damiens, stage name Anna Judic was a French comic actress. Her ménage à trois proved the inspiration for that in the 1880 Émile Zola novel Nana.-Life:...
, Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure was a celebrated French operatic baritone and an art collector of great significance. He also composed a number of classical songs.-Singing career:Faure was born in Moulins...
; publishers such as Heugel, Choudens and Hartmann
Georges Hartmann
Georges Hartmann was a French dramatist and opera librettist who wrote under the pen name Henri Grémont.Since 1870 he was also a music publisher, publishing compositions of Jules Massenet...
; Jules Pasdeloup, Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
and Dumas fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
.
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
to act 2 and Escamillo's song were applauded, acts 3 and 4 were greeted with silence, with the exception of Micaëla's aria in act 3. The critics were scathing, claiming that the libretto was inappropriate for the Comique. Bizet was also condemned by both sides of the Wagnerian
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
debate, Ernest Reyer and Adolphe Jullien criticising him for not sufficiently embracing Wagner's style, while others condemned him for making the orchestra more important than the voices.
However, a few critics, such as Joncières and the poet Théodore de Banville
Théodore de Banville
Théodore Faullain de Banville was a French poet and writer.-Biography:Banville was born in Moulins in Allier, Auvergne, the son of a captain in the French navy. His boyhood, by his own account, was cheerlessly passed at a lycée in Paris; he was not harshly treated, but took no part in the...
, praised the work for its innovation. Banville lauded the librettists for writing characters that were more realistic than those normally seen at the Opéra-Comique. Nevertheless, with the negative reviews, the opera struggled to make 48 performances in the first production and closed the following January. Towards the end of the run, the management was giving away tickets wholesale in a vain attempt to fill the seats. D'Indy, who had been engaged early in the run to play a harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
offstage to keep Lhérie in tune for "Halte-la, dragons d'Alcala!" in act 2, saw the audiences gradually dwindle up to the last night, 15 February 1876.
Bizet did not live to see the success of his opera: he died on 3 June, just after the thirtieth performance. The day before his death he signed a contract for a Viennese production of Carmen. Before long three leading composers in Europe would be counted among his admirers: Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
. Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
(in The Case of Wagner
The Case of Wagner
The Case of Wagner is a German book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1888. Subtitled "A Musician's Problem", it has also been known as "The Wagner Case" in English.-Contents:...
) hailed Bizet and exalted the exotic elements of the score, as well as its structural clarity: "it builds, organizes, finishes."
At this second production at the Hofoper
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
in Vienna on 23 October 1875, the public had no stake in the traditions of the Opéra-Comique or the genre, and on the home turf of German music nothing recalled Wagner in the least, so they were able to appreciate Carmen on its own terms.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, 14 May). The first performance in Spain was on 2 August 1881 at the Teatro Lirico Barcelona with Galli-Marié; Madrid saw it on 2 November 1887 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela
Teatro de la Zarzuela
The Teatro de la Zarzuela is a theatre in Madrid, Spain. The theatre is today mainly devoted to zarzuela , as well as operetta and recitals. In the past, in the city's long absence of an opera theatre , this was Madrid's theatre where most major opera performances were shown...
. Galli-Marié re-created her portrayal of the title role in the first performance in Italy (Naples) in 1879, then Barcelona and England, and from 27 October 1883 in Paris again.
After the 1883 revival in Paris, it swiftly became popular there as well, reaching its 500th performance at the Opéra-Comique on 23 October 1891 and the 1,000th on 23 December 1904. Over the following century, it has remained part of the standard operatic repertoire.
The title role was written for a mezzo-soprano, but the full score published in 1877 introduced higher (soprano) alternatives for Carmen, and this has led to soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
s performing and recording the role; contraltos have also occasionally portrayed Carmen. The singer must not only have a great range, but also exhibit superior dramatic skills in order to portray Carmen's complex character, and be able to dance convincingly on stage.
Several pieces from this opera have become popular away from the stage. The "Flower Song", the "Toréador's Song
Toreador Song
The Toreador Song is one of the most famous arias from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. Sung by the matador Escamillo, it describes various situations in the ring, the cheering of the crowds and the fame that comes with victory.-Text:-In popular culture:* The song is mocked during the "I lost my...
" and the "Habanera
Habanera (aria)
In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
" are favourites with singers. Two suites for orchestra were arranged by Fritz Hoffmann: the first consisting of the prelude and entr'actes, and the second of vocal numbers arranged for orchestra.
Since the 1880s it has been one of the world's most performed operas and a staple of the operatic repertoire. Carmen appears as number three on the Operabase
Operabase
Operabase is an on-line database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, performers themselves as well as their agents. Operabase, found at operabase.com, is owned and operated by Operabase Ltd, a company located in Luton, England. The site started in 1996 as the hobby of Mike Gibb,...
list of the most-performed operas worldwide.
Roles
| Role | Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types... |
Premiere cast, 3 March 1875 (Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Adolphe Deloffre Adolphe Deloffre Louis Michel Adolphe Deloffre was a French violinist and conductor active in London and Paris, who conducted several important operatic premieres in the latter city, particularly by Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet.... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Carmen, A Gypsy Girl | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Célestine Galli-Marié |
| Don José, Corporal of Dragoons | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Paul Lhérie Paul Lhérie Paul Lhérie , was a French tenor, then baritone, later a vocal teacher, most famous for creating the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen.-Life and career:... |
| Escamillo, Toreador | bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... |
Jacques Bouhy Jacques Bouhy Jacques-Joseph-André Bouhy a Belgian baritone, most famous for being the first to sing the Toreador Song in the role of Escamillo in Carmen.... |
| Micaëla, A Village Maiden | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Marguérite Chapuy Marguérite Chapuy Marguérite Chapuy was a French operatic soprano, born 1850, the daughter of a former dancer at the Opéra, whose short professional career was concentrated on Paris but included appearances in London; she created several roles at the Opéra Comique.... |
| Zuniga, Lieutenant of Dragoons | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Eugène Dufriche Eugène Dufriche Eugène Dufriche was a French baritone, who had a career on the operatic stage from the 1870s in Paris through to the 1900s in New York.-Life and career:... |
| Moralès, Corporal of Dragoons | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Edmond Duvernoy Edmond Duvernoy Charles-Henri Edmond Duvernoy was a French pianist, baritone and vocal teacher, from a family of musicians.- Life and career :... |
| Frasquita, Companion of Carmen | soprano | Alice Ducasse Alice Ducasse Anne-Elisa Alice Ducasse, born 1846 in Valparaiso, , was an opera singer and teacher active in Paris.As a member of the company at the Théâtre Lyrique under Pasdeloup and Vizentini she sang various roles at that theatre, creating Mab in Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth, as well as Nérine in... |
| Mercédès, Companion of Carmen | mezzo-soprano | Esther Chevalier Esther Chevalier Esther Chevalier was a French mezzo-soprano, active in Paris almost exclusively at the Opéra-Comique, appearing in several operatic premieres there.... |
| Lillas Pastia, an innkeeper | spoken | M. Nathan |
| Le Dancaïre, smuggler | baritone | Pierre-Armand Potel |
| Le Remendado, smuggler | tenor | Barnolt Barnolt Barnolt was the stage name of Paul Fleuret , a French operatic tenor associated with the Opéra-Comique in Paris.-Career:After a year of study at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Charles Bataille, Barnolt made his debut at the Folies-Marigny and further appearances at the... |
| A guide | spoken | M. Teste |
| Chorus: Soldiers, young men, cigarette factory girls, Escamillo's supporters, Gypsies, merchants and orange sellers, police, bullfighters, people, urchins. |
||
Synopsis
Note: in the Oeser version, acts 3 and 4 are played as act 3, scene 1 and act 3, scene 2 respectively- Place: SevilleSevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... - Time: 1820
The prelude consists of music taken from the act 4 preparations for the bull fight and the Toreador's Song.
Act 1
A square in Seville. On the right a cigarette factory, on the left a guard house, with a bridge at the back.Moralès and the soldiers loiter before the guard house commenting on passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears seeking Don José, a corporal, but is told by Moralès that he is not yet on duty, so why does she not stay and wait with them? She runs away saying that she will return later. Zuniga and José arrive with the new guard, imitated by a crowd of street-children ("Avec la garde montante").
The factory bell rings and the cigarette girls emerge from the factory, greeted by young men who have gathered to flirt with them ("La cloche a sonné"). The girls enter smoking cigarettes, and finally Carmen appears, and all the men ask her when she will love them ("Quand je vous aimerai?"). She replies in the famous Habanera
Habanera (aria)
In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"): "Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame ... He has never known law. If you don't love me I love you, if I love you watch yourself!" When they plead for her to choose a lover from among them, ("Carmen! sur tes pas, nous nous pressons tous!") she tears a bunch of cassia from her bodice and throws it at Don José, who has been ignoring her, before going back into the factory with the others. José is annoyed by her insolence.
Micaëla returns and gives him a letter—and a kiss—from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). José longingly thinks of his home, and reading the letter sees that his mother wants him to return and get married. Micaëla is embarrassed and leaves, but Don José declares that he will marry her.
As soon as she leaves, screams are heard from the factory and the women run out, singing chaotically ("Au secours! Au secours!"). Don José and Zuniga find that Carmen has been fighting with another woman, and slashed her face with a knife. Zuniga asks Carmen if she has anything to say, but she replies impudently with a song ("Tra la la"). Zuniga instructs José to guard her while he writes out the warrant for prison. The women go back into the factory and the soldiers to the guardhouse. To escape, Carmen seduces José with a seguidilla
Seguidilla
The seguidilla is a quick, triple-time old Castillian folksong and dance form. The song is generally in the major key and often begins on an off-beat...
("Près des remparts de Séville") about an evening date with her next lover who is "only a corporal"; José relents and unties her hands. Zuniga returns, and Carmen allows herself to be led away but turns, pushes José to the ground, and laughing cigarette girls surround Zuniga as she escapes.
Act 2
Evening at Lillas Pastia's inn, tables scattered around; officers and Gypsies relaxing after dinnerA month has passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès sing and dance ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient"). Lillas Pastia is trying to get rid of the officers, so Zuniga invites Carmen and her friends to come with him to the theatre, but she can only think of José, who was demoted and has been in jail since letting her escape, and was released the day before.
The sound of a procession hailing Escamillo passes by outside, and the toreador is invited in ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Escamillo sings the Toreador song
Toreador Song
The Toreador Song is one of the most famous arias from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. Sung by the matador Escamillo, it describes various situations in the ring, the cheering of the crowds and the fame that comes with victory.-Text:-In popular culture:* The song is mocked during the "I lost my...
("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre"), and flirts with Carmen, but Carmen tells him that for the time being he need not dream of being hers.
When everyone except Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès have left, the smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and tell the girls of their plans to dispose of the contraband they have smuggled via Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
(Quintet: "Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Carmen refuses to accompany them, saying to their amazement that she is in love.
As José's voice is heard ("Halte là!"), Dancaïre tells Carmen she must try to get Don José to join them. Alone together, José returns a gold coin Carmen had sent him in jail and she orders fruit and wine to be brought.
Carmen vexes him with stories of her dancing for the officers but then dances with castanets for him alone ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... Lalala"). During her song the sound of bugles is heard calling the soldiers back to barracks.
Carmen's temper flares when José says he must leave, but he makes her listen by producing the flower she threw at him, which he kept while he was in prison and is proof of his love (the "Flower Song"—"La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Carmen is unmoved and asks him to join her gypsy life if he really loves her ("Non, tu ne m'aimes pas").
Her picture of a life of freedom tempts him but he finally refuses saying he will never be a deserter. He begins to leave when Zuniga enters hoping to find Carmen. Don José draws his sword on his superior officer, but before they can fight the smugglers burst in and disarm both of them. Zuniga is made a prisoner ("Bel officier") and José has no alternative but to flee with Carmen ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").
Act 3
A wild and deserted rocky place at nightThe smugglers along with Carmen and José are travelling with the contraband ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"), but Carmen has grown tired of José, and does not conceal this, taunting him to return to his village.
Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès read the cards ("Mêlons! Coupons!"): Frasquita and Mercédès foresee love and romance, wealth and luxury; but Carmen's cards foretell death for both her and José ("En vain pour éviter les réponses amères"). The smugglers ask the girls to come and charm the customs officers ("Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire") and everyone goes off, leaving the jealous José to guard the goods.
Micaëla arrives with a guide seeking José. She sends the guide away and vows to take Don José away from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). She sees José firing a gun, and hides in the rocks. It was Escamillo whom José had fired at, but when he arrives José welcomes him, until he says he is infatuated with Carmen and tells José the story of her affair with a soldier, not realising José is that soldier.
José challenges Escamillo to a knife-fight, but Escamillo fights defensively, infuriating José. They start again and José finds himself at the mercy of Escamillo who releases him, saying his trade is killing bulls, not men. The third time they fight Escamillo's knife breaks, but he is saved by the return of the smugglers and Carmen ("Holà, holà José"). Escamillo leaves, but invites Carmen and the smugglers to his next bullfight in Seville.
Remendado finds Micaëla hiding, and she tells José that his mother wishes to see him. Carmen mocks him and at first he refuses to go ("Non, je ne partirai pas!"), until Micaëla tells him that his mother is dying. Vowing that he will return to Carmen, he goes.
As he is leaving, Escamillo is heard singing in the distance. Carmen rushes to the sound of his voice, but José bars her way.
Act 4
A square in front of the arena at Seville: the day of a bull-fight; bustling activityIt is the day of the contest to which Escamillo invited the smugglers. The square is full of people, with merchants and Gypsies selling their wares ("À deux cuartos!"). Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd and the girls tell Zuniga that Carmen is now with Escamillo.
The crowd and children sing and cheer on the procession as the cuadrilla
Cuadrilla
Cuadrilla is a Spanish word for a small group of people.Specifically it can mean:* a group of friends. In Basque culture, the cuadrilla continues from youth to maturity...
arrive ("Les voici! voici la quadrille"). Carmen and Escamillo are greeted by the crowds and express their love, Carmen adding that she had never loved one so much ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen").
After Escamillo has gone into the fight, Frasquita warns Carmen that José is in the crowd ("Carmen! Prends garde!"), but Carmen scorns their fears. Before she can enter the arena she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi? C'est moi!").
He begs her to return his love and start a new life with him far away. She calmly replies that she loves him no longer and will not give way—free she was born and free she will die.
Cheers are heard from the bull-ring and Carmen tries to enter, but José bars her way. He asks her one last time to come back, but she scornfully throws back the ring that he gave to her ("Cette bague, autrefois").
He stabs her ("Eh bien, damnée") as Escamillo is acclaimed in the arena, to the strains of the chorus of the 'Toreador Song', she dies. Don José kneels in despair beside her. The spectators flock out of the arena and find José ("Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"), confessing his guilt over her dead body.
Dramatic elements
Carmen will always be a challenge for great singing actresses. Her availability to men (as she explains in the Habanera) is strictly on her terms. She is fatalistic
Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
and hedonistic
Hedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
, living entirely in the present moment. Carmen's fatalism is well illustrated in the card-playing scene, much revised by Bizet, in which she accepts the premonition of death. In act 1 her reply to Zuniga when she is arrested is a translation from the Pushkin poem: ""J'en aime un autre et meurs en disant que je l'aime"", and anticipates phrases she will use at the end of the opera.
Carmen is a woman prepared to give herself completely, aware of the magnitude in human terms of this decision but in turn she will demand the same from the one to whom she surrenders herself. Portrayed as "free, independent and mistress of all her decisions," Carmen's strength and capacity of expression, her calm acceptance of her fate, and especially of her death show her "interior security, strength of temperament, personality and beauty ..."
José is ill-suited to Carmen's whims, expecting fidelity, unlike the other men in the opera, who perceive her as available to them. He dreams that he can possess and redeem her. Don José's descent and moral disintegration from a simple and honourable soldier to a murderous brigand is plotted by librettists and composer "from connivance at Carmen's escape, through desertion, armed resistance to an officer and smuggling, to murder."
Carmen and José's scenes together represent the stages of their relationship. The Seguidilla in act 1 is the seduction, the second in act 2 is the conflict, and the last in act 4—which the librettists by a brilliant stroke moved from the mountains (Mérimée) to outside the bullring—is the tragic resolution.
Micaëla and Escamillo are not as developed as the two protagonists and would not be out of place in a traditional opéra comique. Micaëla, who is not in the novella, corresponds to José's character and psychological environment before he met Carmen. Escamillo was adapted from an "offstage" character in the novella; he represents a more typical male attitude to Carmen. Micaëla's music is developed from Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's lyric operas, and Escamillo is a musical cousin of Ourrias in Gounod's Mireille
Mireille (opera)
Mireille is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.-Composition history:...
. In Escamillo's "'Toreador Song"', Bizet knew that the song would be popular, but commented "They want their trash, and will get it."
Musical elements
Dean affirms that Bizet's score is a masterpiece of dramatic detachment. Bizet never interposes himself between the audience and his characters whose sufferings move listeners without intervention. In this classical approach his model was his favourite composer, MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, though there are parallels with Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
as well. Mozartian likewise is the compound of richness and clarity in the orchestration and the unfailing aptness of musical form to dramatic situation.
The Prelude is in three sections: in A major the flamboyant act 4 'Spanish' music of the bull-fight, then the 'Toreador Song', and finally a plunge into D minor and the motive marked by the augmented second, linked both to Carmen, and to Don José's fatal attraction to her, finishing on a diminished 7th chord.
Act 1
Introduction. The curtain rises with a pedal F that resolves to a tonic B-flat only at the first cadence of the chorus; Moralès' solo leads back to a repeat of the chorus. After Micaëla's entry to a chromatic figure in the strings, the soldiers sing a mock military march (in E) to inform her about José's return at the change of guard. She mimics this chorus but jumps to G major as she leaves. The pantomime for Moralès (Bizet composed three versions for Duvernoy) was performed at the first 30 performances until cut, possibly with Bizet's consent, at the end of May 1875.Bugle calls signal the change of guard, but a March for urchins led by piccolos undermines any military seriousness. Solo violin and cello in canon accompany the mélodrame where Moralès tells José that Micaëla has come to see him. A chorus in shifting metre brings the women on stage whose music evokes swaying languor; enharmonic slips in and out of flat keys reach a cadence, at which the men call for "Carmencita." The flourishes for her entrance are a speeded-up version of the augmented second theme from the Prelude. Bizet modelled the Habanera with graceful dotted rhythm and teasing chromatic melodies on a Cuban-style song then popular in cabarets, lending an aura of exoticism; after each verse Carmen sings a seductive countermelody on the word 'l'amour' over the chorus. The scene is set for Carmens aria in the graceful dotted rhythm of the Habanera. Based on a descending chromatic scale, the Habanera follows a "verse and chorus" form; at the choral verse, and Carmen sings a seductive countermelody on the key word "l'amour." The next short number includes the 'fate' motive from the prelude but with intimations of doom. After the women mockingly sing the Habanera refrain, the orchestra comments in a yearning style that will characterize José's music (he has yet to sing). Throughout this act, Guiraud's recitatives, which replace the dialogue, destroy the balance of music by recalling previous themes.
José's development can be traced by the music alone: in act 1 he is the simple countryman, his music in tune with Micaëla's. His duet with Micaëla begins with his first sung words "Parle-moi de ma mère"; Micaëla's music weaves her own feelings with those of José's mother. In the G major duet José briefly recalls Carmen's motif. After a short spoken scene, high violin trills shatter José's reverie, leading to the women's fight – this F piece where two groups of women exchange short vocal entries requires considerable co-ordination from the chorus. In the following section Zuniga interrogates Carmen in speech, while she answers in wordless song; her insolence is echoed by solo flute, violin and cellos. The Seguidille is an original compound of song, dance and duet, in which Carmen's seduction of José is initiated, developed and carried to the point of capitulation by musical means alone. Muted strings accompany Carmen's plotting, with a hushed four-part fugue in F minor, which will return in a rollicking A major at the curtain when Carmen escapes.
Act 2
The entr'acte before this act contains the song for José later in the act when he approaches the tavern. The act opens with a Gypsy song in E minor and celebrates Carmen's singing and dancing – and the feelings they arouse accelerating in a tour de force of orchestration. The toreador's couplets (F minor/F major) present his prowess in the bull-ring and with women. A brilliant quintet for the smugglers and the gipsy girls is rapid-fire and conspiratorial, which only pauses when Carmen announces that she is in love. Carmen's castanet dance for José is barely scored—which leaves space for the bugle summoning José to barracks, harmonizing with her sensuous dance. The 'fate' theme on the cor anglais leads to a wide-raging solo – the 'flower song', where his passion for Carmen is more profound than his love for Micaëla ever was; the modulation in the last bars show his emotions have grown beyond his control. This long sequence, which includes Carmen's dance, her quarrel with José, his flower song and the duet 'La-bas, la bas dans la montagne'—which Bizet refused to break into sections for applause and which leads straight into the finale—is a miracle of musical and dramatic development without recourse to recitative.Act 3
The second entr'acte paints the landscape of the act with a serene arching melody on the flute over a harp accompaniment, with other instruments entering to converse with the flute. The act opens with a furtive march for the smugglers, who join in during the 'trio' section, their sliding back portrayed by a series of descending chromatic chords. When Carmen, Mercédès and Frasquita read the cards the refrain portrays it as a girlish game, but when Carmen reads her cards it is above a halting accompaniment foretelling death. The trio ends in F major, but after dialogue swings into G-flat for a march in which Carmen and her companions boast of their prowess in distracting the guards, the middle section illustrating the 'slippery' nature of Carmen, with chromaticism and enharmonic pivots. Micaëla's air in E-flat with prominent parts for four horns is near to conventional opéra comique style; her feelings expressed by her are a foil to Carmen. Escamillo and José's fight duet builds to a blustering climax and ends on a diminished 7th as José lunges to kill his opponent. The act 3 finale intensifies everything leading up to it, with Escamillo going off to a dreamy D-flat version of his act 2 couplets, the discovery of Micaëla and José's agitation driving the music to the emotional climax of the opera, "Dût-il m'en couter la vie". The repetition of the passage a few moments later in G (rather than G-flat) is an electrifying stroke. The scene closes with the smuggler's march that opened the act, now in F. This whole section, the only involving all four protagonists, plays the musical styles of the characters against one another to maximum effect.Act 4
The entr'acte is the most exotic, with sharp rhythms, exotic percussion, chromaticism and descending tetrachordDescending tetrachord
In music theory, the descending tetrachord is a series of four notes from a scale, or tetrachord, arranged in order from highest to lowest, or descending order. For example --- , as created by the Andalusian cadence. The descending tetrachord may fill a perfect fourth or a chromatic...
s. A sense of excitement is generated with constant quaver accompaniment; as the toreros enter, the crowds celebrate with the theme from the opening of the Prelude; they burst into the Toreador's song when they see Escamillo. The short duet for Carmen and Escamillo allows them to express their feelings separately, then in unison (unanimity absent from Carmen and José's scenes). The finale opens with short exchanges between José and Carmen; his hysteria has given way to a grim and hard desperation. Bizet here anticipates the device so often used by Puccini of writing for voice and bass in octaves with the harmony in between. Songs and cries are heard offstage (in the arena), and as he stabs her the Toreador's song and the fate motive appear together. It had been conventional in opéra comique to have a joyful chorus at the end, but not off-stage, and not as an ironic counterpart to the stage action. The opera concludes with two open octaves in F.
When asked if he would visit Spain to research his score, Bizet replied "No, that would only confuse me." Several popular Spanish songs are adapted in the score. These include El arreglito, which became the habanera, and the folk-song Carmen impudently sings when interrogated by Zuniga—both written by Yradier
Sebastián Iradier
Sebastián Iradier Salaverri , a.k.a. Sebastián Yradier, was a Spanish Basque composer.Iradier was born in Lanciego, in the province of Álava. His publisher in Paris urged him to "universalize" his name, from Iradier to Yradier...
. The habanera
Habanera (aria)
In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
was written to replace an aria that Galli-Marié disliked, and Bizet supposedly wrote over ten revisions. The act 4 entr'acte
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
seems to be influenced by a Spanish song by Manuel García, incorporating elements of Gypsy music.
The motif associated with Carmen is used in several forms. The first is heard directly after the Prelude and prefigures the ending of the opera. It is heard in this form when Carmen chooses José as her lover, at the beginning of the Flower Song, and during the opera's final moments. It is also heard, in its faster form, at the entrance of Carmen, and notably during the card playing scene. Bizet's use of the motto theme in Carmen is simple but supremely effective. Its appearances are never mechanical; it always carries a load of dramatic irony. The 'objective' and 'subjective' forms occur admirably adapted to its purpose and is never run to death.
The other theme associated with Carmen represents her influence over José. It is heard after José is chosen as Carmen's lover, and when Carmen is taken away by the police to José and Zuniga. In a sequence cut from the original edition, placed in the frenzied chorus of women in act 1, the two themes are played contrapuntally
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
.
The orchestration has been much praised; Richard Strauss advised young composers "if you want to learn how to orchestrate, don't study Wagner's scores, study the score of Carmen. What wonderful economy, and how every note and every rest is in its proper place."
Bizet dedicated the score to Jules Pasdeloup.
Revisions
Bizet's original plan for Carmen was with spoken dialogue. After Bizet's death, his friend Ernest GuiraudErnest Guiraud
Ernest Guiraud was a French composer and music teacher born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet's opera Carmen and for Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann .- Biography :Guiraud began his schooling in Louisiana under the...
wrote recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
s for the Vienna premiere in 1875. These were used everywhere except at the Opéra-Comique, where a shortened dialogue version remained in the repertory into the 1950s (with one piece of Guiraud recitative for Micaëla in act 3). On 10 November 1959, Carmen moved to the Paris Opéra
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
, "in a bloated and spectacular production involving an enormous cast, human and animal ... most of Guiraud's recitatives, and the attendance of President de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
." The recitatives are seen as damaging to the work as a whole; they destroy Bizet's careful pacing, and disrupt the process of characterization significantly. Found in every score from 1875 to 1964, and inserted without apology by the publisher, they are sometimes still used in large theaters, such as the Metropolitan
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, where spoken dialogue is difficult to project.
A new edition in 1964 edited by Fritz Oeser
Fritz Oeser
Fritz Oeser was a musicologist, most famous for preparing restored versions of Bizet's Carmen in 1964 and Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in 1976. He also edited the 1877 version of Anton Bruckner's Third Symphony, in D Minor, ....
claimed to have restored Bizet's original vision by including material cut from the premiere as well as restoring the dialogue. Unfortunately, Oeser did not realise that a great deal was cut by Bizet himself before the first performance in order to achieve dramatic concentration. Oeser also made great changes to the stage directions and rewrote some of the libretto. The only score with the authority of the composer is the 1875 vocal score.
Most recordings since the publication of Oeser edition juggle the Opéra-Comique, Oeser and Guiraud versions. The 1970 de Burgos recording includes the act 1 pantomime scene with Moralès and chorus. The recording conducted by Michel Plasson
Michel Plasson
Michel Plasson is a French conductor.Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. He studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Münch...
features an earlier variant of Carmen's Habanera ("L'amour est enfant de bohème"), as well as the familiar one. Sir Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
's recording mostly follows the Opéra-Comique score, with some additions from Oeser, including a different version of the act 3 opening, an extended fight scene in act 1, and (with some cuts) the original dialogue.
Fantasies
A number of classical composers have used themes from Carmen as the basis for works of their own.Some of these, such as Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...
's Carmen Fantasy (1883) for violin and orchestra, Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
's Carmen Fantasie (1946) for violin and orchestra and Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
's Variations on a theme from Carmen
Carmen Variations (Horowitz)
Variations on a Theme from Carmen are a set of variations composed and performed by the Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz. They are based on the Gypsy Dance from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.-Background:...
for solo piano are virtuoso showpieces in the tradition of fantasia
Fantasia (music)
The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....
s on operatic themes. Frank Proto
Frank Proto
Frank Proto American composer and bassist. Proto was born on July 18, 1941, Brooklyn, New York. Double Bass student of Fred Zimmermann and David Walter. Graduate of the Manhattan School of Music 1966 Master of Music. Self-taught composer...
has also written virtuoso showpieces based on the opera for trumpet (for Doc Severinsen
Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...
) and double bass (for François Rabbath
François Rabbath
François Rabbath is a contemporary French double-bass player, soloist, and composer.He was born into a Syrian family of musicians but his only instruction came from a book written by a Parisian bassist Edouard Nanny...
).
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
wrote a Sonatina (No. 6) for piano named Fantasia da camera super Carmen (1920), which uses themes from the opera. There are also two suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
s of music drawn directly from Bizet's opera, often recorded and performed in orchestral concerts.
Films
The following is a list of film adaptations, based on the opera, the novella, or both:- 1907 Carmen – Arthur Gilbert, director; a 12-minute British film.
- 1909 Carmen – Gerolamo Lo Savio, director; an Italian film based on the novella.
- 1911 Carmen – Jean Durand, director; a French film starring Gaston Modot.
- 1912 Carmen – Theo Frenkel, director; a British film.
- 1913 Carmen – Lucius Henderson, director.
- 1913 Carmen – Stanner E.V. Taylor, director.
- 1914 Carmen – Giovanni Doria and Augusto Turqui, directors; a Spanish-Italian co-production based on the opera.
- 1915 CarmenCarmen (1915 Cecil B. DeMille film)Carmen is a 1915 silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée. The existing versions of this film appear to be from the 1918, re-edited release.-Plot:...
– Cecil B. DeMilleCecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, director; a 65-minute film credited as being based on the novella, because the producers couldn't afford the rights to the opera; nevertheless it included some plot elements from the opera, and was shown with an orchestral arrangement of music from the opera by Hugo RiesenfeldHugo RiesenfeldHugo Riesenfeld was a Jewish Austrian-American composer. As a film director, he began to write his own orchestral compositions for silent films in 1917, and co-created modern production techniques where film scoring serves an integral part of the action...
. Starring Geraldine FarrarGeraldine FarrarGeraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...
. - 1915 CarmenCarmen (1915 Raoul Walsh film)Carmen is a 1915 silent drama film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Theda Bara. The film shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where Fox many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century...
– Raoul WalshRaoul WalshRaoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
, director; starring Theda BaraTheda BaraTheda Bara , born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress – one of the most popular of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" . The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman...
. - 1915 Burlesque on CarmenBurlesque on CarmenBurlesque on Carmen is Charlie Chaplin's thirteenth film for Essanay Films. It was released in 1915 and then later recut into a different version in 1916. Charlie Chaplin played Darn Hosiery and Edna Purviance played Carmen. Carmen was very popular at this time and one of the reasons Chaplin...
– Charlie ChaplinCharlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, director - 1918 Carmen – Ernst LubitschErnst LubitschErnst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
, director; with Pola NegriPola NegriPola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
and Harry Liedtke. - 1921 Carmen – Ernesto Vollrath, director; a Mexican film.
- 1922 Carmen – George Wynn, director; a British film.
- 1926 Carmen – Jacques FeyderJacques FeyderJacques Feyder was a Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema...
, director; starring Raquel MellerRaquel MellerRaquel Meller , born Francisca Marqués López, was a Spanish cuplé and tonadilla singer. She was an international star in the 1920s and 1930s, appearing in several films and touring Europe and the Americas...
. - 1927 Carmen – H.B. Parkinson, director; a British film.
- 1927 The Loves of Carmen – Raoul WalshRaoul WalshRaoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
director; starring Dolores del RíoDolores del RíoDolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
. - 1929 Carmen – Shunichi Takeuchi, director; a Japanese film.
- 1931 Carmen – Cecil Lewis, director; a British film.
- 1933 Carmen – Lotte ReinigerLotte ReinigerCharlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
, director; a nine-minute German animated film. - 1938 Carmen la de TrianaNights in AndalusiaNights in Andalusia is a 1938 German musical film directed by Herbert Maisch and starring Imperio Argentina, Friedrich Benfer and Karl Klüsner. It is based on the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet, itself based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. A Spanish language version Carmen, la de Triana...
/ Andalusische Nächte – Florián ReyFlorián ReyFlorián Rey , born at La Almunia de Doña Godina, , 25 January 1894 - death at Benidorm , 11 April 1962 was the most successful Spanish film director in the 20's and 30's....
, director; a SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
film starring Imperio ArgentinaImperio ArgentinaMagdalena Nile del Río was a professional singer and movie actress who was better known as Imperio Argentina. Although born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she became a citizen of Spain....
. - 1941 Carmen – A Filipino film
- 1943 Carmen – Luis César Amadori, director; an Argentine film.
- 1945 Carmen – Christian-JaqueChristian-JaqueChristian-Jaque was a French filmmaker. He was married to actress Martine Carol from 1954 to 1959.Christian-Jaque was born at Paris....
, director; a French film with Jean MaraisJean Marais-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
and Viviane Romance. - 1948 The Loves of CarmenThe Loves of CarmenThe Loves of Carmen is a Technicolor film starring Rita Hayworth as the gypsy Carmen and Glenn Ford as her doomed lover Don José. It was directed by Charles Vidor and released by Columbia Pictures. The film was publicized as a dramatic adaptation of the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and is...
– Charles VidorCharles VidorCharles Vidor was a film director.-Biography:Born Károly Vidor to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, he served in the Hungarian Army during World War I...
, director; based on the novella. Starring Rita HayworthRita HayworthRita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
and Glenn FordGlenn FordGlenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
. - 1954 Carmen JonesCarmen Jones (film)Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Harry Kleiner is based on the libretto for the 1943 stage production of the same name by Oscar Hammerstein II, which was inspired by an adaptation of the 1845 Prosper Mérimée novella Carmen by...
– Otto PremingerOtto PremingerOtto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
, director; based on the 1943 adaptation by Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, Carmen JonesCarmen JonesCarmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical starring Muriel Smith in the title role, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet...
. Starring Dorothy DandridgeDorothy DandridgeDorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...
, Harry BelafonteHarry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Pearl BaileyPearl BaileyPearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
, and Diahann Carroll. - 1959 Carmen la de Ronda – Tulio DemicheliTulio DemicheliTulio Demicheli was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer of the classic era....
, director; a Spanish film starring Sara MontielSara MontielSara Montiel is a Spanish singer, and actress. She is still a much-loved and internationally known name in the Spanish-speaking movie and music industries....
and Maurice RonetMaurice RonetMaurice Ronet was a French film actor, director and writer.-Biography:Maurice Ronet was born Maurice Julien Marie Robinet in Nice, Alpes Maritimes, the only child of professional stage actors Émile Robinet and Gilberte Dubreuil. He made his stage debut in 1941, along side his parents, in Sacha...
. - 1960 The Wild, Wild RoseThe Wild, Wild RoseThe Wild, Wild Rose is a 1960 Hong Kong film directed by Wang Tian-lin. The story line and the songs' melodies are derived from the opera Carmen.-Cast and roles:* Yeung Sha Fei Au - Hanhua's Mother...
– Wong Tin-lamWong Tin-LamWong Tin-Lam was a Chinese screenwriter, producer, director, and actor, who has contributed a lot to the Hong Kong cinema scene with a career spanning six decades...
, director - 1967 Carmen – Herbert von KarajanHerbert von KarajanHerbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
director and conductor; a film of the opera starring Grace BumbryGrace BumbryGrace Bumbry , an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years...
and Jon VickersJon VickersJonathan Stewart Vickers, CC , known professionally as Jon Vickers, is a retired Canadian heldentenor.Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. In 1950, he was awarded a scholarship to study opera at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto...
. - 1967 Carmen, Baby – a modernized adaptation directed by Radley MetzgerRadley MetzgerRadley Metzger is an American filmmaker and distributor. He is also credited under the pseudonym Henry Paris, a name he adopted in the 1970s when he began to direct hardcore pornography....
and starring Uta Levka - 1983 CarmenCarmen (1983 film)Carmen is a 1983 film adaptation of the novel Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, using music from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It was directed and choreographed in the flamenco style by Carlos Saura...
– Carlos SauraCarlos SauraCarlos Saura Atarés is a Spanish film director and photographer.-Early life:Born into a family of artists , he developed his artistic sense in childhood as a photography enthusiast.He obtained his directing diploma in Madrid in 1957 at the Institute of Cinema Research and Studies...
, director; dance film - 1983 La Tragédie de Carmen – Peter BrookPeter BrookPeter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
, director; a short film of Brook's own stage adaptation. - 1983 Prénom: Carmen – Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, director; a loose modern adaptation. - 1984 Carmen – Francesco RosiFrancesco RosiFrancesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
, director; a film of the opera starring Julia MigenesJulia MigenesJulia Migenes is an American mezzo-soprano working primarily in musical theatre repertoire. She was born on the Lower East Side of New York to a family of Greek and Irish-Puerto Rican descent...
and Plácido DomingoPlácido DomingoPlácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range... - 1989 Carmen on IceCarmen on IceCarmen on Ice is a 1990 dance film with a choreography for figure skaters made in Germany. The music is based on the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet in an orchestral version arranged especially for this film...
– Horant H. Hohlfeld, writer and director - 2001 Carmen: A Hip HoperaCarmen: A Hip HoperaCarmen: A Hip Hopera is a 2001 musical film produced for television by MTV and directed by Robert Townsend. The film stars Beyoncé Knowles in her debut acting role, Mos Def, Rah Digga, Wyclef Jean, Mekhi Phifer, Da Brat, Joy Bryant, Jermaine Dupri and Lil' Bow Wow...
– Robert Townsend, director - 2001 Karmen Gei – Joseph Gaï Ramaka director; set in DakarDakarDakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, SenegalSenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
and sung in French and WolofWolof languageWolof is a language spoken in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania, and is the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger–Congo language family...
. - 2003 CarmenCarmen (2003 film)Carmen is a 2003 film about the classical romance of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. Director Vicente Aranda bases the plot on Mérimée's original novella from 1847 , changing some details about the love story between Carmen and José...
– Vicente ArandaVicente ArandaVicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
, director - 2005 U-Carmen eKhayelitshaU-Carmen eKhayelitshaU-Carmen eKhayelitsha is a 2005 South African operatic film directed and produced by Mark Dornford-May.-Production:The movie is a modern remake of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. It was shot entirely in Xhosa, and combines both music from the original opera with traditional African music. It takes place...
– Mark Dornford-MayMark Dornford-MayMark Dornford-May is a British-born South African theatre and film director.-Early life:Mark Dornford-May was born on his Grandfathers farm near Eastoft in Yorkshire. His paternal Grandfather was a miner on the Yorkshire coalfields...
, director - 2011 Carmen's Kiss – David Fairman, director; a thriller starring Hugo SpeerHugo SpeerHugo Speer is an English actor.He was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and educated at Harrogate Grammar School. He studied acting at The Arts Educational School....
, Vivienne Harvey and Bruce PayneBruce PayneBruce Martyn Payne is an award winning English character actor and producer and was a member of the 1980's Brit Pack. Although he is best known for his villainous roles, Bruce Payne has played characters across the spectrum... - 2011 Carmen in 3D – a stereoscopic version of a Royal Opera, LondonRoyal Opera, LondonThe Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
production starring Christine Rice released to movie theaters in the RealDRealDRealD Inc. is the company that develops the RealD Cinema technology, used for projecting films in stereoscopic 3D using circularly polarized light. The company was founded in 2003 by Michael V. Lewis and Joshua Greer. Between 2005 and 2007 the company purchased StereoGraphics Inc...
format.
Dance and theater
- Carmen JonesCarmen JonesCarmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical starring Muriel Smith in the title role, later made into a 1954 musical film; the play also ran for a season in 1991 at London's Old Vic and most recently in London's Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in 2007. It is an updating of the Georges Bizet...
. A 1943 Broadway musical adaptation with book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Hammerstein IIOscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
. The Bizet score was adapted and orchestrated by Robert Russell BennettRobert Russell BennettRobert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
. - In 1949 Roland PetitRoland PetitRoland Petit was a French choreographer and dancer born in Villemomble, near Paris, France. He trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.-Biography:...
created a ballet entitled Carmen, based on Bizet's music and a similar plot, since performed over 5,000 times. - Rodion ShchedrinRodion ShchedrinRodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin is a Russian composer. He was one оf the leading Soviet composers, and was the chairman of the Union of Russian Composers from 1973 until 1990.-Life and Works:...
wrote a Carmen balletBalletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
(1967) directly based on the opera. - Choreographer Matthew BourneMatthew BourneMatthew Bourne OBE is a British classical and contemporary ballet and dance choreographer.-Biography:Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney, London in 1960. He went to William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London...
has created an updated version of Carmen, called Matthew Bourne's The Car Man, with its score built largely upon the Shchedrin musical adaptation. - Peter BrookPeter BrookPeter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
adapted the opera into a dramatico-musical work La Tragédie de Carmen. - Eric V. Cruz of the PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
created Carmen, a full-length ballet based on the original story and music of Carmen for the Ballet Manila headed by Lisa Macuja-ElizaldeLisa Macuja-ElizaldeLisa Teresita Pacheco Macuja-Elizalde is a Prima Ballerina. She is the first Philippine ballerina, and first foreign soloist who ever joined the Kirov Ballet in 1984. In the Philippines, she is the Artistic Director of Ballet Manila and Vice-Chairman of the Philippine UNESCO National Commission...
. - Robert Sund choreographed a 45-minute contemporary ballet of Carmen to a score by Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
for Ballet Pacifica in 1997. - Ballet Flamenco de Madrid has performed a flamencoFlamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
version of Carmen worldwide beginning in Madrid in 2003 which received several awards. - Ramón Oller wrote a Carmen ballet (2007) based on the opera
- The Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered a new version of Mauricio Wainrot's Carmen, The Passion in January 2008.
- Flow: El Musical, presented at the Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. FerréLuis A. Ferré Performing Arts CenterThe Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center, or Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré in Spanish, is a multi-use performance centre located Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It features three main concert and theater halls for performing arts displays, including ballet, plays, operas and concerts, as...
in September 2009 is an adaptation of Carmen. The cast included Mary Ann AcevedoMary Ann AcevedoMary Ann Acevedo Rivera ; , better known as "Mary Ann", is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter. Many years ago, Acevedo, was presented in a special role in the TV Show "A Toda Maquina", on air by WIPR-TV...
and other former participants in Objetivo FamaObjetivo FamaObjetivo Fama is a Puerto Rican singing talent contest that has been on air for over five years on WLII, the Univision outlet in Puerto Rico; and on Telefutura in the mainland United States...
. - Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman was commissioned to create a new full evening work with orchestra for Ballet Bern in Switzerland, which was re-staged for the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2010.
External links
- Full piano score with notes
- Collection of critical reactions to the 1875 premiere, part of the Francophone Music Criticism project on SAS-Space
- Recordings of Carmen
- Carmen Filmography, an online resource documenting film versions of the Carmen story, hosted by AHDS Performing Arts
- Carmen and other works by Mérimée in English Many photos of recent productions of Carmen in Germany, Switzerland, and France