[21] Another was a split that developed between the joint directors of the theatre, Camille du Locle and Adolphe de Leuven, over the advisability of staging the work. Léon Escudier in L'Art Musical called Carmen's music "dull and obscure ... the ear grows weary of waiting for the cadence that never comes". [87], The final act is prefaced with a lively orchestral piece derived from Manuel García's short operetta El Criado Fingido. After her beguiling "Seguidilla" provokes José to an exasperated high A sharp shout, Carmen's escape is preceded by the brief but disconcerting reprise of a fragment from the habanera. Bizet: Carmen (Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Elina Garanca) [DVD] [2010] [NTSC] This performance of Carmen is one of those nowadays increasingly rare treats that combine marvellous singing and superb acting with beautiful staging. [5] Halévy, who had written the text for Bizet's student opera Le docteur Miracle (1856), was a cousin of Bizet's wife, Geneviève;[6] he and Meilhac had a solid reputation as the librettists of many of Jacques Offenbach's operettas. Bizet’s masterpiece about a soldier’s ill-fated obsession with a seductive, free-spirited factory worker is the world's most popular opera. [34], Hervé Lacombe, in his survey of 19th-century French opera, contends that Carmen is one of the few works from that large repertory to have stood the test of time. Zuniga remarks that she can keep singing in prison. As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita and Mercédès warn Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. She is looking for a brigadier named Don José. [29] The softer vein returns briefly, as Micaëla reappears and joins with José in a duet to a warm clarinet and strings accompaniment. [62], On 9 January 1884, Carmen was given its first New York Metropolitan Opera performance, to a mixed critical reception. There is no definitive edition, and there are differences among musicologists about which version represents the composer's true intentions. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [84] A muted reference to the fate motif on an English horn leads to José's "Flower Song", a flowing continuous melody that ends pianissimo on a sustained high B-flat. He is annoyed at Carmen’s effrontery, but the flower is pretty and its perfume is sweet—the woman must be a witch, he concludes. Thereafter, it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. [106] Carmen on Ice (1990), starring Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano and Brian Orser, was inspired by Witt's gold medal-winning performance during the 1988 Winter Olympics. "[46] Halévy recorded his impressions of the premiere in a letter to a friend; the first act was evidently well received, with applause for the main numbers and numerous curtain calls. Dean writes that Bizet improved considerably on the original melody; he "transformed it from a drawing-room piece into a potent instrument of characterisation". [n 2] It deviates from Mérimée's novella in a number of significant respects. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). The men beg her to tell them when she will love them; she replies, maybe never, maybe tomorrow, but certainly not today, for love is like a rebellious bird and cannot be captured so easily (“Habanera”). According to the mores of the opera-going public, women neither smoked cigarettes in public nor engaged in physical fights, nor were they sexually free. In February 1906 Enrico Caruso sang José at the Met for the first time; he continued to perform in this role until 1919, two years before his death. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. Zuniga then teases José about his interest in Micaëla; José admits that he loves her. As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial. Sur tes pas nous pressons! [28], Dean considers that José is the central figure of the opera: "It is his fate rather than Carmen's that interests us". Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Just then Micaëla returns, presenting him with a letter and some money and a kiss from José’s mother, the last of which she chastely bestows on him. In act 3 only Micaëla's aria earned applause as the audience became increasingly disconcerted. Meilhac and Hálevy were more prepared to countenance a revival, provided that Galli-Marié had no part in it; they blamed her interpretation for the relative failure of the opening run. Not a soul can resist Carmen’s seductive charm, not even … [47] According to the composer Benjamin Godard, Bizet retorted, in response to a compliment, "Don't you see that all these bourgeois have not understood a wretched word of the work I have written for them? A square in Sevilla, outside a cigarette factory. [33] The musicologist Hugh Macdonald observes that "French opera never produced another femme as fatale as Carmen", though she may have influenced some of Massenet's heroines. [2][3], When artistic life in Paris resumed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Bizet found wider opportunities for the performance of his works; his one-act opera Djamileh opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872. [25] Jose's last words of love and despair are followed by a final long chord, on which the curtain falls without further musical or vocal comment.[91]. These include David McVicar's Glyndebourne production of 2002, and the Royal Opera productions of 2007 and 2010, each designed by Francesca Zambello. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne"). Carmen has been the subject of many recordings, beginning with early wax cylinder recordings of excerpts in the 1890s, a nearly complete performance in German from 1908 with Emmy Destinn in the title role,[92][93] and a complete 1911 Opéra-Comique recording in French. The Story of Carmen. Zuniga orders José to investigate. The story of Carmen is arguably Georges Bizet's most famous opera and his greatest contribution to classical music. He would later become a baritone, and in 1887 sang the role of Zurga in the Covent Garden premiere of Les pêcheurs de perles. Georges Bizét. Tratta dalla novella omonima di Prosper Mérimée (1845), vi apporta delle modifiche salienti tra cui l'introduzione dei personaggi di Escamillo e Micaela, e il carattere di Don José, che nel romanzo viene descritto come un bandito rozzo e brutale. [27], Most of the characters in Carmen—the soldiers, the smugglers, the Gypsy women and the secondary leads Micaëla and Escamillo—are reasonably familiar types within the opéra comique tradition, although drawing them from proletarian life was unusual. After her provocative habanera, with its persistent insidious rhythm and changes of key, the fate motif sounds in full when Carmen throws her flower to José before departing. As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). [15] The two principals, José and Carmen, lie outside the genre. [98] In 1967, the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin adapted parts of the Carmen music into a ballet, the Carmen Suite, written for his wife Maya Plisetskaya, then the Bolshoi Ballet's principal ballerina. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [108] Carmen was interpreted in modern ballet by the South African dancer and choreographer Dada Masilo in 2010. The men continue to plead for her favours, but her eye lights on the inattentive José. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, and the story has been the subject of many screen and stage adaptations. [57] Shortly before the initial Vienna performance, the Court Opera's director Franz von Jauner decided to use parts of the original dialogue along with some of Guiraud's recitatives; this hybrid and the full recitative version became the norms for productions of the opera outside France for most of the next century. Although his reverie is interrupted by thoughts of Carmen, he hopes the memory of his mother will sustain him. In the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. Georges Bizet “Reprezentant de seamă al sfârșitului epocii romantice franceze, Georges Bizet (23 octombrie -1838 – 3 iunie 1874) și-a dedicat aproape întreaga creație teatrului muzical și muzicii dramatice în ansamblu. [43] The final rehearsals went well, and in a generally optimistic mood the first night was fixed for 3 March 1875, the day on which, coincidentally, Bizet's appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour was formally announced. (Frasquita, Mercédès, Carmen), Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire (Frasquita, Mercédès, Carmen, le Dancaire, le Remendado, chorus), C'est les contrabandiers le refuge ordinaire (Micaëla), Je suis Escamillo, torero de Grenade! Opera has plenty of femmes fatales, but there’s only one Carmen. [40] Jacques Bouhy, engaged to sing Escamillo, was a young Belgian-born baritone who had already appeared in demanding roles such as Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust and as Mozart's Figaro. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. He controversially restored additional passages cut by Bizet which support the dramatic pacing but knocked this recording out of the running for a record award at the 1974 Montreux festival. When the theme is used to represent Carmen, the orchestration is lighter, reflecting her "fickle, laughing, elusive character". [24] The vocal score that Bizet published in March 1875 shows significant changes from the version of the score that he sold to the publishers, Choudens [fr], in January 1875; the conducting score used at the premiere differs from each of these documents. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The music reflects their contrasting attitudes: Escamillo remains, says Newman, "invincibly polite and ironic", while José is sullen and aggressive. He also provided a new opening line for the "Seguidilla" in act 1. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen.