BIZETâS CARMEN
A SHORT GUIDE TO A GREAT OPERA
The opera and its composer
Whoâs who and whatâs what
The interval: talking points
Act by act
THE OPERA AND ITS COMPOSER
Carmen is both a masterpiece, and âthe most fantastic success in the annals of Opera.â Films have been made of it; there have been jazz and rock ballet versions. It has been updated into an African-American setting in the Broadway musical Carmen Jones. A Russian has done a version for 47 percussion instruments and an American has done one for solo kazoo and symphony orchestra. A sound extravaganza has been produced called The Naked Carmen.
It is possibly the most colourful and exotic of operas. It was sexually explicit in advance of its time. Indeed, before a regular performance, the cleavage has to be sorted out, so that, to the audience, its possessor appears to be sexy but not sluttish.
It has been known for a prima donna to object vociferously to the little piece of black fabric she was expected to wear as a dress. On the other hand, one who seemed she might burst out of her bra earned âthe undying devotion of stage hands and cognoscenti alike.â
The first night, at the OpĂ©ra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, was a historic failure and the attendance was poor at subsequent performances during the first run. At the premiĂšre, the opera went reasonably well up to the tuneful Toreador Song in Act 2, but, after that, it was mainly âreceived in glacial silence.â The venue and its bourgeois-dominated clientĂšle were not receptive to a sensational groundbreaking work such as this. But there was an amazing reversal of fortune. By 1959, the OpĂ©ra-Comique had chalked up its 2,942nd performance of it.
The failure of the premiĂšre plunged Bizet back into chronic depression, thus aggravating his already poor health, sapping his resistance and leading to his death exactly three months later.
The libretto is very loosely based on an 1845 short story by a distinguished French writer, Prosper Mérimée. This was adapted by a well-tried and highly successful combination of librettists, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.1
Had it not been for Carmen, Bizet today might be remembered merely for the âbest tuneâ Au fond du Temple Saint, which comes from his Les PĂȘcheurs de Perles. He would hardly have ranked among the great composers. How and why he produced Carmen, this ground-breaking opera, is a mystery. Tchaikovsky thought Carmen was a masterpiece âin the true sense of the wordâ: it was âone of those rare works which reflect the aspirations of an entire era.â Brahms, not someone one would automatically think of, was a considerable admirer and got his publisher to supply him with the full score. Later, Vaughan Williams âwent to scoff but remained to pray.â
Indeed, its influence on other composers was immense: in particular, the composers of earthy, realistic âverismoâ opera â for example, Mascagni in Cavalleria rusticana â built on âits low-life ambience, and its moments of brutal passion.â But âthe elegance, the light-fingered, brilliant scoring and the clear, sometimes astringent harmonic palette also left its mark on Verdi.â
On 3 June 1875, Georges Bizet, a very disappointed man, died of quinsy, a throat abscess. He was aged only 36. Earlier, he may have had rheumatic fever, which may have been connected. He was also a chain-smoker.
Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He showed prodigious talent. He was so keen on books that his parents had to hide them to avoid him neglecting his musical career. He was admitted to the Conservatoire when he was ten. Liszt thought him one of the three best pianists in Europe. He won the coveted Prix de Rome. But enduring success eluded him and he spent his time doing hack work, often for Gounod, for whom he had a great regard. Bizetâs opera Les PĂȘcheurs de Perles (1863) was a failure. âThere were neither fishermen in the libretto nor pearls in the music,â wrote a critic at the time. La Jolie Fille de Perth (1867) and the incidental music for Daudetâs play LâArlĂ©sienne (1872) fared little better.
Bizet was a wild character. He had little respect for his superiors. He fought with a gondolier; he frequented prostitutes; he had a child by his motherâs maid; he set up house with a famous courtesan, Elisabeth-CĂ©leste Venard, known as Mogador.
Bizet joined the National Guard for the Franco-Prussian War, and remained in Paris during the Siege. He and his wife GeneviĂšve escaped from Paris at the beginning of the Commune which followed. He parted from her in 1874, but loyally supported her and his mother-in-law, despite both women being seriously unhinged. After Bizetâs death, GeneviĂšve recovered and married a rich lawyer. She ran a distinguished salon and provided a source of inspiration for Marcel Proust and the basis for one of his characters, La Duchesse de Guermantes.
Bizet died at Bougival, near Paris, in the house on the Seine where he had finished composing Carmen. BACK
One of the challenges in performing Carmen (and indeed Carmen) is to avoid vulgarity and sensationalism. As the great conductor Sir Thomas Beecham observed, âany singer who fails to make her portrayal of Carmen in accordance with the refinement of the music is doing something that is an aesthetic offence ⊠to make a harridan of Carmen is at complete variance with the fact, for the people of Spain have the best manners in the world.â2
Fundamentally, she is a capricious Romany, and José is a man possessed by love. However, she is also a harlot and he is a man driven to commit a crime passionel. Around a century and a half later, placing their characterisation at the right point on the spectrum remains a compelling challenge and makes every performance unique.
WHOâS WHO AND WHATâS WHAT
The story below is based on the libretto. Certain directors may amend opera stories to suit their production.
From the crash of percussion which opens the Prelude, we know that we are in colourful Seville, in southern Spain, renowned for its bullfights. The strings announce, and then the full orchestra thunders out, Toréador en garde!, that famous tune which Escamillo, a toreador, will be associated with throughout the opera. Carmencita (Carmen), a whore who works in a tobacco factory, will fall for this celebrity.
But the mood of the Prelude suddenly changes and we hear a searing, baleful, fate-loaded tune which will end the opera and mark the complete disintegration of the character of Don JosĂ©, a conscientious corporal (âbrigadierâ in French), who becomes infatuated with Carmen, and ultimately kills her.
Meanwhile, dragoons under the command of MoralĂšs, another corporal, keep guard outside the factory. They try to flirt with MicaĂ«la, a nice country girl with whom Don JosĂ© is in love, and whom Don JosĂ©âs mother has sent in the hope that he will marry her. The dragoons inform her that Don JosĂ© will come when the guard is changed. We soon hear that this is about to happen, preceded by a chorus of street-boys.
It is break time in the factory. But Don José is not interested in the girls who emerge, smoking. They include Carmen, who particularly fascinates the young men. But she is irritated that Don José is not immediately captivated by her charms. She flaunts herself and flings a flower at him at the end of the well-known Habanera.3 He is shocked and very disturbe...