[schigolch]

For some reason, "Carmen" has been the target of derision from some critics and highbrow fans.

A kind of cheap second rate melodrama, with third rate music for some. A third rate melodrama with second rate music for others.

However, there are wonderful musical characterization examples in the opera. Take, for instance, the Habanera.

What's exactly an "habanera"?. As suggested by its name, it's music coming from Cuba. Originally, a dance music style that was created around the beginning of the 19th century. In the 1860s, a Spanish composer, Sebastián Iradier, was visiting Cuba when he fell in love with that music, and wrote several "habanera" songs.

One of them was soon very, very famous in Spain (and Cuba, too) as well as Mexico, and from there it gained a big popularity across the world. It's, of course, 'La Paloma".

But another one, more obscure at first, was also going to be known everywhere, but in this case thanks to Georges Bizet: "El Arreglito":

This was the basis for "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle". Incidentally, also enriched the drama, adding what was then an exotic element to Carmen, an alien presence to the patrons of the Opéra-Comique. Bizet also enhanced the hypnotic aspect of all habaneras with a splendid choice of instruments for the orchestration. Using almost the same melodic line, without any modulation, using a drone on D and three chords. Simplicity itself.

This was indeed something of a shock for the Parisian audience in the 1870s, but has remained equally effective since then. A rather trivial song, turned by the genius of Bizet into the basis of Carmen's characterization.

Incidentally, the initial choice of Bizet for this number was a different story. In the first version of the opera, a standard aria was there in place of the Habanera. This was the original "L'amour est enfant de bohème":

 

[Parsifal98]

For some reason, "Carmen" has been the target of derision from some critics and highbrow fans.

A kind of cheap second rate melodrama, with third rate music for some. A third rate melodrama with second rate music for others.

However, there are wonderful musical characterization examples in the opera. Take, for instance, the Habanera.

What's exactly an "habanera"?. As suggested by its name, it's music coming from Cuba. Originally, a dance music style that was created around the beginning of the 19th century. In the 1860s, a Spanish composer, Sebastián Iradier, was visiting Cuba when he fell in love with that music, and wrote several "habanera" songs.

One of them was soon very, very famous in Spain (and Cuba, too) as well as Mexico, and from there it gained a big popularity across the world. It's, of course, 'La Paloma".

But another one, more obscure at first, was also going to be known everywhere, but in this case thanks to Georges Bizet: "El Arreglito":

This was the basis for "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle". Incidentally, also enriched the drama, adding what was then an exotic element to Carmen, an alien presence to the patrons of the Opéra-Comique. Bizet also enhanced the hypnotic aspect of all habaneras with a splendid choice of instruments for the orchestration. Using almost the same melodic line, without any modulation, using a drone on D and three chords. Simplicity itself.

This was indeed something of a shock for the Parisian audience in the 1870s, but has remained equally effective since then. A rather trivial song, turned by the genius of Bizet into the basis of Carmen's characterization.

Incidentally, the initial choice of Bizet for this number was a different story. In the first version of the opera, a standard aria was there in place of the Habanera. This was the original "L'amour est enfant de bohème":

I love the Habanera and I love it even more knowing the context in which it was composed, which you've just shared with us. Thank you!

 

[Woodduck]

For some reason, "Carmen" has been the target of derision from some critics and highbrow fans.

A kind of cheap second rate melodrama, with third rate music for some. A third rate melodrama with second rate music for others.

One "problem" with Carmen, I suspect, is that it eludes classification. Is it a serious drama, or just a pleasing entertainment? What are we to make of the seeming-tragic fate of its protagonists? Are we affected in any deep way by the murder of Carmen and the downfall of Jose? Are these characters presented as people we can or should care about? Do their lives seem to mean anything to begin with, so that their unfortunate ends give us even a moment's pause? Such meanings, in opera, are conveyed mainly by the music. What meanings does Bizet's tuneful, colorful, witty, very French, faux-Spanish score convey? Is any moment in the score either harrowing or elevating? Is that "fate" theme truly ominous or tragic, or is it corny, reminiscent - for us who grew up in the 20th century, at least - of B movies or cartoons?

One could ask many questions about Carmen. I'm not suggesting that they imply that the opera is somehow flawed. It is what it is, and it's unique and musically inspired - but, for some of us who are not sure what it is, the whole may add up to less than the sum of its very enjoyable parts. For me, at least, it's one of many operas that's entirely performer-dependent; my interest in hearing or seeing it depends mainly on the portrayal of the title role. Without a powerful Carmen as the magnetic focus of everything that happens in the work, the whole thing feels like a slightly kitschy19th-century Spanish postcard.

Incidentally, the initial choice of Bizet for this number was a different story. In the first version of the opera, a standard aria was there in place of the Habanera. This was the original "L'amour est enfant de bohème":

I've never heard that before. It's nice, but Bizet made the right choice in the end.

 

[philpam1]

It's a great opera, plain and simple. It's not to everyone's taste. What opera is?

 

[schigolch]

Dialogues or recitatives?

This is the first question to ask when you are planning a performance of Carmen in 2023.

As written by Bizet, Carmen was an 'opéra comique'. By the times of Bizet this meant basically that it contained spoken dialogues and would be performed at the Opéra Comique theatre, even if the subject was a tragedy.

With the death of Bizet, just three months after the premiere of Carmen, the owners of the score, the publisher firm Choudens, asked Ernest Guiraud to introduce recitatives based on Ludovic Halévy poetry. Guiraud also reorchestrated music from Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite to provide a ballet for Carmen's second act. In this format, the opera was to be performed in Vienna and Brussels. In each city, some but not all recitatives were used, and even some dialogues were kept, but Carmen was very successful.

Choudens then decided to publish the score with the recitatives of Guiraud, and other changes. The rationale, apart from the success, was that Bizet himself was ready before his death to work on those recitatives, at the request of Choudens.

Fast forward to the 1960s. The original dialogues were still there, and they were used to perform Carmen at the Opéra Comique, and also for the odd performance here and there, but the musicologist Fritz Oeser using several sources such as:

1.- The autographed manuscript bequeathed to Paris Conservatory by Bizet's widow.

2.- The piano-vocal score prepared by Bizet

3.- Performing documents of the premiere, found by Oeser himself.

4.- Staging indications


prepared a critical edition for Carmen, using the dialogues, and trying to be as close as possible to the original Bizet's version. Even going as far as to include music that Bizet himself has finally decided not to include for the premiere, or for the piano-vocal score, on the premise that is was due 'to the influence of others'.


Guiraud's recitatives were very competent, and helped the opera to reach its iconic status. The dialogues are not easy to handle anyway for non-French singers, and require a superior acting ability.

Personally I loved both dialogues and recitatives, but given the choice of a version to perform, and providing I could count with the right singers for it, I would choose the premiere version, with spoken dialogues.

Caruso and Farrar as Don José and Carmen​

These are the numbers of the opera, based on the Choudens publication of Guiraud schema, back in 1875:


Act 1
1. Prelude
2. Sur la place chacun passe
3. Avec la garde montante
4. La cloche a sonné
5. (Habanera): L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
6. Carmen! Sur tes pas nous pressons!
7. Parle-moi de ma mère
8. Que se passe-t-il là-bas? Au secours! Au secours!
9.Tra-la-la...Coupe-moi, brûle-moi
10. (Seguidilla): Près des ramparts de Séville
11. (Finale): Voici l'ordre; partez
Entr'acte

Act 2
12. Les tringles des sistres tintaient
13. Vivat! Vivat le torero!
14. Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre ... Chanson du toreador
15. (Quintette): Nous avons en tête une affaire!
16. Halte-là! Qui vu là?
17. Je vais danser en votre honneur...La fleur que tu m'avais jetée...Non! Tu ne m'aimes pas!
18: (Finale): Holà! Carmen! Holà!
Entr'acte

Act 3
19. Écoute, compagnon, écoute
20. Mêlons! – Coupons!
21. Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire
22. C'est les contrabandiers le refuge ordinaire... Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante
23. Je suis Escamillo, torero de Grenade!
24. (Finale): Holà holà José!
Entr'acte

Act 4
25. A deux cuartos!
26. Les voici, voici la quadrille ... Si tu m'aimes, Carmen
27. (Finale): C'est toi! – C'est moi!


Of course, Carmen is the main role, and one of the more important for a female voice in all the standard repertoire. It can be sung by a mezzo or by a soprano. Her main numbers are:

Habanera - Tra La La La - Les Tringles (solo numbers)​

Ramparts de Séville - Je vais danser - C'est toi (duets with Don José)​

Don José, a soldier and a man in love, a French lyrical tenor. His numbers:

La fleur que tu m'avais jetée - Halte-là! (solo numbers)​

Parle-moi de ma mère (duet with Micaela)​

Je suis Escamillo (duet with Escamillo)​

The young and naive Micaela, the girl from Navarra must be sung by a light-lyrical soprano, and sound pure and angelic, as far from Carmen as possible.

Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante (solo)​

Escamillo, the bullfighter. Convinced of his own worth, but also in love with Carmen. A short but significant role for a baritone.

Chanson du toreador (solo)​

​

I'm quite serious about Opera, and I love "Carmen", one of my favorites.

 

[ColdGenius]

Dialogues or recitatives?

This is the first question to ask when you are planning a performance of Carmen in 2023.

As written by Bizet, Carmen was an 'opéra comique'. By the times of Bizet this meant basically that it contained spoken dialogues and would be performed at the Opéra Comique theatre, even if the subject was a tragedy.

With the death of Bizet, just three months after the premiere of Carmen, the owners of the score, the publisher firm Choudens, asked Ernest Guiraud to introduce recitatives based on Ludovic Halévy poetry. Guiraud also reorchestrated music from Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite to provide a ballet for Carmen's second act. In this format, the opera was to be performed in Vienna and Brussels. In each city, some but not all recitatives were used, and even some dialogues were kept, but Carmen was very successful.

Choudens then decided to publish the score with the recitatives of Guiraud, and other changes. The rationale, apart from the success, was that Bizet himself was ready before his death to work on those recitatives, at the request of Choudens.

Fast forward to the 1960s. The original dialogues were still there, and they were used to perform Carmen at the Opéra Comique, and also for the odd performance here and there, but the musicologist Fritz Oeser using several sources such as:

1.- The autographed manuscript bequeathed to Paris Conservatory by Bizet's widow.

2.- The piano-vocal score prepared by Bizet

3.- Performing documents of the premiere, found by Oeser himself.

4.- Staging indications


prepared a critical edition for Carmen, using the dialogues, and trying to be as close as possible to the original Bizet's version. Even going as far as to include music that Bizet himself has finally decided not to include for the premiere, or for the piano-vocal score, on the premise that is was due 'to the influence of others'.


Guiraud's recitatives were very competent, and helped the opera to reach its iconic status. The dialogues are not easy to handle anyway for non-French singers, and require a superior acting ability.

Personally I loved both dialogues and recitatives, but given the choice of a version to perform, and providing I could count with the right singers for it, I would choose the premiere version, with spoken dialogues.

Caruso and Farrar as Don José and Carmen​

These are the numbers of the opera, based on the Choudens publication of Guiraud schema, back in 1875:


Act 1
1. Prelude
2. Sur la place chacun passe
3. Avec la garde montante
4. La cloche a sonné
5. (Habanera): L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
6. Carmen! Sur tes pas nous pressons!
7. Parle-moi de ma mère
8. Que se passe-t-il là-bas? Au secours! Au secours!
9.Tra-la-la...Coupe-moi, brûle-moi
10. (Seguidilla): Près des ramparts de Séville
11. (Finale): Voici l'ordre; partez
Entr'acte

Act 2
12. Les tringles des sistres tintaient
13. Vivat! Vivat le torero!
14. Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre ... Chanson du toreador
15. (Quintette): Nous avons en tête une affaire!
16. Halte-là! Qui vu là?
17. Je vais danser en votre honneur...La fleur que tu m'avais jetée...Non! Tu ne m'aimes pas!
18: (Finale): Holà! Carmen! Holà!
Entr'acte

Act 3
19. Écoute, compagnon, écoute
20. Mêlons! – Coupons!
21. Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire
22. C'est les contrabandiers le refuge ordinaire... Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante
23. Je suis Escamillo, torero de Grenade!
24. (Finale): Holà holà José!
Entr'acte

Act 4
25. A deux cuartos!
26. Les voici, voici la quadrille ... Si tu m'aimes, Carmen
27. (Finale): C'est toi! – C'est moi!


Of course, Carmen is the main role, and one of the more important for a female voice in all the standard repertoire. It can be sung by a mezzo or by a soprano. Her main numbers are:

Habanera - Tra La La La - Les Tringles (solo numbers)​

Ramparts de Séville - Je vais danser - C'est toi (duets with Don José)​

Don José, a soldier and a man in love, a French lyrical tenor. His numbers:

La fleur que tu m'avais jetée - Halte-là! (solo numbers)​

Parle-moi de ma mère (duet with Micaela)​

Je suis Escamillo (duet with Escamillo)​

The young and naive Micaela, the girl from Navarra must be sung by a light-lyrical soprano, and sound pure and angelic, as far from Carmen as possible.

Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante (solo)​

Escamillo, the bullfighter. Convinced of his own worth, but also in love with Carmen. A short but significant role for a baritone.

Chanson du toreador (solo)​

​

I'm quite serious about Opera, and I love "Carmen", one of my favorites.

Schigolch, may I be bold as to ask you? According to your profile you are from Madrid. How do Spanish perceive Carmen, an oeuvre on Spanish subject, but of foreign origin (both Mérimée's novella and Bizet's opera)?
In Russian we call "cranberry" foreign attempts of literature and, especially, cinema on Russian subjects and look at them with a certain degree of irony. I also like Woody Allen's Love and death, a subtle parody on Hollywood adaptations of Russian classics.

 

[Bonetan]

I'm quite serious about Opera, and I love "Carmen", one of my favorites.

Beautiful and informative post. But I stand by my claim!

 

[ScottK]

When I lived in the city I decided to give it a try. I hung in through the flower song and left after that act. For some reason Carmen and Butterfly have about zero appeal for me.

 

[AeolianStrains]

When Carmen is good, it's really good. A thoroughly exhilarating experience. When it's bad, it can be really bad. I haven't seen it live in some years, but I saw it at the Met and was entertained enough.

I'd say it definitely ranks up with the top 25, but where in that 25 is difficult to say. The melodies are oh so catchy, though!

 

[schigolch]

Beautiful and informative post. But I stand by my claim!

You are welcome to stand, but the statement is obviously wrong.

 

[schigolch]

Schigolch, may I be bold as to ask you? According to your profile you are from Madrid. How do Spanish perceive Carmen, an oeuvre on Spanish subject, but of foreign origin (both Mérimée's novella and Bizet's opera)?
In Russian we call "cranberry" foreign attempts of literature and, especially, cinema on Russian subjects and look at them with a certain degree of irony. I also like Woody Allen's Love and death, a subtle parody on Hollywood adaptations of Russian classics.

Carmen is a French creature, indeed.

I don't think there is any "Spanish" perception, rather many different perceptions from many different Spaniards.

However, there is a long list of Spanish singers performing the role of Carmen, the role of Don José...

 

[Bonetan]

You are welcome to stand, but the statement is obviously wrong.

It may very well be wrong, but how is it obvious when we're in a thread full of serious opera fans and not a one has proclaimed Carmen as their favorite opera? Carmen is a fantastic opera, there's no doubt, but I think it no stretch to say that serious opera fans almost never consider it to be the opera that stands above all others.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

It may very well be wrong, but how is it obvious when we're in a thread full of serious opera fans and not a one has proclaimed Carmen as their favorite opera? Carmen is a fantastic opera, there's no doubt, but I think it no stretch to say that serious opera fans almost never consider it to be the opera that stands above all others.

Personally I don't think any one opera stands above all others. Not even one by Wagner. We all have our favourites, but that's a different thing altogether.

 

[Bonetan]

Personally I don't think any one opera stands above all others. Not even one by Wagner. We all have our favourites, but that's a different thing altogether.

I feel the same. But there are some serious opera buffs who won't hesitate to name a favorite opera, and those people are not naming Carmen. I don't mean this as a slight to Carmen (I'm in a Carmen next month). I'm only speaking to where it ranks among aficionados in my experience.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

I feel the same. But there are some serious opera buffs who won't hesitate to name a favorite opera, and those people are not naming Carmen. I don't mean this as a slight to Carmen (I'm in a Carmen next month). I'm only speaking to where it ranks among aficionados in my experience.

You may be right. For my part, I think it comes in for a lot of unwarranted criticism. Is it an opera? Is it an opéra-comique? Or is a nineteenth century musical? Whatever it is, I think it's a superbly crafted piece of music theatre and, though I don't have an out and out favourite opera, it would certainly be amongst mine. Oddly enough, the older I get and the more I hear it, the more respect I have for it, though I've heard and seen a lot of performances I thought were somewhat off the mark. For the most part, I think it works best when producers leave it alone and do it as traditionally as possible. All that local colour doesn't really work when the opera is set in some ugly New York slum or similar!

 

[Becca]

As I have noted earlier, I will take it over most of Verdi, if for no other reason than Bizet's orchestration is far more interesting. I don't think I'd rate it in my top 5, maybe in the top dozen.

 

[Steatopygous]

I'm sorry to **** on the parade, but isn't it a bit childish to insist that one must have a favourite opera? My favourite opera, to the extent that I acknowledge the concept, is whichever of about 25 candidates I am listening to at the time (right now, Don Carlos, the other day the Marriage of Figaro). I love and admire Carmen, have been to many performances and would love to go to more, I'm grateful Bizet wrote it. The fact that it's not in my top 10 says more about me than the opera. De Gustibus non disputandum.

 

[toasino]

I doubt it's the favorite opera of anyone who's serious about opera.

Carmen is a great and very popular. Those who hate or dislike it has either heard it or some of the music so often that they don't take the opera seriously. Others, think it shows sophistication not to like Carmen.

 

[Becca]

I doubt it's the favorite opera of anyone who's serious about opera.

I doubt that anyone who has a single ('the') favourite opera is really serious about opera

 

[Eva Yojimbo]

Carmen is the opera that made me fall in love with opera. I first heard/saw it as a young teenager who had a wide-eyed fascination with and interest in the wide world of music and film and literature than what I'd been limited to as a child, so I rented the film version of Carmen (the 1984 one with Julia Migenes & Placido Domingo) at my local Hollywood Video and fell in love so deeply I actually paid extra to keep the video for longer than 5 days (not once, but twice!). Of course, I eventually moved on to other operas: Mozart, Verdi, Wagner much later, but Carmen will always be a sentimental favorite. To this day I still love the music and have much of it memorized.

Does it entirely work as a profound work of musical-dramatic art? Probably not as well as the very best of Verdi, Mozart, and Wagner; but that's like saying that The Three Musketeers is not at the same level as the very best of Tolstoy, Proust, and Joyce. It's still excellent at what it is, and I do think its musical characterizations and dramatization are very effective. One example of that is how it almost moves from being bel canto in the early parts when Don Jose is "happy" to being quasi-verisimo by the end when the tragic ending is approaching.