Full of infectious melodies and sultry exoticism, Georges Bizet’s 1875 Carmen is likely one of the hottest and carried out operas.
Set in Seville, Spain, it tells the tragic story of a free-spirited Romani lady (Carmen) who seduces the soldier, Don José. He leaves his fiancée and deserts the military to be along with her, however Carmen quickly grows uninterested in his obsessive love. Carmen leaves Don José for the bullfighter, Escamillo. Within the last act, in a match of jealous rage, Don José enters the bullfighting ring and fatally stabs Carmen.
Leontyne Worth by no means sang the position of Carmen onstage, however she left behind a celebrated 1963 studio recording of the whole opera, with Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic. (Franco Corelli performs the position of Don José).
L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera)
The character of Carmen makes her entrance within the first act’s Scene V with the well-known Habanera (“Love is a rebellious hen”). Friedrich Nietzsche admired the opera and commented that the “sarcastically provocative” aria evokes “Eros as conceived by the ancients, playfully alluring, mischievously demoniacal.”
Près des remparts de Séville (Seguidilla)
The imprisoned Carmen sings a seductive people tune to her guard, Don José, a few night time of dancing and keenness with an officer. The tune is Carmen’s manipulative try to achieve launch. When he tells her to be quiet, Carmen replies that she is merely singing to herself, and that “it’s not forbidden to assume.”
The aria represents a uncommon operatic second during which a personality sings, actually, as a part of the drama.
Overture
Full of the sunny ambiance of Spain, the Prelude to Act I contains the well-known Toreador’s Music, in addition to the opera’s ominous “Destiny” motif, which foreshadows final tragedy.
James Levine leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra on this extremely charged efficiency:
Recordings
- Bizet: Carmen, Herbert von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic, Leontyne Worth, Franco Corelli, Robert Merrill, Mirella Freni Amazon
- Bizet: Carmen, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Jose Carreras, Agnes Baltsa, Leona Mitchell, Samuel Ramey and Diane Kesling Amazon
Featured Picture: an 1875 lithographic poster for the première of Carmen, Revealed by Choudens Pére et Fils and Imp. Lemercier et Cie.
