# Carmen. The World's Most Loved Opera



## michael walsh

*Carmen: The World's Most Loved Opera*

In a letter dated October 1866, French composer Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875) went straight to the point of opera: "As a musician I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note."

The opera prodigy and gifted pianist sprinkled far more of the human experience into his much loved opera, Carmen. It is arguably still the world's most popular opera one hundred and thirty-five years after his death from a heart attack at just thirty-six years of age. As a staged spectacular it was an opera that pioneered the grittiness of real life characters and events. From Carmen flowed a new genre of opera which set the scene for Mascagni's Cavallaria Rusticana, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Puccini's La Boheme. Fly on the wall stuff, it was the forerunner to today's television soap operas. This is real life warts and all.

*Questionable Morality *

Carmen is the story of a beautiful coquettish factory worker of questionable morality. By feminine guile she uses, abuses and seduces her way through a rich tapestry of gypsies, thieves, soldiers and smugglers. Her flirtatiousness finally brings the seductress to a sticky end at the point of a dagger wielded by her jealous lover: The finale of this nail-biting drama takes place outside the arena as her bullfighter lover triumphs over his bovine adversary.

George Bizet was a handsome bearded man not unlike his contemporary Peter Tchaikovsky. This French composer of Spain's most celebrated musical masterpiece delighted in his own compositions but was bemused when they never won hearts and minds. He for his part failed to fully appreciate Carmen, which did earn considerable acclaim and made him a household name throughout the world.

*A Wretched Profession *

It is a mystery how the young Bizet could consider Carmen a flop. From the start he had been paid the considerable sum of 25,000 francs, and been awarded the Chevalier of the legion d'honneur. His risqué opera received an impressive 37 performances. Had he lived just another three months he would have seen Carmen triumph and within three years it was playing to packed houses throughout the world. "Ah music!" he is quoted as saying: "What a beautiful art but what a wretched profession."

Bizet was hardly a one opera wonder though it cannot be denied that Carmen was more of a success than his lesser known opera, The Pearl Fishers. Its celebrated duet Les pêcheurs de perles (In the Depths of the Temple) has on a number of occasions been voted by radio listeners as their all time favourite piece of classical music. For sheer musical whimsy Bizet's music set to the Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne takes some beating.

*Better than Mozart*

This self effacing composer joined the echelon of history's greatest composers from quite an early age. Before his eighteenth birthday he had composed his first symphony, which is said to rival anything composed by Mozart or Mendelssohn when they were still teenagers. He had also won a competition sponsored by the theatre impresario Jacques Offenbach, and later was awarded the coveted Prix de Rome. Gustav Mahler, one of the greatest composers of all time considered George Bizet's Djamileh a masterpiece.

Such was the man who on his death bed considered himself to be a failure. At the last count there have been fourteen screen versions of Carmen not to mention the famous Hammerstein stage adaptation Carmen Jones (1945). One can only wonder what this remarkable composer might consider success. ©


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## KaerbEmEvig

Thank you.


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## Ivan_cro

I watched it few weeks ago in Metropolitan: Live in HD

I was really pleased, it was fantastic!
It is currently my favourite opera (don't forget I watched only about 10 operas in my life, and I'm pretty young)


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## chrisg

Carmen is a fantastic opera. The melodies and dialogue between the characters make it so easy and beautiful to listen to. Amazing that the beauty of Carmen took so long to be accepted. Thanks for the article.


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## sospiro

Fascinating article - thank you.

My parents must have been playing Carmen in the house before I was born as I cannot remember a time when it wasn't familiar to me.


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## Sid James

Wagner was another composer who praised _Carmen_. I quite like this opera myself, but my favourite Bizet compositions are his two_ L'Arlesienne_ suites (I think the second one not orchestrated by the composer, but anyway...). I really like how Bizet used the saxophone, then a new instrument, in the first of those suites. Wagner or Richard Strauss thought that it was only meant to be relegated to marching bands (vulgar?), but obviously Bizet thought otherwise. The only other piece I can think of that integrates this instrument so well into the orchestral texture is Kodaly's _Hary Janos_ suite.

It is true that Bizet was a great melodist, but his music doesn't lack depth. All of his three operatic works are masterpieces. I have little time for somewhat snobbish people who stare down their noses at his music for being too much for the plebs. There's nothing wrong with something being accessible, but as the article notes, back in Bizet's day he was considered by some to be pushing the boundaries too much...


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## Sebastien Melmoth

Andre said:


> _Wagner was another composer who praised Carmen._


Quite true.


Andre said:


> _my favourite Bizet compositions are his two L'Arlesienne suites_


Me too. Also I _adore_ his *C-major Symphony*.

Alas, Bizet's life was all too brief: he had much brilliant music yet in him.
He died (like Berg, Mahler, and Skryabin) of a streptococcal blood infection--very nasty.

Glenn Gould relished, performed, and advocated Bizet's *Variations Chromatiques* and *Nocturne* for piano.

--------------------------------------

One minor point, however: the most popular opera is probably Puccini's *La Bohème*.


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## Mayerl

Opera!!!!!
Gotterdammerung is an opera
La Boheme is an opera
Don Giovanni is an opera
Carmen is a bloody musical!!!!


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## Sebastien Melmoth

So, any opinions on which _*Carmen*_ (recording) is *THE* _*Carmen*_ to have?

Karajan?

Abbado?

Sinopoli?

I was totally knocked out by Elina Garanca in the METs recent production (with Alberto Alagana).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elina_Garanca


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## DarkAngel

*For DVD.......*
Of the versions that are easliy available my favorite is *Antonacci for Decca*, firey gypsy flavor with knock out stageing and great orchestral support from Papano

If *Migenes / Domingo* film version were not so expensive that would be my top choice, check some of the youtube clips, I want this!


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## sospiro

There'll never be *The Carmen* for me as my tastes have changed over time

I have this one which I've had for ages & I still love watching










but this is next on my list


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## Sebastien Melmoth

sospiro said:


> _I still love watching_


That's the Levine DVD which uses the same ensemble of the Karajan CD.

Check Garanca:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-carmen/preview-the-opera/978/


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## KJohnson

You can't get away from it if you ever have to see an opera!


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## Il Seraglio

Mayerl said:


> Opera!!!!!
> Gotterdammerung is an opera
> La Boheme is an opera
> Don Giovanni is an opera
> Carmen is a bloody musical!!!!


Why compare Carmen to Twilight of the Gods or La Boheme anyway? What I love about Carmen is how anti-Romantic it is. Like the operas of Mozart, the drama is subordinate to the music and not the other way around, the story although tragic is also upbeat and entertaining and there is not one bit of Wagnerian idealism in the central romance. Just human behaviour warts and all. Gosh forbid the music should have regular cadences or a traditional sense of melody or that the characters don't ponder the future of mankind for five hours.


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## myaskovsky2002

*I have to agree with you*

even if I prefer "les pêcheurs de perles" by Bizet.

But the book by Prospère Mérimée is nothing special...I have two DVDs of Carmen...One, a regular (a good one), the second one sung in RUSSIAN!!!!!!!

KAPMEH

Martin


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## Almaviva

Mayerl said:


> Opera!!!!!
> Gotterdammerung is an opera
> La Boheme is an opera
> Don Giovanni is an opera
> Carmen is a bloody musical!!!!


Really, mate?
Look it up.
_Carmen_ is _opéra comique_, a sub-genre that can have dramatic/tragic topic (don't be fooled by the word comique, it's not necessarily comic) but also spoken dialogue.
You also should get informed about the definition of what constitutes a musical. _Carmen_ has operatic singing, unlike musicals.
As for your comment being just an attempt to put down _Carmen_, the rest of the musical world disagrees with you (including, the composer of the first opera you've quoted).


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## Webernite

It's practically the only thing that Brahms and Wagner both liked.


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## myaskovsky2002

*Carmen*

Something nobody can say abour Carmen:

- it is boring or it is long.

Neither of them would be true.

Carmen is for opera what the bolero (Ravel) is for symphonic music...

Both are "entraînant" and catchy.

Opinion of a "neophit": Martin Pitchon


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## tyroneslothrop

Just wanted to point out to those in the US that the Met summer encore performance of Bizet's _Carmen_ with Elīna Garanča is tonight at 7pm in select theaters:


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## DavidA

Mayerl said:


> Opera!!!!!
> Gotterdammerung is an opera
> La Boheme is an opera
> Don Giovanni is an opera
> Carmen is a bloody musical!!!!


Yes, and Zauberflote is a pantomime, I suppose, by this standard of reckoning?

I have heard some things, but really! I suppose both Wagner and Richard Strauss were wrong in admiring Carmen?


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## DavidA

Sebastien Melmoth said:


> So, any opinions on which _*Carmen*_ (recording) is *THE* _*Carmen*_ to have?
> 
> Karajan?
> 
> Abbado?
> 
> Sinopoli?
> 
> I was totally knocked out by Elina Garanca in the METs recent production (with Alberto Alagana).
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elina_Garanca


For me it's Karajan 1 with Price as an incredible Carmen.
OK I know it's supposedly not 'authentic' (whatever that might mean) and that Corelli sings in bastardised French. But the whole thing is overwhelming. Not to mention Culshaw's recording.

I also have Karajan 2, Abbado and Beecham - all with considerable merits.


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## rborganist

Try to find the one with Marilyn Horne and James McCracken; I think Adriana Maliponte is the Micaela and Leonard Bernstein conducts. I also saw them on tour; Horne opened her mouth and 50 pounds dropped away, her timbre was so sexy, and McCracken actually took the high B flat at the end of the Flower Song pianissimo as Bizet intended, and no one could figure out how he did it. It didn't matter how; what mattered was that he did it and it was beautiful.


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