CARMEN ALL'ITALIANA -- Masculinity in Don Jose

Speranza

The reception history of Georges Bizet's final dramatic work, Carmen, is rife with ironies.

Although almost unanimously condemned by Parisian critics after its first performances in 1875 for its overt sexuality and graphic final scene, "Carmen" intrigued a number of sophisticated minds and ultimately reached the public in a way that perhaps no other opera has.

Vide: "Carmen" craze.

Bizet's aim in composing Carmen had been to transform the flaccid, moralistic bourgeois genre of opéra comique into a more sophisticated type of staged work.

With a libretto by Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac, Carmen survives in no single authoritative version despite its enormous popularity and influence.

Guiraud converted the original sections of spoken dialogue into recitative for the 1875 Vienna performances.

In recent years the original version has made a striking comeback, and one can argue that it is far more telling dramatically than the traditional version with the recitatives.

There is also a popular orchestral suite drawn from the opera, and several violin and piano fantasies on its themes also exist.

Carmen is cornerstone item in any opera collection.

It is ironic that Bizet composed one of music's most evocative landscapes of Spain without ever having been there.

Bizet based his opéra comique on Prosper Mérimée's story, Carmen, which had appeared in October 1845. Merimee's story is said to have occurred in 1830, while the libretto notes that the action takes place in 1820.


Librettists Halévy and Meilhac emphasized the exotic characters of Mérimée's story and retained the themes of social class distinctions, overt sexuality, and misogyny that emerge so forcefully in Mérimée's model.

Bizet gave musical expression to the libretto using recurring motives, a distinctive melodic style, and manipulations of genre conventions to give each character a musical significance and a unique expressive idiom.

The opera's prelude introduces some of the most important themes, including Escamillo's toreador music and an exotic and sinewy chromatic motive that permeates the opera as a musical symbol for both Carmen's character and the insurmountable power of fate.


The gypsy fortune-teller Carmen sings in dance numbers, such as the habanera ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle") and the seguidilla ("Près des ramparts de Seville") of Act One, and the Gypsy song ("Les tringles des sisters tintaient") of Act Two.

Traversing boundaries of diatonic harmony, the sultry chromaticism of Carmen's habanera theme underscores her status as both ethnic outsider and sexually adventuresome female.

In this she stands in sharp contrast to Micaëla, whose Act Three aria ("Je sais que rien ne m'épouvante") is set in the ternary form of the elevated bel canto grand opera aria.

The bullfighter Escamillo announces his trade and masculine prowess in the rollicking Act Two toreador song ("Toréador, attento") which carries the musical suggestion of battle in its fanfare opening and insistent march rhythm.

MUSICAL CHARACTERISATION OF THE TENOR ROLE OF "DON JOSE".

Don José's musical styles reflect different levels in
his descent from dutiful soldier dragoon to the underworld of
obsession.


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In Act One, Don José sings in a duet with Micaëla ("Ma mère, je la vois"), adopting her elevated lyrical vocal style.

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In Act Two, after his imprisonment, Don José sings a more popular march-like tune ("Halte-là! Qui va là? Dragon d'Alcala"), reflecting his LOWER social status.

Then he sings the hightlight of the opera: the romanza del fiore.

His angst-ridden wailings in the opera's final scene defy clear formal arrangement and convey the psychological turmoil of an obsessed and defeated individual.

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Thus did Bizet forge a work that both summed up the musical resources available to him and had enough color and sheer melodic attractiveness to insinuate itself permanently into the public mind. Carmen, indeed, has been the subject of several popular-music adaptations over the years.                       

 

Prélude [Les Toréadors]

No. 2, Sur la place, chacun passe

No. 3, Avec la garde montante

No. 4a, La Cloche a sonne, nous des ouvrieres

No. 4b, La voila! Voila la Carmencita!

No. 5, L'amour est un oiseau rebelle [Habanera]
No. 6, Carmen! sur tes pas nous nous pressons tous
No. 7, Parle-moi de ma mère!
No. 8, Au secours!

1. No. 9, Voyons, brigadier
2. No. 10a, Près des remparts de Séville [Seguidilla]
3. No. 10b, Voice l'orde
4. No. 11a, Entr'acte [Les Dragons d'Alcala]
5. No. 11b, Les tringles des sistres tintaient [Gypsy Song]
6. No. 11c, Danse bohème
7. No. 11d, Vous avez quelque chose
8. No. 12a, Vivat, vivat le toréro!
9. No. 12b, Votre toast je peux vous le rendre [Toreador's Song]
10. No. 13, Nous avons en tete une affaire!

----- DRAGOON OF ALCALA:

1. No. 14, Halte-là! Qui va là?
2. No. 15a, Je vais danser en votre honneur
3. No. 15b, Au quartier! pour l'appel
4. No. 15c, La fleur que tu ma'vais jetée [Flower Song]
5. No. 15d, Non! tu ne ma'aimes pas!
6. No. 16, Holà! Carmen!
7. No. 17a, Entr'acte [Intermezzo]
8. No. 17b, Écoute, compagnon, écoute [March of the Smugglers]
9. No. 17c, Notre métier est bon
10. No. 18a, Mêlons! Coupons! [Card Scene]
11. No. 18b, Voyons, que j'essaie à mon tour
12. No. 18c, En vain, pour éviter les réponses amères
13. No. 19, Quant au douanier c'est notre affaire
14. No. 20, Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante [Nocturne]
15. No. 21, Je suis Escamillo
16. No. 22a, Entr'acte [Aragonaise]
17. No. 22b, À deux cuartos!
18. No. 23, Les voici, voici la quadrille [March of the Toreadors]
19. No. 24, Si tu m'aimes, Carmen
20. No. 25, C'est toi!