Hervé Lacombe, in his survey of 19th-century French opera, contends that "Carmen" is one of the few works from that large repertory (even if performed in Italian in most theatres at the time) to have stood the test of time.
While Lacombe places "Carmen" firmly within the long "opéra comique" tradition, Macdonald considers that it transcends the genre and that its "immortality" is assured by a combination in abundance of
-- striking melody
-- deft harmony and
-- perfectly judged orchestration.
Dean sees Bizet's principal achievement in the demonstration of the main actions of the opera in the music, rather than in the dialogue.
Few composers have expressed so
VIVIDLY the torments inflicted by sexual passion and jealousy.
Dean places Bizet's realism in a different category from the verismo of Puccini and others.
Rather, Dean likens Bizet to Mozart and Verdi in his ability to ENGAGE his audiences with the emotions and sufferings of his characters.
Bizet, who had never visited Spain, sought out appropriate "ethnic" material to provide an authentic Spanish flavour to his music.
Carmen's "Habanera" ("Strano Augello") is based on an idiomatic song, "Chinita mia ven por aqui -- y enseguidita sere tu arreglito", by the Spanish-American composer Sebastián Iradier (1809–65), published in 1842.
Bizet had taken this to be a genuine folk melody, when he heard it in a Paris cabaret.
When Bizet learned its recent origin he added a note to the vocal score, crediting Iradier.
Bizet uses a genuine folksong as the source of Carmen's defiant "Coupe-moi, brûle-moi".
Other parts of the score, notably the "Seguidilla", utilise the rhythms and instrumentation associated with "flamenco" music.
But this is a French, not a Spanish opera.
As Noel Coward put it
"Carmen by Bizet
is as Spanish as the Champs Elysees".
The "foreign bodies", while they undoubtedly contribute to the unique atmosphere of the opera, form only a small ingredient of the complete music.
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(1) the Entry of the bullfighters (from act 4)
(2) the refrain from the Toreador Song (from act 2) and
(3) the motif that, in two slightly differing forms, represents both Carmen herself and the fate that she personifies -- "motivo della morte".
This motif, played on
clarinet
bassoon
cornet and
cellos over
tremolo strings,
concludes the prelude with an abrupt crescendo.
When the curtain rises a light and sunny atmosphere is soon established, and pervades the opening scenes.
The mock solemnities of the changing of the guard, and the flirtatious exchanges between the townsfolk and the factory girls, precede a mood change when a BRIEF phrase from the fate motif announces Carmen's entrance.
After her provocative Habanera ("Chinita mia ven por aqui, y enseguidita sere tu arreglito -- E l'amore strano augello") with its persistent insidious rhythm and changes of key,
the fate motif sounds in full when Carmen throws her flower to José before departing.
This action elicits from
don José a passionate A major solo that
Dean suggests is the "turning-point" in his musical characterisation.
The softer vein returns briefly, as Micaëla reappears and joins with Don José in a duet to a warm clarinet and strings accompaniment.
The tranquillity is shattered by the women's noisy quarrel, Carmen's dramatic re-entry and her defiant interaction with Zuniga.
After her beguiling Seguidilla provokes José to an exasperated high A sharp shout, Carmen's escape is preceded by the brief (but disconcerting) reprise of a fragment of the refrain to the Habanera.
Bizet revised this finale several times to increase its dramatic effect.[25]
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Act 2 begins with a short prelude, based on a melody that Don José will sing offstage before his next entry: "Dragoon of Alcala".
A festive scene in the inn precedes Escamillo's tumultuous entrance and his famous song, in which brass and percussion provide prominent backing while the crowd sings along.
The quintet that follows is of incomparable verve and musical wit.
José's appearance precipitates a long mutual WOOING scene.
Carmen sings, dances and plays the castanets.
A distant English cornet-call summoning Don José to duty is blended with Carmen's melody so as to be barely discernible.
A muted reference to the fate motif on an English horn leads to José's "Romanza del Fiore", a flowing continuous melody that ends pianissimo on a sustained high B-flat.
José's insistence that, despite Carmen's blandishments, he must return to duty leads to a quarrel.
The arrival of Zuniga, the consequent fight and José's unavoidable ensnarement into the lawless life culminates musically in the triumphant hymn to freedom that closes the act.
Everyone is free except for Don Jose who has declared that he is a 'slave' to Carmen now.
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The prelude to act 3 was originally intended for Bizet's L'Arlésienne score.
It is an exquisite miniature, with much dialoguing and intertwining between the woodwind instruments.
As the action unfolds, the tension between Carmen and Don José is evident in the music.
In the CARD (superstition) scene, the lively duet for Frasquita and Mercédès turns ominous when Carmen intervenes.
The fate motif underlines her premonition of death.
Micaëla's aria, after her entry in search of José, is a conventional piece, though of deep feeling, preceded and concluded by horn calls.
The middle part of the act is occupied by Escamillo and José,
now acknowledged as rivals for Carmen's favour.
The music reflects their contrasting attitudes.
Escamillo (BARITONE) remains invincibly polite and
ironic, while José (tenor, typically) is sullen and
aggressive.
When Micaëla pleads with Don José to go with her to his mother, the harshness of Carmen's music reveals her most unsympathetic side.
As Don José departs, vowing to return, the fate theme is heard briefly in the woodwind.
The confident, off-stage sound of the departing Escamillo singing the toreador's refrain provides a distinct contrast to José's increasing desperation.
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The brief final act is prefaced with a lively orchestral piece derived from Manuel García's short operetta El Criado Fingido.
Oddly, Garcia was at the prima in Italian of "Carmen" at Her Majesty's Theatre. He loved it.
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After the opening crowd scene, the bullfighters' march is led by the children's chorus.
The crowd hails Escamillo before his short love scene with Carmen.
The long finale, in which Don José makes his last pleas to Carmen and is decisively rejected, is punctuated at critical moments by enthusiastic off-stage shouts from the bullfighting arena.
As Don José kills Carmen, the chorus sing the refrain of the Toreador Song off-stage.
The fate motif, which has been suggestively present at various points during the act, is heard fortissimo, together with a brief reference to Carmen's card scene music.
Jose's last words of love and despair are followed by a final long chord, on which the curtain falls without further musical or vocal comment.
In 1883 the Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908) wrote a Carmen Fantasy for violin, described as "ingenious and technically difficult".
Ferruccio Busoni's 1920 piece, Piano Sonatina No. 6 ("Fantasia da camera super Carmen"), is based on themes from Carmen.
In 1967 the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin adapted parts of the Carmen music into a ballet, the Carmen Suite, written specifically for his wife Maya Plisetskaya, then the Bolshoi Ballet's principal ballerina.
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