The tragic actor Georges Bizet, undoubtedly the biggest operatic genius of France, was born in Paris on October 25, 1838. It was coming from a musicians' family, so that to nobody he was surprised that at the age of 17 it was writing a charming symphony... that was not executed up to eighty years later. Perhaps this was his misfortune: that nothing of what it did in his (brief) life seemed to surprise to anybody. Not when it gained at the age of 19 the Award of Rome, not when the beautiful opera composed the 25 They pécheurs of perles. Neither when it composed in 1863 The Perth jolie filie, not when the magnificent Djamileh wrote in 1872, nor even when, at the age of 37, it composed the masterpiece of the French opera, Carmen. The public who assisted to the premiere, on March 3, 1875, date that it would be necessary to write with golden letters (or black women?) in the Big Book of the Opera, it did not perceive by no means the historical of the moment. Neither not less brilliant music was considered well-informed of for L'arlesienne de Daudet, that it was sounding for the first time the same year. And finally it did not comprise the importance of the early death of Bizet, happened in Paris on June 3, 1875, only three months after Carmen's presentation either.

He has no sense to discuss with the doctors about this early death. Of course, the 37-year-old young man did not die because of the indifference of the public, indifference that that March 3 he must have felt in an atrocious way. It was not a death which cause could be diagnosed. It is clear that the cause was different: an angina, evil that he had already suffered and overcome several times. But at present it is not possible to doubt that the depressions of the fortitude mined his resistance capacity; and of that only this way the illness could exercise his deadly power.

Carmen

Source: The important French author Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870) wrote, under the impression that produced a trip to him for Spain carried out in 1830, the novel Carmen, who appeared in the 1845 first in a magazine (Revue des Deux Mondes) and then in the shape of book.

Libretto: The out-standing men of theater Henri Meilhac (1831-1897) and Ludovic Halévy (1834-1908) knew by intuition the intense dramatism of this argument and, although they continued exactly some scenes of the novel of Mérimée, they gave a new form to important details. Not only they invented the personage of Micaela, that they turned into Carmen's complement, but they eliminated many secondary figures (for example Carmen's husband), they invented places (like the bullring of the last act), did of the Carmen's last lover a toreador (instead of a secondary assistant of the killer); but especially they attenuated in a visible way the criminal ambience of Carmen (only there stayed the contraband as action opposite to the law) and they gave, in a decisive way, major value to Carmen's character (that is already not, as in the novel, a thief and a superficial, even instigating creature of a crime). One of the best librettos arose this way from opera: captivating, full of suspense, humanly touching, psychologically fascinating and consequently effective like stage play.

Music: An unforgettable masterpiece. Rarely a composer achieves to give form simultaneously to the big lines and to the smallest detail. Bizet obtained it in this opera, and also with a completely personal style, which follows neither Wagner nor to Verdi (exploit of which very few musicians of the epoch were capable). The melody, the harmony, the rhythm and the instrumentation are the same way perfect in beauty and expressive force.

In the whole score there is no only one empty compass, any conventional formula, any mediocre part. So much the voices soloists as the sets and the choirs are impressive and they are full of authenticity. It might demonstrate in hundreds of passages. What force is possessed by the last phrase of José turned into killer (for mentioning an example that is not the most consistent). What abysmal desperation is there in this pair of notes. What deep love in the duo of Carmen and Escamillo, at once quarter. What ingenious mischievousness in the smugglers' quintet. What hate expression in the scene of José's jealousy, at the end of the third act. What mastery in the description of the scenery, in the prelude of the same act. What sense of the dramatism in the counterpoint of the trumpet and the dance with Carmen's castanets, at once second, and in the horrifying combination of the motive of the death with the exhilaration of the multitude inflamed in the square, at once quarter. What delicacy in the orchestral epilogue of the duo of José and Micaela (in the first act) and in «aria of the flower» of José. But: why to keep on enumerating? The wise moves of this score are inexhaustible. And Bizet turned out to be at the same time a slightly frequent (case) a lyric one, a playwright and a humorist of the highest level.

It is understandable that the titular role, Carmen, is one of most coveted of the operatic repertoire, so that we do not surprise that, in addition to the mezzo-sopranoes (in whose record is in fact), also the sopranos and contralto have tried to take possession of him. Really it offers very much the actresses with personality and spirit who also possess beauty and an interesting voice, although it is not spectacular.
Another three roles are of decisive importance: that of the dramatic tenor José, that of the baritone Escamillo and that of the soprano Micaela, with a pure voice as a small bell. A magnificent task for a stage manager, attractive for an imaginative and fascinating theatrical designer for a conductor.

History: Bizet mentions for the first time in 1872 an order of the Opera Comique of Paris, but it is possible that the topic was not decided then, because he speaks about a «light opera». Scarcely details are known on Carmen's composition. It is possible that one was finishing in 1874 and that the orchestration was prepared in two months only. The first essays took place in October of this year. Both the band and the choir, and also some isolated singers, protested several times for the "modernity" of the work. It seems that Bizet was ready to carry out important changes because of the pressure that was exercised on him. It is possible that at first there was no aria, except «aria of the flower» of José: apparently, Bizet added during the essays the habanera, the song of the toreador and the Aryan of Micaela. Nevertheless, nothing of this could save the premiere: on March 3, 1875 the public proved to be missed, indifferent, cold. It would be erroneous to speak about finished defeat; perhaps it had been preferable. But precisely this similar increasing indifference they were advancing the acts it did that the composer was falling down in the desperation, of which some eyewitnesses left steadfastness. Three months later, Bizet had died. His friend Ernest Guiraud composed recitatives (to replace the passages in prose of the original); that way, the work translated into German by Julius Hoppe (who was writing with the pseudonym of D. Louis), and with qualifications that quickly became very popular, even proverbial («The love comes from the gypsies», «Toreador, to the hem», etc.) it was clamorosamente acclaimed in the Hofoper of Vienna on October 23, 1875; there had begun the conquest of the world, conquest in which very few works in the history of the opera can compete. Carmen's role turned into one of the most wished; all the big singers (and not so big many) have interpreted it in thousands of representations. And it is curious that it has been tried by representatives of all the records: sopranos, mezzo-sopranoes and contralto.

Related notes: Carmen de Bizet
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