Carmen
also Carmen (Bizet)
opéra comique · opéra comique en quatre actes
Composer Georges Bizet
Librettist Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy
Synopsis
Carmen, a worker in a cigarette factory, seduces the corporal Don José, who lets her escape arrest, deserts his post, and joins her smugglers in the mountains. She soon tires of him and turns her attention to the bullfighter Escamillo, drawing José back to beg her for one more chance.
Versions
Key facts
- Premiere
- 3 March 1875, Opéra-Comique (Salle Favart), Paris
- Acts
- 4
- Language
- French (fr)
- Setting
- Seville and the surrounding mountains, about 1820.
What's different
The opéra comique original, with spoken dialogue between the numbers. Bizet cut and revised heavily during rehearsals under pressure from a management that thought the subject indecent for a family theatre; the autograph, the conductor's score and the first printed vocal score disagree in hundreds of places, which is what Oeser's 1964 edition set out to resolve and what it is criticised for having resolved too confidently; a critical edition is not itself a distinct performing version. Chosen as primary: this is the text almost all houses now use, in one edition or another.
Critical editor Fritz Oeser
Dramatis personae
| Role | Voice | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Carmen A Gypsy woman working in the cigarette factory. | mezzo-soprano | Célestine Galli-Marié |
| Don José A corporal of dragoons from Navarre. | tenor (lyric, spinto) | Paul Lhérie |
| Escamillo A bullfighter. | bass-baritone | Jacques Bouhy |
| Micaëla A village girl from José's home. | soprano (lyric) | Marguerite Chapuy |
| Frasquita A Gypsy, Carmen's companion. | soprano | Alice Ducasse |
| Mercédès A Gypsy, Carmen's companion. | mezzo-soprano | Esther Chevalier |
| Le Dancaïre A smuggler. | baritone | Armand Potel |
| Le Remendado A smuggler. | tenor | Barnolt |
| Zuniga A lieutenant of dragoons. | bass | Eugène Dufriche |
| Moralès A corporal of dragoons. | baritone | Edmond Duvernoy |
| Lillas Pastia An innkeeper. | spoken role | Nathan |
Key facts
- Premiere
- 23 October 1875, k.k. Hof-Operntheater, Vienna
- Acts
- 4
- Language
- French (fr)
- Setting
- Seville and the surrounding mountains, about 1820.
What's different
Bizet died in June 1875. For Vienna, Ernest Guiraud replaced the spoken dialogue with sung recitative and assembled a ballet from L'Arlésienne and La jolie fille de Perth, making the work exportable to houses that did not play dialogue. This was the standard international text for roughly a century and is still heard. The spoken parts go with the dialogue: Lillas Pastia is absent from this version and from its cast list.
Reviser Ernest Guiraud
Dramatis personae
| Role | Voice | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Carmen A Gypsy woman working in the cigarette factory. | mezzo-soprano | Bertha Ehnn |
| Don José A corporal of dragoons from Navarre. | tenor (lyric, spinto) | Georg Müller |
| Escamillo A bullfighter. | bass-baritone | Emil Scaria |
| Micaëla A village girl from José's home. | soprano (lyric) | Mila Kupfer-Berger |
| Frasquita A Gypsy, Carmen's companion. | soprano | Olga Morini |
| Mercédès A Gypsy, Carmen's companion. | mezzo-soprano | Emilie Tagliana |
| Le Dancaïre A smuggler. | baritone | Theodor Lay |
| Le Remendado A smuggler. | tenor | Viktor Schmitt |
| Zuniga A lieutenant of dragoons. | bass | August Egon Hablawetz |
| Moralès A corporal of dragoons. | baritone | Georg Nollet |
Source
- Carmen by Prosper Mérimée (1845)
Written from
- MacDonald, H. (1992) 'Carmen', in Sadie, S. (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London: Macmillan Reference, vol. 1, pp. 735-739.