Characters and Performers:
Carmen, a Gypsy-girl – Elena Obraztsova, mezzo- soprano
Don José, a Corporal of Dragoons – Vladimir Atlantov, tenor
Escamillo, Toreador – Jury Mazurok, baritone
Michaela, José’s fiancée – Margarita Miglau, soprano
Zuniga, a Captain of Dragoons – Lev Vernigora, bass
Morales,Officer – Alexander Voroshilo, baritone
Frasquita, a Gypsy-girl – Lyudmila Kovaleva, soprano
Mercedes, a Gypsy-girl – Nadezhda Kositsina, soprano
Dancaïre – Vitaly Nartov, baritone
Remendado smugglers – Andrei Sokolov, tenor
Lillas Pastia, tavern keeper
Guide do not sing
Officers, soldiers, boys, cigarette-gils, young men, gypsy men and women, smugglers, toreadors, picadors and other people.
The action takes place in Spain in about 1820.
In the first place “Carmen” is an ageless story about love and rejection, full of passionate impulse, violent combats, temptation and inevitable decisions. “Carmen” is a story of the tragic end of the young unacknowledged composer’s life who couldn’t withstand his brainchild’s failure. Moreover, “Carmen” is the story of the great ascent of the once scandalous opera work and its triumphant conquering the world in various disguises, sometimes in shocking production.
The approach to the creation of Carmen was long and full of torment. His first significant step as an opera composer became “Pearl Fishers” (“Les pêcheurs de perles”) where he demonstrated his highly professional skills, his mastery of complicated operatic forms, brilliant and rich orchestration. However, in spite of the fact that the opera was cordially welcomed by audience, the critics showed unusual strictness to the firstling of the 25-year-old author of the music. The next composition “Ivan the Terrible” that was finished in 1865 was never staged because of the lingering negotiations with the boards of theatre directors. All of them were a failure. Discouraged but not surrendered, Bizet took up composing a new opera – “My Beauty from Perth” (“La Jolie fille du Perth”). That opera, however, received rather unfavorable comment.
In 1871 Bizet wrote the one-act comic opera “Djamileh” by the order of Opera Comique and he was confronted with the lack of understanding of audience. His full of poetry, exquisite music could hardly agree with the usual playful and entertaining atmosphere of the opera performance. ”Djamileh” raised the heated debate in the press. The composer noticed that there had never been any opera that had been under such a serious and even passionate discussion. However, there were some musicians who appreciated Bizet’s opera at its true worth. One of them was Jules Massenet, a younger contemporary and composer.
At last, in 1873 Bizet took up composing a new comic opera turning to the subject of Prosper Merimee’s novella about a gypsy girl, Carmen by name. The libretto was written by the experienced masters of the light genre Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy; the latter was Bizet’s wife cousin.
Being completely absorbed in work Bizet soon realized that the opera was far from being an entertaining one. There had never been a heroine like Carmen. She was passionate, charming and free – having nothing in common with light-minded coquettes in comic operas.
In summer of 1874 the score of the opera was finished. The initial displeasure expressed by the orchestra players of Opera Comique, who used to play unpretentious vocal parts and who were frightened by the symphonic development in the opera, changed for admiration for Bizet’s serious and dramatic music.
The composer was extraordinary lucky with Mari-Celestine Galli-Marié who performed the title part in the opera. Possessing a very expressive voice she created a perfect image of Carmen. However, Bizet found an appropriate melody for Carmen’s first appearance not at once. Habanera, a Spanish Dance became the thirteenth version that at last satisfied both the author and the singer.
Bizet’s high expectation connected with the first night of the opera was a complete failure in the middle of the performance. The first scene that developed according to the rules of comic opera was accepted by the listeners with enthusiasm and delight. Then it became obvious that the audience was perplexed with the dramatic turn that the opera took. Totally dead silence in the hall took place of the thundering finale. The following days were full of reproach and furious reviews that bombarded the poor author. It was that very “failure” that became fatal. Three months later after the failure of “Carmen” Bizet died of the heart attack under the age of 37.
In our days the story of the Parisian first night of “Carmen” is taken as a paradoxical nonsense. Anyway, in 1876 Tchaikovsky made an excited comment on the opera, “Bizet is the artist who pays tribute to the age and the present day, warmed with the genuine inspiration. What a splendid subject of the opera! I can’t help crying while playing the last scene!” It was he who predicted the coming fame of the work, “I am sure that in ten years “Carmen” will become the most popular opera in the world.”
