Opera "Carmen": content, video, interesting facts, history

J. Bizet Opera "Carmen"

The plot of the opera by G. Bizet "Carmen" is taken from the novel of the same name by P. Merime. In the center of the cycle of events - a beautiful, passionate and freedom-loving Gypsy, with her lifestyle and actions she changes the lives of the people around her. This is the last opera of the composer, which passed the thorny path to glory and scenes of world theaters. It is considered the culmination of creativity. Georges Bizet and his life fiasco.

Summary of the opera Bizet "Carmen"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Carmen"

The opera takes place in Spain in the first half of the XIX century. Carmen is a beautiful, passionate, temperamental gypsy working in a cigarette factory. She stands out noticeably among other women workers - as soon as this stunning beauty appears on the street, all her admiring men's looks immediately rush at her. With special delight, Carmen mocks the men around her and their feelings. But the temperamental girl doesn’t like the fact that Jose is indifferent to her, she tries her best to attract his attention. Having failed, the gypsy, together with other girls back to work. However, among them, a quarrel flared up, which instantly turns into a fight. The culprit of the conflict is Carmen. She is sent to the chamber, where she languishes in anticipation of the warrant, under the supervision of Jose. But the cunning temptress falls in love with the sergeant, and he helps her escape from custody. This rash act completely overturns his life: Jose loses everything - his girlfriend, family, respect, rank and becomes a simple soldier.

And all this time, Carmen continues to lead an idle life - along with her friends, she wanders through the taverns, where she entertains visitors with her songs and dances. In this case, the girl manages to cooperate with smugglers and flirt with the bullfighter Escamillo. Soon Jose appears in the tavern, but for a very short time, it’s time for him to return to the barracks for the evening check. However, the gypsy includes all his charm so as not to let the soldier away from him. Jose is fascinated by her, and now the order of the captain means nothing to him. He becomes a deserter and is now forced to be with Carmen and the smugglers. But soon the feelings of the burning beauty fade away - Jose got bored with her. Now she is not really carried away by the bullfighter, who even promised to give battle in her honor. And the soldier in love is forced to leave her temporarily - he learns from his former lover that his mother is dying and he hastily goes to her.

On the square in Seville is preparing for a bullfight. The gypsy woman is preparing to join the holiday, but Jose comes in her way. He begs the girl to be with him again, confesses his love, threatens, but all is in vain - she is cold to him. In a fit of anger, he pulls out a dagger and thrusts it into his beloved.

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Interesting Facts

• Amazing but Georges Bizet never been to spain. To create the necessary musical atmosphere, he reworked folk tunes, giving them the desired Spanish flavor.
• In 1905, scientists discovered a new asteroid, which received the name "Carmen".

• The famous German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was present under various circumstances at the show "Carmen" 27 times.
• English musicologist Hugh MacDonald wrote that French opera does not know more fatalists than Carmen. Outside France, her descendants could be "Salome" by Richard Strauss and "Lulu" by Alban Berg.
• The premiere of the play took place on March 3, 1875 and ended in complete failure. And exactly 3 months after it, the composer himself was gone. The reasons for his death are still arguing. According to one version, Bizet could not survive the fiasco of "Carmen" and that "immorality" in which he was accused after the premiere. The opera seemed obscene to the public, because its heroes were gangsters, smoking factory workers, smugglers and simple soldiers. And characterizing the main character of the opera, art connoisseurs were not at all shy about expressions - she was the true embodiment of vulgarity and dirt.
• The opera was designated by the composer as comic. And the first performance took place in Opera-Comique. And here is a comic, you ask? It's simple. According to the traditions of the French theater, all works, the main characters of which are ordinary people, were considered to be a comedy genre. It is for this reason that the operas alternate musical numbers with conversational dialogues - according to this scheme all comic operas in France were built.
• One of the co-directors of the Opera Comique Theater had to leave his post because of this work. Adolf de Leuven believed that in such a genre as comic opera, there should definitely not be a murder, much less such a terrible and sophisticated one. In his opinion, violence does not fit into the norms of a decent society. He tried in every way to convince the authors of this, repeatedly invited the librettists to his room, persuading them to make the character of Carmen softer and change the final. The latter was required for the audience to leave the theater in a wonderful mood. However, they did not reach agreement, and in the end Adolf was forced to leave his post. This became a sign of protest against the play, in which the propaganda of the murder.

• Shortly before his death, G. Bizet signed a contract with the Vienna State Opera about the production of "Carmen". Despite some changes and differences from the original author, the performance was a huge success. "Carmen" won praise not only ordinary viewers, but also such prominent composers as Johannes brahms and Richard Wagner. This was the first serious success of the creation of G. Bizet on the path to international recognition.
• October 23, 1878 in the Music Academy of New York hosted the first premiere of this work in the United States. In the same year, the opera appeared before the audience of St. Petersburg.
• "Carmen" was the last opera staged at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theater. It was with this work that the theater decided to finish its story - after the last production it was closed, then transferred to the RMI, and then completely demolished. In 1896, the St. Petersburg Conservatory building was erected in its place.

Popular arias and numbers

Habanera - listen

Escamillo Couplets - Listen

Aria José - listen

Gypsy dance - listen

The history of the creation of "Carmen"

About his plans to write the opera "Carmen" Georges Bizet reported in 1872. Even then, the Comic Opera made the order to the famous librettists Henri Meliac and Ludovic Halevy, and they were working on the text with might and main. They managed to significantly transform the novel by P. Merimee. First of all, the changes affected the images of the main characters - in their interpretation they became more noble. José, from a severe law-breaker, has turned into an honest but weak-willed person. Gypsy is also presented differently - independence is more emphasized in it, and the thirst for theft and cunning are hidden. The authors also changed the place of action - if in the literary source everything happened in slums and gorges, then in the libretto all the events were transported to the center of Seville, to the squares and streets. Playwrights have introduced into the opera a new character - the beloved of Jose, Michaela, to show the exact opposite of Carmen. Toreador from a non-initiating and nameless participant turned into a cheerful Escamillo, who played a decisive role in the fate of the main character.

The text was fully prepared by the spring of 1873, and then the composer set to work. The opera was fully completed in the summer of 1874.

However, the rejection of this opera appeared long before its production, as soon as the idea was voiced - an abundance of dramatic events and passions did not fit the stage in which the first production was planned. The fact is that Opera comedian was considered a secular theater, which was attended only by representatives of the rich class. Going to the theater, they knew in advance that they would see an easy genre with an abundance of funny situations. This audience was far from mad passions, and of course, bloody murders. The opera also featured heroes and passions unacceptable to the public - girls who were not burdened with morality, workers of the cigarette factory, robbers, and military deserters.

Creating the libretto, the authors understood that many would not like it. And the guesses were confirmed - the singers completely refused to participate in this performance.

Productions "Carmen"

The premiere of the opera took place in Opera, the opera comic. It was March 3, 1875. The audience did not know how to react to this performance: there was very beautiful music in it, instantly crashing into memory, but there was also a horrible story about which it is simply indecent to speak in secular society. The opera failed, and its authors were accused of licentiousness and immorality. But, despite the fact that the creation of Bizet suffered a complete fiasco, it was delivered 45 times in that year. And the reason is quite simple - the usual human curiosity. The public was haunted by the fact that all Paris spoke about this work at that time. Interest in the work intensified at the beginning of summer - exactly 3 months after the premiere, J. Bizet died. Many came to the conclusion that the failure of “Carmen” was to blame for this, because the failure and harassment from the press provoked a nervous shock to the maestro and contributed to the deterioration of his health. After the end of the theater season, it was decided to remove the performance from the stage. Then everyone was sure that he would never appear there again.

In the autumn of 1875, the opera was staged in Vienna in German. However, what was shown to the audience was fundamentally different from what Bizet intended - it was a real opera ballet with many dance numbers. The Viennese theater decided to surprise the audience with a bright spectacle - the riders on real horses and a whole motorcade of bullfighters were brought to the scene.

In December of the same year, “Carmen” was put in Italy. Subsequently, the work was an unprecedented success, and was immediately included in the repertoire of many world theaters. And the audience liked the Viennese, classical production. It was based on other directors who put this opera in other European countries.

In February 1878, the opera was brought to Russia and shown to a wealthy audience on the stage of the Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in St. Petersburg. It was performed by the imperial Italian troupe in its edition. Many scenes were cut from the work in order not to shock the public. However, this did not help, and the performance was not successful. In many ways, this turn of events contributed to the fact that the soloists did not have time to prepare well, because they were in a hurry with the production. As many newspapers wrote at the time, the premiere of this performance was more like a rehearsal, as there were so many flaws and "roughness" in it.

But in 1882, the spectators greeted the other production of the play with enthusiasm, and, finally, the composition of Bizet received well-deserved recognition. It was initiated by the new director of the Imperial Theaters I.A. Vsevolozhsky. The cut excerpts appeared again on the stage, a new cast was chosen, and all choreographic numbers were set Marius Petipa.

In 1885, the libretto text was translated into Russian, and in this version the opera was first performed at the Mariinsky Theater,

The fact that Carmen received worldwide recognition made the French interested in it again. One of the composers of the time, Ernest Giro, decided to make his editorial office - he replaced all the conversational dialogues in Bizet’s work with recitatives, and also decorated the final of the opera with bright choreographic scenes. The opera was staged in Paris in this version in 1883, and this time it passed with real triumph. After 21 years, the capital of France saw the anniversary, the thousandth performance "Carmen".

One of the first Russian composers who got acquainted with this work Bizetbecame P.I. Chaikovsky. It was so much loved by him that Peter Ilyich even learned the whole clavier by heart. And when the media continually published negative reviews and devastating reviews, he insisted that one day this opera would become the most popular in the world. And the Russian genius was not mistaken. Today, the tragic story of the life of a freedom-loving gypsy in the interpretation of the great French maestro is considered one of the peaks of opera music - a genius, a reference and inimitable creation.