Filled with infectious melodies and sultry exoticism, Georges Bizet’s 1875 Carmen is one of the most popular and performed operas.
Set in Seville, Spain, it tells the tragic story of a free-spirited Romani woman (Carmen) who seduces the soldier, Don José. He leaves his fiancée and deserts the army to be with her, but Carmen soon grows tired of his obsessive love. Carmen leaves Don José for the bullfighter, Escamillo. In the final act, in a fit of jealous rage, Don José enters the bullfighting ring and fatally stabs Carmen.
Leontyne Price never sang the role of Carmen onstage, but she left behind a celebrated 1963 studio recording of the complete opera, with Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic. (Franco Corelli plays the role of Don José).
L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera)
The character of Carmen makes her entrance in the first act’s Scene V with the famous Habanera (“Love is a rebellious bird”). Friedrich Nietzsche admired the opera and commented that the “ironically provocative” aria evokes “Eros as conceived by the ancients, playfully alluring, mischievously demoniacal.”
Près des remparts de Séville (Seguidilla)
The imprisoned Carmen sings a seductive folk song to her guard, Don José, about a night of dancing and passion with an officer. The song is Carmen’s manipulative attempt to gain release. When he tells her to be quiet, Carmen replies that she is merely singing to herself, and that “it is not forbidden to think.”
The aria represents a rare operatic moment in which a character sings, literally, as part of the drama.
Overture
Filled with the sunny ambiance of Spain, the Prelude to Act I includes the famous Toreador’s Song, as well as the opera’s ominous “Fate” motif, which foreshadows ultimate tragedy.
James Levine leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in this highly charged performance:
Recordings
- Bizet: Carmen, Herbert von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic, Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, Robert Merrill, Mirella Freni Amazon
- Bizet: Carmen, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Jose Carreras, Agnes Baltsa, Leona Mitchell, Samuel Ramey and Diane Kesling Amazon
Featured Image: an 1875 lithographic poster for the première of Carmen, Published by Choudens Pére et Fils and Imp. Lemercier et Cie.