Georges Bizet

Bizet's Carmen is probably the best known opera of the standard repertoire, yet its very familiarity often prevents us from approaching it with the seriousness it deserves. This handbook explores the opera in a number of contexts, bringing to the surface the controversies over gender, race, class and musical propriety that greeted its premiere and that have been rekindled by the recent spate of film versions. Beginning with a study of the Mérimée story by Peter Robinson and an examination of the social tensions in nineteenth-century France that inform both that story and the opera, the book traces the latter through its genesis and reception. The central core of the book presents a close reading of the opera that offers new interpretive possibilities. The handbook concludes with discussions of four films based on the opera: Carmen Jones and the versions of Carmen by Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, and Francesco Rosi. The volume contains a bibliography, music examples, and a synopsis.

The popularity of Carmen endures across generations and continents, with one of the most frequently performed and instantly recognizable operatic scores of all time and a libretto derived from Prosper Mérimée's novella of the same name, written 30 years prior to the opera's 1875 debut. In Georges Bizet's Carmen--the latest volume in the Oxford Keynotes series--author Nelly Furman explores the evolution of Carmen's story and its meaning, illuminating how the titular heroine has maintained her status as a universally recognizable cultural icon. Grounded in Ludovic Halévy's and Henri Meilhac's libretto--and drawing on a wealth of mostly French critical theory--this book traces the textual, operatic, and cinematic tellings and retellings of the story, from its success as a novella in the industrial age through to its iconic position in our own cinematic era. As Furman delicately navigates the fraught terrain of racial and gendered discourse and ideology that Bizet's setting of Mérimée's work traverses, she uncovers the elements of the story that give it cultural salience and resonance, both in its own right and in support of Bizet's acclaimed musical score. In doing so, Furman reveals how past and present renderings of the Carmen tale mirror the changing concerns and shifting values of individual authors and their societies--and how each new rendering has helped to embed Carmen into the global conscience.

(Amadeus). A riveting story of fatal attraction between a beguiling, strong-willed gypsy and a naive but passionate soldier who falls under her spell, Georges Bizet's Carmen pulses with seduction, obsession, and deadly betrayal. It was reviled at its Paris premiere, where its realism and perceived amorality proved shocking, but it became one of the most popular and highly regarded operas of all time. Arguably the greatest musical product of France's enduring fascination with Spain, Carmen features many numbers that are now almost universally familiar, including the seductive Habanera and the boastful but infectious Toreador Song. Don Jose is an idealistic young corporal in 1820s Seville when he encounters the gypsy Carmen, who is irresistible to all men seemingly except Jose, who loves the innocent country girl Micaela. But soon enough Carmen works her wiles on him to escape imprisonment, and a later twist of ever-looming fate forces him to completely abandon the world he knows and follow Carmen into a life of crime. When the bullfighter Escamillo wins Carmen's affections, Don Jose's explosive jealousy clashes with Carmen's resolve to remain true to herself, leading to one of opera's fiercest confrontations and most unforgettable conclusions.

Contains the complete text of the libretto with annotations in both English and Italian and a critical historical commentary. The text also includes the background of the composer, biographies of the principal singers and conductor. The two accompanying CDs contain the complete opera sung in Italian.

"The heroine of the most performed opera in the world since 1875, Carmen has become a universal cultural icon. She has appeared in a multitude of ballets, on stage as well as ice rinks, and in some eighty international films. The success of Bizet' opera owns a lot to the libretto's singular accounting of the 1845 short story on which it is based. In her close textual analyses of Ludovic Halévy's and Henri Meilhac's libretto and Prosper Mérimée's novella, the author strives to account for the multiple aspects of Carmen's attraction that support George Bizet's acclaimed musical score. Through its multi-facetted cultural renditions through time and place, the story of Carmen can be said to have attained the status of a myth. Myths are stories that speak to us, in our own time and place, about personal, social, or cultural issues"--

Today Georges Bizet is most immediately recognized as the composer of the acclaimed opera Carmen. One of the most frequently performed operas for over a century, Carmen explores concepts such as the femme fatale and murderous jealousy with vivacity, color, and a wealth of melody. Yet it is only one act in Bizet's story. In Bizet, renowned musicologist Hugh Macdonald goes beyond the composer's most famous opera to take an in-depth look at his entire life and oeuvre. In so doing, Macdonald identifies a number of previously unknown pieces by Bizet, assembling the first comprehensive catalogue of the composer's work. Incorporating these little-known pieces with a thorough reading of primary sources, Macdonald considers the latest in Bizet scholarship to create a complete biography of the composer. Revealing the true extent of Bizet's work as arranger and transcriber, Macdonald sheds light on the composer's complex relationships with his contemporaries, and traces the strange misrepresentation of Bizet's work by French publishers and opera houses in the 1880s, when Carmen rose to worldwide popularity ten years after the composer's early death. The first biography of Bizet in the Master Musicians series in nearly four decades, Bizet will be essential reading for students and scholars of nineteenth-century opera, as well as for Carmen devotees and opera fans.