Gritty Realism and Exotic Color
The premiere of Georges Bizet's Carmen on March 3, 1875, stands as one of the most notorious fiascos in opera history. The Parisian audience, accustomed to the grand historical pageants and sentimental comedies that usually graced the stage, was horrified. They witnessed a stage populated not by noble heroes and virtuous heroines, but by working-class cigarette girls, army deserters, smugglers, and gypsies. They were confronted with a story that dealt frankly with sexual obsession, jealousy, and brutal violence, culminating in a murder on stage. And at its center was Carmen, a heroine so shockingly amoral, so fiercely independent, and so unapologetically sexual that she defied every convention of the 19th-century stage. The critics savaged the work as obscene and the premiere was a catastrophic failure. Bizet, already in poor health, was crushed by the rejection. He died exactly three months later at the age of 36, believing his greatest work was a worthless disaster. He would never live to see Carmen become a global phenomenon and the very definition of what a popular, successful opera could be.
From Opéra-Comique to Verismo
Part of what made Carmen so shocking was the venue for which it was written. The Opéra-Comique in Paris was a state-sponsored theater intended for "wholesome," family-friendly entertainment. Its productions were characterized by spoken dialogue alternating with the musical numbers (the original definition of opéra-comique). Bizet and his brilliant librettists, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, took this traditional form and subverted it completely, injecting it with a dose of gritty, realistic drama that pointed the way toward the Italian verismo (realism) movement. They created a work of intense psychological drama and raw, violent passion that shattered the genteel conventions of the genre.
A Synopsis of the Drama
The story is set in Seville, Spain. In Act I, the naïve and honorable soldier, Don José, is seduced by the fiery and beautiful gypsy, Carmen, who works in a cigarette factory. She tosses him a flower, and he is instantly captivated, forgetting his childhood sweetheart, the gentle Micaëla. When Carmen is arrested for a fight, she persuades José to let her escape, a decision that costs him his rank. In Act II, Carmen and her friends are in a tavern, celebrating the victory of the bullfighter Escamillo. Don José, now released from prison, arrives to declare his love. Carmen demands he prove his love by deserting the army and joining her band of smugglers in the mountains. He refuses at first, but after a confrontation with his commanding officer, he has no choice but to flee with Carmen.
Act III takes place in the smugglers’ mountain hideout. Carmen has already grown tired of the possessive and jealous Don José. In a famous scene, she reads her fortune in the cards and sees only death for herself and her lover. Escamillo arrives, and he and José fight over Carmen. Micaëla then appears, pleading with José to return home to his dying mother. He agrees to go, but vows to return to Carmen. Act IV is set outside the bullring in Seville. Carmen, now the lover of the triumphant Escamillo, is confronted by a desperate and unhinged Don José. He begs her to come back to him, but she scornfully refuses, declaring that she was born free and will die free. As the crowd inside the arena cheers for Escamillo’s victory, the enraged José stabs Carmen to death.
The Characters
The genius of Carmen lies in its four perfectly drawn principal characters. Carmen is the ultimate femme fatale, a woman who lives by her own code of absolute freedom. She is a force of nature, mesmerizing and dangerous. Don José is her opposite, a simple man of honor and duty who becomes completely undone by his obsessive love for her, descending from a loyal soldier into a desperate outlaw and murderer. Escamillo, the toreador, is a figure of confident, charismatic masculinity, a public hero who is José’s natural rival. And Micaëla represents the world of innocence, purity, and simple domestic love that José abandons and can never reclaim.
The Music: A Spanish Postcard
Bizet, who never actually visited Spain, created a musical score of breathtaking and authentic-sounding Spanish color. He brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of Seville through the use of Spanish dance rhythms and melodic styles. The famous "Habanera" is a perfect example, its seductive, chromatic melody unfolding over the slinky, unchangeable rhythm of the dance. The "Seguidilla" in Act I is another brilliant Spanish dance, used by Carmen to complete her seduction of José. The preludes to the acts and the thrilling "Toreador Song" are filled with the brilliant, sun-drenched colors of Andalusia. This is not authentic Spanish folk music, but rather a masterpiece of musical exoticism, a French composer’s perfect imaginative vision of Spain.
An Unparalleled Legacy
After Bizet’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the original spoken dialogue with sung recitatives, transforming the work into a grand opera, the form in which it is most often performed today. Within a few years of its disastrous premiere, Carmen began its inexorable conquest of the world’s stages. Composers, critics, and the public all came to recognize it for what it was: a revolutionary and perfect masterpiece. Its combination of unforgettable melodies, brilliant orchestration, and raw, realistic human drama changed the course of opera forever. It remains, by almost any measure, the most popular opera ever written.
