3 excerpts from Carmen:

Habanera

Seguidilla

Chanson bohémienne

“Take the Spanish airs and mine out of the score,” Charles Gounod was heard to remark on the first performance of Carmen at the Opéra-Comique in 1875, “and there remains nothing to Bizet’s credit but the sauce that masks the fish.” Well, it is true that Micaela’s third-act aria, “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante,” does have something of Gounod about it but certainly not enough to justify the older composer’s claim that “the melody is mine” and that “Georges has robbed me.” It is also true the Carmen’s first act aria, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle,” is based on a song called “El arregilito” by the Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier, who no doubt picked up the habanera rhythm when he was working in Cuba. But Bizet’s version of the tune, which is the perfect vehicle for Carmen’s provocative first entry in the opera, is an inspired sauce adding erotic zest to what was originally a rather insipid fish. It was one of the few items that won spontaneous applause on what turned out to be a generally depressing first night.

When he realized that “El arregilito” was not, as he thought, a folk song but the work of another composer Bizet duly acknowledged his source. He had to make no such apology for Carmen’s seguidilla, “Près des remparts de Séville,” which is probably a result of his preparatory studies in the Spanish idiom rather than a straight borrowing. Certainly, it is so seductive that Don José, evidently a sucker for manzanilla, cannot resist her pleas to let her go after she has been arrested for causing a violent disturbance in the cigarette factory. The Chanson bohémienne – which opens the second act in Lilas Pastia’s tavern as Carmen awaits the arrival of Jose on his release from prison – is a harmonically fascinating and generally brilliant evocation of flamenco vitality.