Composers › Georges Bizet › Programme note
extracts from Carmen
Gerald Larner wrote 2 versions of differing length — choose one below.
Prelude
Habanera
Seguidilla
Entracte before Act II
“Je vais danser”…
“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée”…
“Non! tu ne m’aimes pas… Là-bas dans le montagne”
Entracte before Act III
Entract before Act IV
“C’est toi…Carmen, il est temps encore”
Carmen is a gipsy girl in Seville and Don José a corporal in the army. Bizet’s opera (first performed in Paris three months before the composer’s death in 1875) is about their mutual, though ultimately fatal attraction. She seduces him into letting her out of prison; he loses his stripes and wins her only by throwing in his lot with her band of smugglers; she falls for a glamorous toreador and rejects him; in his jealousy he kills her outside the bull ring.
The Prelude to the opera sets the scene immediately with the festive music associated later with the bull fight in Seville where Carmen is to have her last meeting with Don José. It is based on a lively march signalling the entry of the toreadors, including her new lover Escamillo who is represented here by what must be one of the most famous tunes in the whole of opera. The Prelude also includes, in stark contrast, a dramatic anticipation of the violent end lying in wait for her.
Heard on this occasion in instrumental arrangements, the Habanera and the Seguidilla are the two dances by means of which Carmen attracts and captivates Don José. Although the first of those tunes is not Bizet’s own, it was a stroke of genius on his part to put the habanera rhythm to it and to present it as a characteristically provocative song and dance for Carmen to introduce herself in the first act of the opera. The Seguidilla is the seductive number by means of which she persuades Corporal Don José into letting her go after she has been arrested for causing a disturbance in the cigarette factory. With the promise of a good time at Lillas Pastia’s tavern he cannot resist.
The bassoon tune in the Entracte before Act II anticipates the song Private Don José sings to himself as he is released from his army gaol and makes his way to Lillas Pastia’s for his long-promised meeting with Carmen. When they are alone together she dances for him (“Je vais danser en votre honneur”) to her own castanet accompaniment - only to be very much put out by Don José’s impulse to return to barracks when he hears trumpets sounding the retreat in brilliantly contrived counterpoint with her dance tune. He protests his love for her in an elegantly poignant aria (“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée”) but she will have none of it (“Non! Tu ne m’aimes pas”) and insists that if he loved her he would desert the army and follow her into a life of freedom and lawlessness in the mountains (“Là-bas dans le montagne”). Although he vehemently rejects her conditions at this point, circumstances are about to force him into accepting them.
After two more orchestral entractes - the first a melodious example of Bizet’s favourite combination of flute and harp, the second a lively jota in anticipation of the fiesta at the bull fight to come in the final act - Carmen and Don José meet for the last time. He has come to claim her back from Escamillo, who is now performing in the bull ring. Although she has been warned that she is in danger from José, she refuses to run away and fate brings them together (“C’est toi”). He makes an impassioned appeal to her to run away with him and start a new life (“Carmen, il est temps) but she refuses and, knowing what the consequences will be, insists that he let her go. He stabs her just as Escamillo is celebrating his victory in the bull ring.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Carmen extracts”
Prelude
Habanera: “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”
Seguidilla: “Près des remparts de Séville”
Entracte before Act II
“Je vais danser”…
“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée”…
“Non! tu ne m’aimes pas… Là-bas dans le montagne”
Entracte before Act III
Entracte before Act IV
“C’est toi… Carmen, il est temps encore”
When Bizet died on 3 June 1875 - a few hours after the 33rd of the initial run of 45 mainly ill-attended performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris - as far as he knew Carmen was a failure. Had he lived four or five months longer he would have witnessed its first success in Vienna and, given two more years, he could have followed its triumphant progress through five of the major cities of Europe and America, when it was already well on its way to becoming the world’s favourite opera.
Obviously, Carmen owes its phenomenal success largely to Bizet’s music, above all the irresistible Spanish dance numbers. But without Carmen to sing and dance it, without her untameable gypsy spirit to animate it, the score would be nowhere near as seductive as it is. It is true, we need a Don José to fall in love with her, to lose his corporal’s stripes when he lets her escape from prison, to win her only by throwing in his lot with her band of smugglers and, after she rejects him for a glamorous toreador, to kill her outside the bull ring. But the character of Carmen and the fate she knows is waiting for her are the driving forces of the opera.
The Prelude sets the scene immediately with the festive music associated later with the bull fight in Seville where Carmen is to have her last meeting with Don José. It is based on a lively march signalling the entry of the toreadors, including her new lover Escamillo who is represented here by what must be one of the most famous tunes in the whole of opera. The Prelude also includes, in stark contrast, a dramatic anticipation of the violent end lying in wait for her.
The Habanera and the Seguidilla are the two dances by means of which Carmen attracts and captivates Don José. Although the first of those tunes is not Bizet’s own, it was a stroke of genius on his part to put the habanera rhythm to it and to present it as a characteristically provocative song and dance for Carmen to introduce herself in the first act of the opera. The Seguidilla is the seductive number by means of which she persuades Corporal Don José into letting her go after she has been arrested for causing a disturbance in the cigarette factory where she works. Given the promise of a good time at Lillas Pastia’s tavern, he cannot resist.
The bassoon tune in the Entracte before Act II anticipates the song Private Don José sings to himself as he is released from his army gaol and makes his way to Lillas Pastia’s for his long-promised meeting with Carmen. When they are alone together she dances for him (“Je vais danser en votre honneur”) to her own castanet accompaniment - only to be very much put out by Don José’s impulse to return to barracks when he hears trumpets sounding the retreat in brilliantly contrived counterpoint with her dance tune. He protests his love for her in an elegantly poignant aria (“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée”) but she will have none of it (“Non! Tu ne m’aimes pas”) and insists that if he loved her he would desert the army and follow her into a life of freedom and lawlessness in the mountains (“Là-bas dans le montagne”). Although he vehemently rejects her conditions at this point, circumstances are about to force him into accepting them.
After two more orchestral entractes - the first a melodious example of Bizet’s favourite combination of flute and harp, the second a lively jota in anticipation of the fiesta at the bull fight to come in the final act - Carmen and Don José meet for the last time. He has come to claim her back from Escamillo, who is now performing in the bull ring. Although she has been warned that she is in danger from José, she refuses to run away and fate brings them together (“C’est toi”). He makes an impassioned appeal to her to run away with him and start a new life (“Carmen, il est temps) but she refuses and, knowing what the consequences will be, insists that he let her go. He stabs her just as Escamillo is celebrating his victory in the bull ring.a
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Carmen extracts+intro”