An Unusual Opera – Carmen

             Nowadays, Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas, but its premiere was a failure. It is a very special Opera clearly. The reason why it is very famous and successful is that it has the beautiful melody ( “Habanera,” “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée,”  “Toreador” and “Seguidilla.”) and good story even though it is nontraditional. Traditional Opera always shape a  positive character like Mimi in La Boheme, she is a honest, single-minded and laborious, but Carmen is different. There is a dissolute and amorous woman as a leading role in Carmen, which subverted the image of stage drama. The same goes for music in this Opera, some people think the French and the melody (Seguidilla and Habanera) in the music is disadvantageous for singing and others do not think so. In my opinion, it is a great music for performance and singing. 

Bibliography

Castro-Ramírez, Luis Gustavo. “Spanish operatic identity vis-á-vis Carmen.” 

The Opera journal 46, no. 2 (2013): 3-17.

Llano, Samuel. “Hispanic traditions in a cross-cultural perspective: Raoul Laparra’s La habanera (1908) and French critics.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association  136, no. 1   (2011): 97-140.

MacDonald, Hugh.  Bizet.  Berkeley: Oxford University Press, 2014

Mordey, Delphine. “Carmen, Communarde Bizet, ‘Habanera’ (Carmen), “Carmen”, Act I.” Cambridge opera journal 28, no.2 (2016): 215-219.

Pau Andrew. “Sous le rythme de la chanson: Rhythm, text, and diegetic performance in nineteenth-century French opera.”  Music theory online 21, no.3 (2015): 19.

Simonari, Rosella. “Bringing Carmen back to Spain: Antonio Gades’s flamenco dance in Carlos Saura’s choreofilm.” Dance research 26, no.2 (2008): 189-203.