the #operaclass Education Kit #operaclass Education Kit: Carmen 1 Table of Contents Introduction to the Education Kit for Carmen ................................................................................ 3 Is Opera Relevant? ........................................................................................................................ 4 What To Expect From Carmen ....................................................................................................... 5 The Story ...................................................................................................................................... 6 The Background ............................................................................................................................ 8 Who’s Who in Carmen .................................................................................................................. 9 Key Elements of the Story ........................................................................................................... 10 Activity 1 - Carmen ...................................................................................................................... 11 Classroom Activity – ‘Love is a rebellious bird’ – Carmen’s Habanera .................................................... 11 Activity 2 – ‘Sweet memories of home’ ....................................................................................... 14 Classroom Activity –‘Parle moi de ma mere’ .......................................................................................... 14 Activity 3 – Crossing Boundaries .................................................................................................. 16 Follow-up .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Adaptions .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Activity 4 – Anatomy of Escamillo ............................................................................................... 20 Resource 1 – ‘Rebellious Bird’ – Carmen’s Habanera ................................................................... 22 Resource 2 – ‘Sweet Memories of Home’ – Don José and Michaëla’s duet .................................. 23 Resource 3 - ‘Crossing Boundaries – Carmen’s Culture’ ................................................................ 25 Extending Your Thinking ........................................................................................................................ 26 Discussion Topics For Small Groups ....................................................................................................... 26 Resource 4 - ‘Escamillo – Toreador aria’ ...................................................................................... 27 About the Composer ................................................................................................................... 28 References .................................................................................................................................. 29 #operaclass Education Kit: Carmen 2 Introduction to the Education Kit for Carmen This #operaclass Education Kit contains information about the opera Carmen, by Georges Bizet. It provides suggestions for activities that are aimed at Year 9 and 10 students in drama and music and links to the NZ Curriculum. We hope that this kit will assist you in making opera connections in your classroom fun and engaging. The kit includes four sections and four activities: THE STORY THE BACKGROUND WHO’S WHO IN CARMEN – THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR MUSIC CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES The activities in this guide will focus on several aspects of Carmen: • The main characters of Carmen, Don José, Escamillio, and Micaëla as portrayed through music, words, and dramatic action • The musical style of Bizet’s work and its relationship to Spanish and “gypsy” culture • The historical and cultural setting and the way it informs contextual understanding of the opera This kit is intended to activate your student’s interest in Carmen, whether or not they have any prior acquaintance with opera. It encourages them to think about opera - and other performing arts – as a medium of immersive and contextual learning, and a source of creative expression. Check out our website at http://www.festivalopera.co.nz/ for inside information about our 2017 production of Carmen. Also see the #operaclass website http://primavolta.co.nz/opera-class/ for further education resources. Please encourage your students take advantage of our website. The more your students know about the production, the more they will enjoy it! See you at the opera! Researcher & Author: Joanne Jowett Morel Contributor: Stephen Lange Cover image Moses Mackay as Escamillo #operaclass Education Kit: Carmen 3 Is Opera Relevant? How can opera be considered relevant to the students of today? In the introduction to this kit we stated that opera is essentially about people, it reflects society, echoing who we are, how we think and feel. ‘We don’t present our voices to the audience, we resonate our souls’ – Thomas Hampson Writers and critics across several hundred years of opera history have revisited the universality of the drama played out on the opera stage. The ability of opera to cross country and culture, to reach audiences whose first language is English when sung in Italian, French or German; even to be sung in the sunny pacific when the setting is the depth of a Russian winter….. ‘It [Carmen] deals with familiar situations and emotions – love, jealousy, attitudes to women and male fantasy’ Opera is as relevant to the young people of today – your students – as the ordinary citizens of the great European cities who packed the stalls and side isles of the great theatres. The characters are colourful and all of human life is arrayed before them: love, sex, death, jealousy, power, humour and grief. Our young people see these dramas played out every day in Summer Bay and on Shortland Street, and hear them in the lyrics of contemporary music. The dramatic intensity of opera, however overblown it may seem, can also be a part of this range of artistic expression which can help them to make sense of the sorrows, great or small, that they encounter in their own lives. “Opera cuts to the chase—as death does. An art which seeks, more obviously than any other form, to break your heart.” ― Julian Barnes #operaclass Education Kit: Carmen 4 What To Expect From Carmen This season, Festival Opera’s production of Bizet’s opera comes to Napier as part of the Tremains Art Deco Festival, 2017. Carmen An opera in four acts, sung in French Music by Georges Bizet Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy Based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée First performed on March 3, 1875 in Paris, France Act I design for first production in 1875 #operaclass Education Kit: Carmen 5 The Story The original source of the dramatic storyline for Carmen is Prosper Merimee’s 1845 novella of the same name. The composer and librettists used one of the story’s four parts as their inspiration, deleting some aspects and adding others. The Spanish setting and the Roma people were retained and remain a distinctive element of both works. Synopsis Act I a square in Seville in the 1800s, with a cigarette factory and a guardhouse Micaëla enters, looking for her fiancé Don José. Sgt Moralès tells her that Don José is part of a different company, but asks her to stay with them instead. Their advances force her to run away. Don José enters with the changing of the guard. Street urchins are imitating the soldiers. Lieutenant Zuniga mentions that he wants to stay and watch the pretty girls at the cigarette factory; José states that he only has eyes for Micaëla. The women of the factory come out, greeted by the waiting men. Among them is Carmen. All the men try to woo her, but it is the disinterested José that catches her eye. She sings the habanera, and throws José a flower. He is momentarily entranced by Carmen, but Micaëla returns and the two of them sing a love duet. There is a scream from the factory; Zuniga sends José to investigate. He brings out Carmen, who has stabbed another woman. Zuniga orders José to tie her up while he prepares to take her to the guardhouse. Carmen tempts José to release her, saying that he is now in love with her. He begins to loosen her bonds, and she escapes. Don José is arrested for releasing her. Act II Lillas Pastia’s Tavern In the middle of a party Carmen and her friends, Frasquita and Mercédès, sing about the gypsy life to the delight of Captain Zuniga and his soldiers, who flirt with the girls. Zuniga mentions that José will be released from prison today. The matador Escamillo enters with his friends, who sing of his success both in the bullring, and in love. Escamillo tries to woo Carmen, who spurns him, thinking of José. As the tavern closes, smugglers invite the girls to join them on some misadventure. Carmen declines, saying she is waiting for her lover. José arrives, and declares his love for her. He sings that the faded scent of the flower she threw him was what helped José get through prison. Carmen replies that if he loved her, he would escape into the mountains with her. Zuniga then bursts in, and orders José back to the barracks. José refuses, and they fight. The smugglers re-enter, and Zuniga is disarmed and chased from the tavern. José realizes he must now