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The Scene Designs for the First Performances of Bizet's "Carmen"

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The Scene Designs for the First Performances of Bizet's !"#$%&#'#$(#)*+')$,-.$/"#$0*.)/$1#.,-.23'&#)$-,$4*5#/6)$783.2#'7 9:/"-.;)<=$>?3'$43@#. %-:.&#=$AB/"C8#'/:.D$E:)*&F$G-HI$AJF$K-I$J$;%L.*'+F$ABBM<F$LLI$NJMCNON 1:PH*)"#Q$PD=$R'*?#.)*/D$-,$83H*,-.'*3$1.#)) %/3PH#$RST=$http://www.jstor.org/stable/746449 9&&#))#Q=$NUVANVNMMB$AJ=MO Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19th- Century Music. http://www.jstor.org The Scene Designs for the First Performances of Bizet's Carmen EVAN BAKER L'Op6ra-comiquea mont6 avec un grandluxe de costumes et de d6corscet ouvraged'un jeune maitre.1 The last twenty years have seen an increasing those of the Theatre de l'Opera-comique. Hun- interest in the documentation and re-creation dreds of these designs are located in the hold- of the visual elements of nineteenth-century ings of the Bibliotheque et Musee de l'Opera at operatic premieres.2 Rich sources of such infor- the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (F-Po).3 mation are the surviving scenic and costume The designs can be found in two forms: "orig- designs for the works first produced in Paris at inals" (that is, watercolors, oils, and so on) and the Academie Royale (later Imperiale) de la Mu- lithographs or prints. The printed formats were sique-otherwise known as l'Opera-and utilized mostly by music publishers, such as Heugel and Choudens. When theaters rented the music, the publishers sent reproductions of the with a manual 19th-CenturyMusic XIII/3(Spring 1990). ? by the Regents original designs along staging of the University of California. as part of the rental package. These were in- I wish to thank Holly Warefor her assistance in the prepara- tion of this article. I am grateful to Philippe de Bros, for- merly general director of the Lucerne City Theater, Swit- 3The Nationale has the for the to this Bibliotheque recently published zerland, providing opportunity study subject. first volume of an illustrated catalog for the holdings of l'Illustration, 13 March 1875 (Paris),p. 173. scene designs in the Bibliothequeet Musee de l'Opera:Ni- 2H.Robert Cohen, "On the Reconstructionof the Visual El- cole Wild, Decors et costumes de XIXe siecle. Tome I. Op- ements of FrenchGrand Opera: Unexplored Sources in Pari- era de Paris (Paris,1987). The second volume, now in prepa- sian Collections" in Reportof the Twelfth Congress,Berke- ration, will be a catalog of the designs for other Parisian ley 1977 (Kassel,1981), pp. 463-81. theaters, including the Opera-comique. 230 tended as toward the eventual Bertin purportingto be "reconstructions"of the EVAN guides physical BAKER production, particularly for the theaters in the original designs for acts I and IV of Carmen Scene Designs provinces and outside France. (plates 1 and 2).7Although the drawingswere la- for Carmen Although many of the original designs of beled Decors de la creation 1875, reconstitue nineteenth-century opera survive in majorpub- par Emile Bertin, this claim seems doubtful. In lic Parisian archives such as the Bibliotheque de the first place, it has not been possible to date l'Opera, the lithographic reproductions of the these designs with certainty. Moreover, Bertin set designs are rare and may be found, for the cannot have seen the original production: he most part, only in the archives of certain music was not born until 1878. Wolff acknowledges all publishers, notably in those of the Choudens of this, but still claims that "[Bertin's]drawings firm. Reproductionsof costumes are not as rare: have historical worth, for without a doubt [he] over 2,600 prints of costume designs for various referredto the [contemporary]illustrations and productions in Parisiantheaters were published reports in order to make these drawings."8 by Martinet during the course of the nineteenth Wolff's certainty, however, lacks the supportof century.4 Set designs, however, were almost clear evidence. Yet on such authority these il- never offeredfor sale: in many contemporarypi- lustrations have been reproducedin encyclope- ano-vocal scores the designs were advertised as dias, books, exhibition catalogs, and program being available only for rent either from the books with the claim that they are the "original publishers or from the theaters in which the designs from the first production" or, as Bertin work had received its first performances.5 himself wrote, "reconstructions."9But, again, In the case of Carmen, first performedat the based on the evidence alone, they are neither. Opera-comique on 3 March 1875, questions During the preparations for an exhibition have arisen about the location (andeven the ex- centering on the first production of Carmen, I istence) of the set designs for the premiere. At was able to examine a set of hand-colored,litho- present, it is uncertain who was responsible for graphed stage designs for the opera in the them: the printed librettos offered for sale at Choudens archives in Paris. Each design mea- Opera-comique performances often did not list sures 25.8 cm x 18.8 cm, and all of the litho- the names of the scenic designers. Moreover,re- graphs are mounted on largersheets and bound views published in the newspapers and week- together as an album with an ornate title page lies often mention the production only in pass- (plates 3-6). The signature of A[uguste] Lamy ing and seldom provide detailed descriptions of can be seen in the lower left cornersof the third- either the settings or the costumes. In this in- and fourth-act designs; it is not clear, however, stance only the names of the costume designers that Lamy was the actual scene designer. Two are known: Clairin, who designed the costumes of the designs were previously published in for Carmen, and Detaille, who designed the cos- 1912 without attribution in the Frenchperiodi- tume for the dragoons.6 cal, Musica.10 After comparing these litho- In 1968, as part of his historical overview of graphs with other extant materials, I began to scene design for opera,Hellmut Christian Wolff published two illustrations of designs by Emile 7HelmutChristian Wolff, Oper:Szene und Darstellungvon 1600 bis 1900 (Leipzig, 1968), pp. 186-87. Bertin's designs are preserved in F-Po, cataloged as Esq. O.C. 1875. Emile Bertin(1878-1957) was active in both the theaterand opera; 4Petite Galerie dramatique ou recueil de different cos- he was one of the better-knownFrench scene designersafter tumes d'acteurs des theatres de la capitale and Galerie dra- 1900. matique, costumes des theatres de Paris. A complete set is 8Wolff,Oper, p. 186. in F-Po, and an almost complete set in US-NYp. Cf. Cohen, 9L'Opera-repertorio della lirica dal 1597 (Milan, 1977),p. "On the Reconstruction,"pp. 478-79. 267. An American edition of this work was published in SAnexample occurs in the first edition vocal score issued by 1985 by Simon and Schuster and furtherpublished in: Car- Heugel for Offenbach'sLa Belle Helene (Paris,1864). At the men: Text-Materialien-Kommentare,ed. Egon Voss (Ham- bottom of the table of contents one reads:"S'adresser pour burg, 1984), title page; Mostra: Bizet (Milan, Museo Tea- les parties d'Orchestreaux Editeurs.Pour la mise en Scene a trale alla Scala, 1975);program books for the BavarianState la Regie du Theatre des Varietes." Opera (Munich, 1984) and the Teatro alla Scala (Milan, 6MinaCurtiss, Bizet and His World(London, 1959), p. 379. 1985). Several prints for Carmen and Don Jose are in F-Po, cata- "Musica 117 (June1912), p. 109. This issue was dedicatedto loged as Cost. Est. Bizet. 231 19TH CENTURY MUSIC Plate 1: Emile Bertin, act I. suspect that they might well be the original de- 1. The scenic descriptions in the printed libretto by signs for the 1875 production." If this is the Ludovic Halevy and Henri Meilhac (hereaftercited as case, as I now believe it is, these Choudens L).12 scene designs would take on a special impor- 2. The Livret de mise-en-scene (staging manual) de- for there are no other and riving from the first performances published by tance, iconographical Choudens cited as documentary materials that have any direct re- (hereafter M).13 lationship with the Carmen premiere in 1875. 3. A full-page reproduction of scenes from the opera with a review of the same in the Parisian No other production records appearto survive: published weekly 1'Illustrationon 13 March 1875. most likely, they were destroyed in the cata- fire of 1887 at the Evi- 4. The poster (affiche)from the first performancesof strophic Opera-comique.
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