Did you know this about Carmen ? Pittsburgh Opera by Jill Leahy Education thanks our generous supporters: American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. Bayer USA Foundation The Frick Fund of the Buhl Foundation by Pyotr byKonchalovsky, Pyotr 1944 The Jack Buncher Foundation Carmen, Carmen, Dominion Foundation Eat ‘n Park Hospitality Group, Inc. ESB Bank First Commonwealth Financial Corporation Israeli Opera http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/latest-news/israeli-opera-stages-carmen-desert/ The Grable Foundation Diseñoparala ópera de Bizet Carmen: Shocking character, successful opera The Hearst Foundation by Jill Leahy Hefren-Tillotson, Inc. CIGARETTE FACTORY The opening scene of Carmen Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield French composer Georges Bizet was named Alexandre César Léopold Bizet Libretto Meilhac Henriby and Ludovic Halévy takes place outside a cigarette factory in Seville. This was The Huntington National Bank ● at birth and grew up surrounded by music—his father was a singing teacher an actual place, which once employed 6000 women as Intermediate Unit #1, Pennsylvania and his mother a fine pianist. A prodigy, Bizet was accepted into the Paris cigarette makers. The building still stands and, since the Department of Education Carmen Conservatoire at the age of nine; his teachers included Antoine -François 1950s, has been the seat of the rectorate of the University of Levin Furniture Marmontel, Fromental Halévy (one of the founders of French grand opera, Seville. It is a splendid example of industrial architecture Martha Mack Lewis Foundation whose daughter Bizet married), and the composer Charles Gounod. from the era of Spain’s Antiguo Régimen. People’s Natural Gas Reed Smith LLP In 1857, at the age of 19, Bizet wrote an operetta HABANERA Bizet was very particular about Carmen's first The Techs - MetalTech (Le Docteur Miracle) for a competition organized by aria, the “Habanera”, which means a “dance from Havana.” Triangle Tech Group Jacques Offenbach. Bizet shared the first prize, Originating in Cuba's capitol in the late 19th century, the United States Steel Corporation Miracle was staged, and his name became known in musical style spread throughout the Spanish colonies and Music Georgesby Bizet the best musical circles. He attended Rossini’s captivated European composers, including Bizet, who The Habanera famous Saturday evening soirées and won the Prix incorporated the style into Carmen . After wrangling with his Love is a rebellious bird de Rome from the Académie de Musique. After three librettist about the “Habanera,” Bizet wrote most of the that nobody can tame, happy years in Italy, Bizet returned to Paris and words himself and rewrote the melody 13 times. and you call him quite in vain unhappiness. He had few successes, his mother if it suits him not to come. died, and his first opera of any significance in Paris, Maria Callas is to the “Habanera” as Pavarotti is to "Nessun Nothing helps, neither threat nor prayer. The Pearl Fishers (1863), was praised by Berlioz but dorma." Most performances of the aria are measured One man talks well, the other's mum; disparaged by most others. Bizet’s only success was against hers, even though she never performed the role on it's the other one that I prefer. The Pretty Maid of Perth (1867), which earned praise He's silent but I like his looks. stage—she only recorded it. Carmen’s other arias are also at the time but is rarely performed today. Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875) accompanied by dance music: the seguidilla, the gypsy Love! Love! Love! Love! dance, and even the “Card Aria”, a slow dance of death. In 1873, the Opéra-Comique in Paris commissioned Bizet to write an opera. For more information on He chose Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen (1845) and worked closely with OPÉRA COMIQUE and VERISMO FILM The celebrated Pittsburgh Opera's education librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Carmen faced many obstacles “Habanera” from Act 1 and the “Toreador Song” from Act 2 programs, please contact: in reaching the stage—many considered the story too salacious for public are among the best known of all operatic arias. Carmen performance, and critics denounced Carmen as immoral even before it was forms a bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and Marilyn Michalka Egan, Ph.D. complete. The title role was rejected by nearly every mezzo-soprano, and the the realism or verismo that emerged in late 19th-century Director of Education theater pressured Bizet for rewrites, to avoid financial calamity. Italian opera. To see a favorably-reviewed, realistic film [email protected] 412-281-0912 ext 242 version of Carmen, starring Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo, Today, Carmen is one of the most popular operas in the standard repertoire, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, and conducted by Lorin Pittsburgh Opera but Bizet did not live long enough to see it gain acceptance. Sadly, Bizet died Maazel, search for the 1984 film directed by Francesco 2425 Liberty Avenue just three months after Carmen had its world premiere at the Opéra-Comique Rosi. In 1985, Carmen was nominated for the Golden Globe Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Study Guide to the Opera in Paris on March 3, 1875. Johannes Brahms saw the opera 20 times and Award for Best Foreign Film. www.pittsburghopera.org said that he would have "gone to the ends of the earth to embrace Bizet." Carmen Synopsis cont. Meet the Team of Librettists by Jill Leahy Carmen Synopsis Characters ACT III Carmen and José quar- ACT I In Seville by a cigarette Carmen mezzo-soprano rel in the smugglers’ mountain factory, soldiers comment on the [KAR-men] or [kar-MEN] hideaway. She admits that her townspeople. Among them is A Gypsy who uses her love is fading and advises him to Micaëla, a peasant girl, who asks dancing and singing talents return to live with his mother. for a corporal named Don José. to bewitch and seduce men. When Frasquita and Mercédès Moralès, another corporal, tells her turn the cards to tell their fortunes, he will return with the changing of they foresee love and riches for Don José tenor the guard. The relief guard, themselves, but Carmen’s cards [zho-ZAY] headed by Lieutenant Zuniga, spell death—for her and for José A respectable corporal, he soon arrives, and José learns from (Melons! Coupons! ). Micaëla becomes an outlaw. Moralès that Micaëla has been appears, frightened by the moun- looking for him. When the factory tains and afraid to meet the wom- bell rings, the men of Seville gather Escamillo baritone an who has turned José into a Henri Meilhac Ludovic Halévy to watch the female workers— [ess-kah-MEE-yoh] criminal ( Je dis que rien ne (1831 – 1897) (1834 – 1908) especially their favorite, the gypsy A bullfighter who is attracted m’épouvante ). She hides when a Carmen. She tells her admirers to Carmen. shot rings out. José has fired at Around 1869, the co-directors of the Opéra-Comique were arch- Portrait of Emilie Ambre as Carmen, that love is free and obeys no rules an intruder, who turns out to be conservative Adophe de Leuven and the more liberal Camille Du Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883) (L’amour est un oiseau rebelle ). Escamillo. He tells José that he Locle. It was Du Locle who approached Georges Bizet with the Micaëla soprano Only one man pays no attention to her: Don José. Carmen throws a [mee-kah-EH-lah] has come to find Carmen, and the commission to create an opera and arranged for him to work with flower at him, and the girls go back to work. José picks up the flower and A loyal, kind, peasant girl in two men fight ( Je suis Escamil- librettists Halévy and Meilhac. hides it when Micaëla returns. She brings a letter from José’s mother, lo ). The smugglers separate love with Don José. who lives in a village in the countryside ( Ma mere, je la vois ). As he them, and Escamillo invites every- Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac were already a well-known begins to read the letter, Micaëla leaves. José is about to throw away the one, Carmen in particular, to his and successful team who had written for vaudeville and operettas flower when a fight erupts inside the factory between Carmen and Zuniga bass next bullfight. When he has left, for over twenty years. With Bizet stubbornly insisting that he another girl. Zuniga sends José to retrieve the gypsy. Carmen refuses to [ZOO-nee-gah] Micaëla emerges and begs José wanted to adapt Prosper Mérimée's novella, Carmen , the three of answer Zuniga’s questions, and José is ordered to take her to prison. A lieutenant of the army and to return home. He agrees when them convinced Du Locle to approach de Leuven for the go- Left alone with him, she entices José with suggestions of a rendezvous José's commanding officer. he learns that his mother is dying, ahead. When told of the plan, de Leuven reportedly exclaimed: at Lillas Pastia’s tavern ( Près des remparts de Séville ). Mesmerized, but before he leaves he warns he agrees to let her get away. As they leave for prison, Carmen escapes. Moralès baritone Carmen that they will meet again. "Carmen! The Carmen of Mérimée? Wasn't she murdered by her Don José is arrested. [mor-AHL-ehs] Pause lover? At the Opéra-Comique, the theater of families, of wedding Intermission An army corporal. ACT IV Back in Seville, the parties? You would put the public to flight. No, no, impossible." ACT II Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès entertain the crowd cheers the bullfighters on guests at the tavern ( Les tringles des sistres tintaient ). Zuniga tells Gypsy friends of Carmen their way to the arena ( A deux Halévy promised that this would be a "softer, tamer Carmen," that Carmen that José has just been released.