Bizet's Carmen
Author: Burton D. Fisher
Publisher: Opera Journeys Publishing
Published: 2001-08-15
Total Pages: 33
ISBN-13: 1102008923
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Bizet's Carmen
Author: Michael Steen
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
Published: 2013-02-20
Total Pages: 54
ISBN-13: 1848315511
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Paris audience in 1875 was shocked by the sexually explicit realism of Bizet's exotic operatic masterpiece, its 'verismo' depiction of low life and brutal passion. But since the disastrous première – a sensational failure which hastened Bizet's premature death – it has been the greatest operatic success. It led to a film opera, a jazz opera, a rock ballet and a Broadway musical. Equally, it impressed great composers including Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Vaughan Williams. The story, written by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by librettists Meilhac and Halévy, is set in colourful Seville, in southern Spain, renowned for bullfights. The corporal Don José is seduced by Carmencita, a gypsy whore who works in a tobacco factory. With her Habanera (a Cuban dance like the tango) and Andalusian Seguidilla, she charms him, and escapes prison. She falls for Escamillo, a celebrity toreador associated with the famous tune Toréador en garde. Don José's Flower Song fails to win her for long. We visit the haunt of Seville's demi-monde, Lillas Pastia's bodega, and a gypsy encampment in the mountains, before José stabs Carmen outside the bullring. Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, 'Short Guides to Great Operas' are concise, entertaining and easy to read. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience. Other 'Short Guides to Great Operas' that you may enjoy include Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Eugene Onegin.
Bizet's the Pearl Fishers
Author: Burton D. Fisher
Publisher: Opera Journeys Publishing
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 17
ISBN-13: 1102008931
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBurton D. Fisher's extremely popular Mini Guides feature Principal Characters in the Opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis of the opera.
Bizet's Carmen Uncovered
Author: Richard Langham Smith
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Published: 2021
Total Pages: 341
ISBN-13: 1783275251
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBizet's Carmen Uncovered exposes the myths and stereotypes that so often surround this much loved opera by exploring its first staging, and the particularly Spanish contexts in which the opera was conceived, written, and staged.
The Metropolitan Opera Presents: Georges Bizet's Carmen
Author: Henri Meilhac
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Published: 2014-09-01
Total Pages: 157
ISBN-13: 1574674706
DOWNLOAD EBOOK(Amadeus). A riveting story of fatal attraction between a beguiling, strong-willed gypsy and a naive but passionate soldier who falls under her spell, Georges Bizet's Carmen pulses with seduction, obsession, and deadly betrayal. It was reviled at its Paris premiere, where its realism and perceived amorality proved shocking, but it became one of the most popular and highly regarded operas of all time. Arguably the greatest musical product of France's enduring fascination with Spain, Carmen features many numbers that are now almost universally familiar, including the seductive Habanera and the boastful but infectious Toreador Song. Don Jose is an idealistic young corporal in 1820s Seville when he encounters the gypsy Carmen, who is irresistible to all men seemingly except Jose, who loves the innocent country girl Micaela. But soon enough Carmen works her wiles on him to escape imprisonment, and a later twist of ever-looming fate forces him to completely abandon the world he knows and follow Carmen into a life of crime. When the bullfighter Escamillo wins Carmen's affections, Don Jose's explosive jealousy clashes with Carmen's resolve to remain true to herself, leading to one of opera's fiercest confrontations and most unforgettable conclusions.
Georges Bizet's Carmen
Author: Nelly Furman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 153
ISBN-13: 0190059141
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"The heroine of the most performed opera in the world since 1875, Carmen has become a universal cultural icon. She has appeared in a multitude of ballets, on stage as well as ice rinks, and in some eighty international films. The success of Bizet' opera owns a lot to the libretto's singular accounting of the 1845 short story on which it is based. In her close textual analyses of Ludovic Halévy's and Henri Meilhac's libretto and Prosper Mérimée's novella, the author strives to account for the multiple aspects of Carmen's attraction that support George Bizet's acclaimed musical score. Through its multi-facetted cultural renditions through time and place, the story of Carmen can be said to have attained the status of a myth. Myths are stories that speak to us, in our own time and place, about personal, social, or cultural issues"--
Bizet's CARMEN Opera Journeys Mini Guide
Author: Burton, Fisher D. Publishing Staff
Publisher: Opera Journeys Publishing
Published: 2000-04
Total Pages: 42
ISBN-13: 0967397324
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCarmen
Author: Susan McClary
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1992-07-09
Total Pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9780521398978
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBizet's Carmen is probably the best known opera of the standard repertoire, yet its very familiarity often prevents us from approaching it with the seriousness it deserves. This handbook explores the opera in a number of contexts, bringing to the surface the controversies over gender, race, class and musical propriety that greeted its premiere and that have been rekindled by the recent spate of film versions. Beginning with a study of the Mérimée story by Peter Robinson and an examination of the social tensions in nineteenth-century France that inform both that story and the opera, the book traces the latter through its genesis and reception. The central core of the book presents a close reading of the opera that offers new interpretive possibilities. The handbook concludes with discussions of four films based on the opera: Carmen Jones and the versions of Carmen by Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, and Francesco Rosi. The volume contains a bibliography, music examples, and a synopsis.
Carmen
Author:
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Pub
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9781579125080
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContains the complete text of the libretto with annotations in both English and Italian and a critical historical commentary. The text also includes the background of the composer, biographies of the principal singers and conductor. The two accompanying CDs contain the complete opera sung in Italian.
Bizet
Author: Hugh Macdonald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-07-23
Total Pages: 321
ISBN-13: 0199384738
DOWNLOAD EBOOKToday Georges Bizet is most immediately recognized as the composer of the acclaimed opera Carmen. One of the most frequently performed operas for over a century, Carmen explores concepts such as the femme fatale and murderous jealousy with vivacity, color, and a wealth of melody. Yet it is only one act in Bizet's story. In Bizet, renowned musicologist Hugh Macdonald goes beyond the composer's most famous opera to take an in-depth look at his entire life and oeuvre. In so doing, Macdonald identifies a number of previously unknown pieces by Bizet, assembling the first comprehensive catalogue of the composer's work. Incorporating these little-known pieces with a thorough reading of primary sources, Macdonald considers the latest in Bizet scholarship to create a complete biography of the composer. Revealing the true extent of Bizet's work as arranger and transcriber, Macdonald sheds light on the composer's complex relationships with his contemporaries, and traces the strange misrepresentation of Bizet's work by French publishers and opera houses in the 1880s, when Carmen rose to worldwide popularity ten years after the composer's early death. The first biography of Bizet in the Master Musicians series in nearly four decades, Bizet will be essential reading for students and scholars of nineteenth-century opera, as well as for Carmen devotees and opera fans.
