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O P E R A N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
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February 11 - March 25, 2017
bourgeois family audience. Stories
with a moral, enhanced by light,
pleasant music, were the norm.
The Opéra also structured all the
works it commissioned similarly,
which, with spoken dialogue
in between set-pieces of music,
almost resembles modern musical
theater structure more than it
does traditional opera. Later revisions to
Carmen
included sung recitative in the
place of dialogue, but Lyric audiences will
see the Opéra Comique version that Bizet
and his librettists devised.
Bearing all this in mind, the creative
team for
Carmen
made some concessions.
The characters of Micaëla, Don José’s
virginal fiancée, and Frasquita and
Mercédès, Carmen’s lively friends, were
added. The librettists even considered
turning the smugglers, Dancaïre and
Remendado, into something approaching
comic figures. But as the opera’s evolution
progressed towards opening night, Bizet
became increasingly resolute about certain
unconventional details – he considered the
onstage murder absolutely indispensable
to the plot and the no-holds-barred acting
of the first Carmen, Célestine Galli-Marié,
adequately ferocious. Additionally, he
Among Lyric’s Carmens have been
(clockwise) the captivating Giulietta
Simionato, the ebullient Jean Madeira,
the fiery Alicia Nafé, the mesmerizing
Teresa Berganza, and the intense Grace
Bumbry (pictured with Franco Corelli).
insisted that the chorus, which previously
performed fixed on the sides of the stage,
move and act. The sensationalized media
coverage, plus the unapologetic onstage
depiction of a social class the elites saw as
dirty and lesser, contributed to one of the
biggest opening-night fiascos in operatic
history.
The initial acts were positively
received, but the audience became
increasingly hostile. “They did not seem
to want to enjoy themselves,” remarked
the singer Barnolt, who sang Remendado.
By the end, there were only a handful
of people left in the house when the
singers took their bows, and most of
the audience had dismissed the work
entirely. However, it wasn’t so much
Carmen’s outward sexuality or immoral
deeds that offended operagoers; it
was that the work represented a step
forward in entertainment at the time
– a step away from the customs that
distinguished French opera from what
was happening contemporaneously in
Italy (Verdi’s
Aida
and
Simon Boccanegra
)
and Germany (Wagner’s
Ring
cycle and
Parsifal
). In those countries, the medium
was arguably growing in a faster, more
innovative way towards Italy’s
verismo
and Wagner’s
Gesamtkunstwerk
. Maybe
Giacomo Puccini framed it best when
he contrasted his
Manon Lescaut
(1893)
with the quintessential opéra comique,
Manon
(1884)
,
by Bizet’s contemporary
Jules Massenet: “Massenet feels it as a
Frenchman, with powder and minuets. I
shall feel it as an Italian, with a desperate
passion.”
Carmen
embodied that
transition.
If anything, Bizet’s Carmen is a softer,
more sentimental creation than Mérimée’s
NANCY SORENSEN
NANCY SORENSEN
DAVID H. FISHMAN
TONY ROMANO
TONY ROMANO