Opera in four acts by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Henri Milhac and Ludovico Halevi, based on a short story by Prosper Mérimée.

Characters:

CARMEN, gypsy (soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto)
DON JOSE, corporal (tenor)
ESCAMILO, bullfighter (baritone)
MICHAELA, peasant woman (soprano)
EL DANCAYRO, smuggler (baritone)
EL REMENDADO, smuggler (tenor)
ZUNIGA, Captain Jose (bass)
MORALES, officer (bass or baritone)
FRASCHITA, gypsy (soprano)
MERCEDES, gypsy (soprano)

Time period: around 1820.
Location: Seville and its surroundings.
First performance: Paris, Opéra Comique, 3 March 1875.

Carmen is, I am sure, the most popular of all operas. There is an opinion that the cause of Bizet’s death was the mental trauma he received from the failure of the opera at its premiere (the composer died three months after it). But it is a fact that this opera was received much better than any of Bizet’s previous works (already in the year of its production at the Opera Comique, “Carmen” was given thirty-seven times and has since been performed on this stage more than three thousand times). In fact, Bizet died - aged just thirty-seven - from illness; it was probably an embolism (blockage of a blood vessel). Nowadays, this opera is included in the repertoire of all opera troupes and is performed in all languages, including Japanese. Her popularity is not limited only to the opera stage. It has expanded into the repertoire of restaurant music, and exists in piano transcriptions as well as film versions (the latest and most successful, Carmen Jones, is based on an operetta version that was a hit on Broadway).

It is not difficult to understand the reason for such popularity. The opera has many great melodies! She is extraordinarily dramatic. She is so brilliant and clear! In addition, all these characteristic features are already revealed in the overture. It starts bright and clear - like a sunny day in Spain. Next, the famous melody of the bullfighter's couplets sounds, and finally it unexpectedly becomes dramatic - at the moment when the theme of fate is heard in the orchestra, the very theme that characterizes Carmen and her frantic love.

ACT I

The overture ends with a dramatic dissonant chord. The curtain rises. In front of us is a square in Seville (almost 180 years ago). Sultry afternoon. At the barracks there is a group of soldiers off duty, they look at passers-by and cynically discuss them. There is a cigar factory right across from the barracks. Michaela appears. She is not local and is looking for her friend Corporal Don Jose here and, when she finds out that he is not here, embarrassed by the offers of his colleagues to stay with them, she leaves. There is a changing of the guard, during which a group of street urchins pose as soldiers. Among those replaced are Don Jose and his commander, Captain Zuniga, who, in a brief conversation with Don Jose, is interested in the girls working at the cigar factory. They are obviously attractive, as a group of young men (today we would call them country cowboys) are gathered at the factory gates, waiting for them to come out for their lunch break. The ringing of the bell at the factory announces the beginning of the break, and a crowd of broken, cheerful workers pour out of the gates, they smoke cigars - a rather bold activity for a girl in the twenties of the 19th century! But the assembled young men are waiting first of all for the most attractive of them - Carmen.

The orchestra announces Carmen's appearance with a short version of the theme of her fate; here, finally, she herself. She flirts with boys and sings. The famous habanera sounds (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” - “Love has wings like a bird”). This is a frank warning that Carmen's love is a dangerous business. Don Jose (he always seemed to me to be some kind of formalist and pedant) does not pay any attention to Carmen, and at the end of her song she disdainfully throws a flower at him. The girls return to work and laugh at his embarrassment.

Michaela arrives, still looking for Don Jose. she has a letter to him from his mother and a gift - a good reason for a very tender duet (“Parle moi ma mere” - “What did the relatives say?”). Before they have time to finish their duet, a terrible noise is heard in the factory, and the workers run out into the street. Captain Zuniga, trying to restore order, finds out that the reason for Carmen’s panic: she attacked one of the girls and slashed her with a knife. He orders Don José to arrest the culprit, bring her to him for trial in the barracks and guard her until he decides what to do with her. Left alone with Don José, Carmen finally wins the heart of the young soldier with a heady seguidilla (“Pres de la porte de Seville" - "Near the bastion in Seville"). In it, she promises to sing and dance for him - and love him! - in a tavern near Seville (not a very good reputation), which is kept by her friend Lilyas Pastya. Zuniga returns, he gives the order to Don Jose to take Carmen to prison. On the way there, she manages to push Don Jose away and escape. As a result, the young corporal was arrested.

ACT II

Each of the four acts of Carmen is preceded by its own symphonic introduction, or intermission. The intermission for the second act is based on a short soldier's song, which Don José later sings. As the curtain rises we see Lillas Pasta's tavern. Gypsy dance is full of fiery fun. Captain Zuniga, this boss of Jose, is also here. Of the visitors, he is the most important person. Now he is trying to win Carmen over. He doesn't succeed very well - Carmen prefers a less respectable society. However, she is pleased to hear that the sixty-day period of Don Jose’s guardhouse, which he received for connivance in her escape, is ending.

Suddenly a popular athlete appears on stage. This is Escamillo, the bullfighter, and, of course, he sings his famous “Toreador Couples” (“Votre toast, je peux le rendre” - “Toast, friends, I accept yours”); everyone joins him in unison. Like Zuniga, he is captivated by the sparkle in Carmen's eyes. The same one, for her part, can give him no more hope.

But it’s already late, and it’s time to close the tavern. Soon everyone leaves, and no one remains except Carmen and four smugglers - two girls named Frasquita and Mercedes, and a couple of bandits - El Dancairo and El Remendado. They sing together a light, lively quintet (“Nous avons en tete une affaire” - “We want to offer you a job”). Everyone talks about the need for girls to carry out smuggling raids, because this is their business. Where it is necessary to deceive, to divert attention, women are irreplaceable. At this moment, the voice of Don Jose is heard behind the stage, singing his soldier’s song.

Carmen, waiting for Jose, escorts everyone out of the tavern and warmly greets Don Jose, who came here after his release from arrest. As she promised, she sings and dances for him. In the midst of her dance, the sound of a trumpet is heard, which for Don Jose is a signal to report to the barracks. He wants to go, but this inflames Carmen even more. “Is this how you treat a girl?” - she shouts to him. Carmen is angry: she no longer wants to see a man for whom there is something more important than her love. Touched by her reproaches, he takes out the flower that she once threw to him, and in a very passionate “aria about the flower” he talks about how it inspired him all those days that he spent in prison (“La fleur que tu m’ avais jete” - “You see how sacredly I preserve the flower that you gave me”). Touched and softened in heart, Carmen again addresses him with affection. But what she could not achieve with affection, jealousy achieves: Zuniga, Don Jose’s commander, appears on the threshold of the tavern: an officer has come to see Carmen on a date, and the corporal has nothing else to do here. He arrogantly orders Don José to go to the barracks. Well, this is too much! Don José, having lost his head, draws his saber; he is ready to attack the senior officer. At this moment, the gypsies burst in and disarm the captain. Don Jose has no choice: he abandons his military career and joins a gang of gypsies - smugglers - this is exactly what Carmen planned. The second act ends with a chorus glorifying free life. Everyone sings it enthusiastically except Zuniga.

ACT III

The flute solo, which begins the intermission for the third act, paints a poetic picture of nature - the peace and quiet of the slumbering mountains. A chorus of smugglers sounds, a song to which Don José was forced to join. Now they have settled down for a short rest among the mountains in a secluded place, where they are engaged in their illegal business. Don Jose suffers from homesickness (he dreams of a quiet peasant life), and he is tormented by remorse. Only his passionate love for Carmen keeps him in the smuggling camp. But Carmen doesn't love him anymore, she's tired of him. A breakup is inevitable. What do the cards predict? Frasquita and Mercedes are guessing. I must say that they have predicted a very attractive future for themselves: Frasquita is destined to meet a passionate lover, Mercedes is destined to meet a rich old man who intends to marry her, and she, Carmen, is destined to meet “spades” for the umpteenth time - death. “It’s pointless to try to escape your own destiny,” she sings in the famous “card” aria. But now the signal sounds for the smugglers to go to work, that is, to try to smuggle their goods across the border. (Their choir in this place always amazes me with its noisiness, because it is sung by criminals engaged in illegal and therefore secret operations.)

As they leave, Micaela appears, looking for Don Jose. She is very frightened and asks God for protection in a touching aria (“Je dis que rien ne m’epouvante” - “I assure myself in vain”). Suddenly Jose, who was left to guard part of the goods, shoots at someone who is sneaking here. The frightened girl is hiding. However, Jose was not aiming at Michaela, but, as it turned out, at Escamillo, who came here in search of Carmen, with whom he was in love. Recognizing him, Don Jose grabs a knife, and a fight ensues between the rivals, but Escamillo’s dagger breaks, and the bullfighter ends up on the ground. At this moment - very opportunely - Carmen appears to save the bullfighter. Having exquisitely thanked Carmen, he invites everyone to his next performance in Seville. Escamillo leaves, and then Don José discovers Micaela's presence nearby. She tells why she decided to go on this dangerous journey after the smugglers: Don Jose’s mother is dying and wants to see him for the last time. Carmen scornfully tells Jose that he better go. But before leaving, he turns to her and angrily warns that they will meet again - only death can separate them. A bullfighter's aria sounds behind the stage, Carmen tries to run towards him. But Don José, turning to her once again, roughly, with all his might, pushes her so that she falls to the ground. Only after this is it deleted. The orchestra repeats the bullfighter's melody quietly and ominously.

ACT IV

The last act is preceded by one of the most brilliant orchestral fragments of the entire score - a symphonic episode, captivating with its rhythmic pulsation, in the style of the Spanish folk dance of polo. Everyone is in festive clothes; everyone is ready to enjoy the magnificent performance of Escamillo in the arena in Seville. Noble ladies, officers, commoners, soldiers - it seems that the whole city has gathered, wanting to see the bullfight. Finally, the bullfighter himself appears and with him on his arm is Carmen, dressed with the luxury with which only a bull-winner at the zenith of his glory could afford to dress his beloved. They sing a short and rather banal love duet. And when Escamillo disappears inside the theater, everyone, with the exception of Carmen, rushes after him. Her friends, Frasquita and Mercedes, warn her that Don José is hiding somewhere here. She defiantly remains standing alone, declaring that she is not afraid of him.

Don Jose enters, he advances menacingly towards her, in rags, wounded - a striking contrast to Carmen on the day of her triumph. He conjures her to return to him. The answer was her firm refusal. One more of his pleas - and again the answer was only contempt. In the end, she furiously throws the gold ring he gave her right in his face. Behind the stage, a jubilant chorus sounds to the victorious bullfighter - Don Jose's lucky rival. Lost by all this, Don Jose threatens Carmen with a dagger. She desperately tries to hide from him in the theater. But at that moment, when the crowd in the theater enthusiastically greets the winner - Escamillo, Don Jose here, on the street, plunges a dagger into the beloved he has lost forever. The crowd pours out of the theater. Don José, mentally broken, shouts in despair: “Arrest me! I killed her. Oh my Carmen! - and falls at the feet of the dead Carmen.

Henry W. Simon (translated by A. Maikapara)

Few nineteenth-century operas can compare with this one: the world of music would be incomplete without Carmen, and Bizet would only have to write this opera to become Bizet. But this is not what the audience at the Opera Comique thought when, in 1875, they first received the opera with increasing indifference and even indignation. Particular rejection was caused by the most stormy scenes and the realistic performance of Marie-Celestine Galli-Marier, the performer of the leading role, who later contributed to the establishment of Bizet’s masterpiece on the stage. During the premiere, Gounod, Thomas and Massenet were present in the hall, praising the author only out of politeness. The libretto, to which the composer himself made changes several times, belonged to two masters of the light genre - Halévy (cousin of Bizet's wife) and Méliac, who initially entertained the audience in collaboration with Offenbach, and then independently, creating comedies that were very much appreciated. They drew the plot from Mérimée's novella (even earlier proposed to him by Bizet) and had to work hard to get it accepted into the Opera Comique, where a love story with a bloody end and against a rather common background caused considerable confusion. This theater, which, however, always tried to be less traditional, was visited by the well-meaning bourgeoisie, who used the performances to arrange the marriage affairs of their children. The variety of characters, mostly ambiguous, that Merimee introduced into his short story - gypsies, thieves, smugglers, cigar factory workers, women of easy virtue and bullfighters - did not contribute to the maintenance of good morals. The librettists managed to create a lively Spanish flavor, they highlighted several bright images, framing them with exquisite choirs and dances, and added to this rather dark company an innocent and pure character - young Michaela, who, although she remained outside the threshold of the action, made it possible to create a number of integral and touching musical pages.

The music embodied the librettists' vision with a precise sense of proportion; this music combined the sensitivity, ardor and strong flavor of Spanish folklore, partly authentic and partly composed, and was intended to give pleasure even to a hostile taste. But this did not happen. Nevertheless, despite the failure, Carmen lasted forty-five performances in the year of its premiere. This was a real record, which was certainly facilitated by curiosity and the desire to see a “scandalous” performance of its kind. After the thirty-fifth performance, there was also added shock caused by the death of the still young author, killed, as they said, by undeserved failure. The first signs of real approval for the opera appeared after the Viennese production in October of the same year (in which spoken dialogues were replaced by recitatives), which attracted the attention and approval of such masters as Brahms and Wagner. Tchaikovsky saw “Carmen” in Paris more than once throughout 1876 and wrote the following enthusiastic words in one of his 1880 letters to von Meck: “... I don’t know anything in music that has a greater right to represent an element that I call pretty, le joli... There are many piquant harmonies, completely new sound combinations, but all this is not an exclusive goal. Bizet is an artist who pays tribute to the century and modernity, but is warmed by true inspiration. And what a wonderful plot of the opera! I can’t play the last scene without tears!” And that some melodies and harmonies, as well as partly the instrumental color, subsequently influenced him - this is beyond any doubt: Bizet portrayed too well the passion flaring and raging in the soul of a beauty, as if spoiled by her own beauty - the beauty and depravity of the heroine feed flame of tragedy.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about this in 1888 in the first chapters of the book “The Wagner Case”, after listening to “Carmen” twenty times, for the first time in 1881 in Genoa, when the fate of the opera was already decided. Nietzsche conveys his impressions of “Carmen”: “She approaches, graceful, languid, flirtatious... There is something African in her serenity... her passion is short, unexpected, feverish... This is love - fatum, fate, shameless, innocent, cruel." The tragedy occurs against the backdrop of a bullfight, in broad daylight, where death has nowhere to hide. The heroine's singing - exotic, extraordinary, spontaneous, like a story about a long journey - is combined with the purest and most enthusiastic choral pages that have ever been written. Then a challenge is thrown in the face of the smug spectator, for the first time in European music, a veristic alarm is sounded: something that does not fit well with the good manners of the prima. Already in The Pearl Fishers, Bizet showed how eyes, clouded by the haze of dreams, suddenly begin to see the rough and cruel material world in front of them. But now he created a language not of dreams, but of experience, and was able to introduce elements that academic pedants had always considered impossible in a beautiful style (many of these pedants never understood Carmen).

The vocal part of the opera, being ardent and impetuous, is not without sophistication. Often the melodies, long and wide, languid or very rhythmic, meander and envelop the images with a strange charm, like Carmen’s shawl, which she lowered over her face, covering one eye, while the other threw lightning into hearts. But opera has a place not only for sensuality. Bizet puts everything on the line, the wildest imagination comes into play. This is the final ensemble in the tavern, which dates back to the late Rossini and will influence the comic style of the late 19th century, Verdi's Falstaff: Bizet adds chromatic sharpness to the clicking of heels and castanets (then turning into sparkling singing) and with a high voice begins a free, unrestrained anthem (the same exciting ease permeates the children's march from the first act). There is another anthem - in view of the smugglers' camp - this is a duet between Micaela and Jose, which with its church cadences is close to a lullaby at an accelerated tempo. And what can we say about the appearance of the cigar factory workers with their swaggering gait, about the legendary land of smugglers, about the terzetto with cards, about the luxurious preparations for the bullfight? Truly too much beauty. All this is too perfect not to die of despair.

Bizet, however, knew very well what the true dignity of music is, as we can read about in his article published in 1867 in the Revue National et Étranger. Defending sincerity in art, he wrote: “For me there are only two types of music: good and bad... Make me laugh or cry; portray to me love, hatred, fanaticism, crime: charm me, dazzle me, delight me, and I, of course, will not inflict a stupid insult on you by sticking a label on you, like some coleopterous insect.”

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)

History of creation

Bizet began working on the opera Carmen in 1874. Its plot is borrowed from the short story of the same name by the French writer Prosper Merimee (1803-1870), written in 1845. The content of the novella has undergone significant changes in the opera. Experienced writers A. Melyac (1831-1897) and L. Halévy (1834-1908) masterfully developed the libretto, filling it with drama, deepening emotional contrasts, and creating prominent images of characters that were in many ways different from their literary prototypes. Jose, portrayed by the writer as a gloomy, proud and stern robber, acquired different features in the opera; a peasant boy who became a dragoon, he is shown as a simple, honest, but hot-tempered and weak-willed person. The image of the strong-willed, courageous bullfighter Escamillo, barely outlined in the novella, received a bright and juicy characterization in the opera. Compared to the literary prototype, the image of Jose Micaela's bride is even more developed - a gentle and affectionate girl, whose appearance sets off the unbridled and ardent character of the gypsy. The image of the main character has also been significantly changed. Carmen in the opera is the embodiment of female beauty and charm, passionate love of freedom and courage. Cunning, thieving efficiency - these features of Carmen in Merimee's novella were eliminated in the opera. Bizet ennobled the character of his heroine, emphasizing the directness of her feelings and independence of actions. And finally, expanding the scope of the narrative, the authors of the opera introduced colorful folk scenes. The life of a temperamental, motley crowd under the burning sun of the south, the romantic figures of gypsies and smugglers, the elevated atmosphere of a bullfight with particular poignancy and brightness emphasize in the opera the original characters of Carmen, Jose, Michaela and Escamillo, and the drama of their destinies. These scenes gave the tragic plot an optimistic sound.

The premiere of "Carmen" took place in Paris on March 3, 1875 and was not a success. The author was accused of immorality: the free expression of the feelings of the heroes - ordinary people from the people - was abhorrent to sanctimonious bourgeois morality. One of the first among Bizet’s great contemporaries to appreciate the music of “Carmen” was P. I. Tchaikovsky. “Bizet’s opera,” he wrote, “is a masterpiece, one of those few things that are destined to reflect to the greatest extent the musical aspirations of an entire era. In ten years, Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world.” These words turned out to be prophetic. If in 1876 “Carmen” disappeared for a long time from the repertoire of Parisian theaters, then abroad - in Vienna (1875), St. Petersburg (1878) and many other European cities, its success was truly triumphant. In Paris, the production of Carmen was revived in 1883 in the edition of E. Guiraud (1837-1892), who replaced spoken dialogue with recitatives and added ballet scenes at the opera's finale, taking music from other works by Bizet.

Music

"Carmen" is one of the masterpieces of opera. Music, full of life and light, vividly affirms the freedom of the human person. The drama of clashes and conflicts is deeply truthful. The characters of the opera are depicted juicily, temperamentally, in all the psychological complexity of their characters. The national Spanish flavor and setting of the drama were recreated with great skill. The strength of Carmen's optimism lies in the inextricable internal connection between the heroes and the people.

The opera opens with an overture, which juxtaposes images of sunny Spain, jubilant folk festivals and the tragic fate of Carmen.

The beginning of the first act is serene and clear. The opening folk scenes are rich in movement and color: a choir of soldiers, a fervent march of boys. A choir of girls, factory workers, prepares for Carmen's exit. Her habanera “Love has wings like a bird” is close to proud Spanish song-dances. The duet between Michaela and Jose “I Remember a Day in the Mountains” is designed in idyllic tones. The song about a formidable husband, the seguidilla and the duet of Carmen and Jose create a multifaceted image of a freedom-loving gypsy.

The second act, like all subsequent ones, is preceded by a colorful symphonic intermission. The gypsy dance that opens the act is full of fiery fun. Escamillo’s energetic, courageous march “Toast, friends, I accept yours” (his music was first heard in the overture) outlines the brave hero of the bullfight. The smugglers' quintet (featuring Carmen) "If we need to deceive" is kept in a light, lively character. The duet of Carmen and Jose is the most important scene of the opera, a clash of two human wills, characters, views on life and love. The embodiment of the heroes’ life ideals is Jose’s “aria about a flower” (“You see how sacredly I preserve the flower that you gave me”) and Carmen’s song, her hymn to freedom “There, there, to my native mountains.” If the characterization of Jose is dominated by the element of song-romance, emphasizing his spiritual softness, then the rebellious spirit of Carmen is revealed in the temperamental rhythms and melodies of Spanish folk songs. The act ends with the melody of the freedom-loving song of Carmen, heard by the choir.

The symphonic intermission for the third act paints a poetic picture of nature - the peace and quiet of the slumbering mountains. A gloomy, wary sextet with a chorus-march of smugglers “Bolder, bolder on the road, friends, go!” - and another chorus - of a lively and cheerful character, “The customs soldier is not afraid of us”, outline the world in which Carmen and Jose live. The central episode of the third act is the fortune telling scene (terzetto); the cheerful chirping of Frasquita and Mercedes sets off the mournful reflection of Carmen, who appears here in an unusual, tragic form. Michaela's lyrical aria “I assure myself in vain” takes on a decisive character. José's meeting with Escamillo creates a dramatic build-up and sets up the climax of the third act (Carmen's breakup with José). The finale of the act conveys the ominous alertness and tension of the situation, foreshadowing the inevitable denouement.

The symphonic intermission for the fourth act, in keeping with the character of the Spanish folk dance "polo", is one of the remarkable examples of Bizet's penetration into the spirit of folk music. The act breaks down into two halves: the pictures of a bright, sparkling national holiday are contrasted with the personal drama of the characters; life's contrasts are extremely exposed. The action opens with a lively folk scene, reminiscent of the beginning of the opera in its bright and sunny coloring. A solemn heroic march and choir accompany Escamillo's triumphal procession. The melody of the duet “If you love, Carmen” by Escamillo and Carmen flows widely and freely, full of hot feelings. In the second half of the act, especially in the duet between Jose and Carmen, the dramatic tension quickly increases. Throughout the entire scene, the contrast between popular rejoicing and personal drama intensifies. Four times the intruding festive cheers of the crowd intensify the duel between the heroes, leading to a tragic outcome.

M. Druskin

One of the most outstanding works of world opera classics. After the scandalous premiere, which ended in failure, already in the autumn of the same year the Vienna premiere (for which Guiraud wrote recitatives instead of spoken dialogues) was a great success, which the composer was not destined to see (Bizet died suddenly in the summer of 1875). Recently, a number of theaters have returned to the “talk” version. The Russian premiere took place in 1885 (Mariinsky Theatre, conductor Napravnik, as Carmen Slavina). Carmen has enjoyed unprecedented popularity for over 100 years. Her incendiary melodies: habanera “L'amour est oiseau rebelle”, couplets of the bullfighter “Votre toast”, heartfelt lyrical episodes (José’s aria “with a flower” from 2 d., etc.) are heard as well as the most popular folk and pop songs . In 1967, Karajan staged the film-opera “Carmen” with the participation of Bumbry, Vickers, and Freni. A new version of the opera was filmed in 1983 by F. Rosi (director Maazel, soloists Migenes-Johnson, Domingo, etc.). Among the productions of recent years, we note the 1996 performances at the Metropolitan Opera (Graves in the title role) and at the Mariinsky Theater (director Gergiev).

Discography: CD (with recitatives) - RCA Victor. Dir. Karajan, Carmen (L. Price), Jose (Corelli), Michaela (Freni), Escamillo (Merrill) - Deutsche Grammophon. Dir. Levine, Carmen (Baltsa), Jose (Carreras), Michaela (Mitchell), Escamillo (Ramie) - CD (with dialogues) - Philips. Dir. Ozawa, Carmen (Norman), Jose (Shikoff), Michaela (Freni), Escamillo (Estes).

E. Tsodokov

Bizet became interested in the plot of “Carmen” while working on “Djamil”, and in 1873-1874 he began to work on finishing the libretto and writing music. On March 3, 1875, the premiere of the “Comic Opera” took place at the theater; three months later, on June 3, Bizet suddenly died, without having time to complete a number of his other works. (Among them is the heroic opera “Cid” (in a later version - “Don Rodrigo”) based on the tragedy by de Castro. The music was fully composed, but not recorded (only sketches of the vocal parts have survived) - Bizet played it to his friends. Possessing a rare memory, Bizet, like Mozart, recorded his compositions on music paper only when the deadline for their performance approached.)

His premature death was probably hastened by the social scandal that erupted around Carmen. The jaded bourgeoisie - ordinary visitors to boxes and stalls - found the plot of the opera obscene, and the music too serious and complex. Press reviews were almost unanimously negative. At the beginning of the next year, 1876, “Carmen” disappeared for a long time from the repertoire of Parisian theaters, and at the same time its triumphant success began on the theatrical stage of foreign countries (first performance in Russia took place in 1878). In Paris, the production of Carmen was resumed only in 1883. After her transition to the Grand Opera stage, Ernest Guiraud replaced the original dialogues with recitatives and added ballet scenes in the last act (borrowed from the music of La Belle de Perth and L'Arlesienne). From now on, “Carmen” deservedly took one of the first places in the repertoire of the world musical theater.

But long before that, Tchaikovsky noted its outstanding artistic value. Already in 1875 he had the clavier “Carmen”, at the beginning of 1876 he saw it on the stage of the Parisian “Opera-Comique”. In 1877, Tchaikovsky wrote: “...I learned it by heart, all from beginning to end.” And in 1880 he stated: “In my opinion, this is in the full sense of the word a masterpiece, that is, one of those few things that are destined to reflect to the greatest extent the musical aspirations of an entire era.” And then he prophetically predicted: “I am convinced that in ten years Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world...”

The plot of the opera is borrowed from Prosper Merimee’s short story “Carmen” (1847), or more precisely, from its third chapter, which contains Jose’s story about the drama of his life. Experienced masters of theatrical dramaturgy, Meliac and Halevi, created an excellent, scenically effective libretto, the dramatic situations and text of which clearly outline the characters of the characters in the play. But during the development of this plot under the leadership of Bizet, significantly important new points were introduced.

First of all, the image of Jose (in Spanish pronunciation - Jose) has changed. Merimee is a famous bandit who has many crimes on his conscience. He is stern, proud, gloomy and somehow reminded the writer of “Milton’s Satan.” The image created by Merimee is unusual and has a more conventionally “operatic” character than is the case in Bizet’s opera itself. In the composer's interpretation, Jose is humane, simple, and devoid of any individual exceptionalism. Bizet did not describe a fearless, strong-willed, romantically lonely hero, but his contemporary, an honest, straightforward, somewhat weak-willed man, dreaming of cozy and calm happiness, but due to fatal circumstances, torn from the usual conditions of existence. This was the reason for his personal drama.

A radical rethinking of Jose's image brought new aspects to his relationship with Carmen.

And this image became different. But the changes here went in the opposite direction - everything connected with the depiction of Carmen’s dexterity, cunning, and thieving efficiency was removed, in other words, everything that belittled this image. In Bizet's opera he is elevated, made nobler and, again, more humane, and even endowed with traits of tragic greatness in the end. Without breaking with the original source, the authors of the opera more actively emphasized the love of freedom and the straightforwardness of the heroine’s courageous character. They brought the essence of this image closer to that romantic interpretation of “gypsy” as a synonym for love of freedom, independence in personal relationships, opposed to the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality, which found its most vivid embodiment in Pushkin’s “Gypsies.”

But most importantly - music Bizet endowed Carmen with features folk character. In order for the composer to achieve this, the librettists changed the scene of the action - they took it to the squares and vast expanses of the mountains, populating them with masses of people, full of lively and active joy, in constant movement. Life began to boil vigorously around the opera's heroes, and their connections with reality - especially Carmen's - became stronger and more multifaceted.

The introduction of folk scenes, which occupy an important place in the opera, gave a different light, a different flavor to Merimee’s novella, and, moreover, a different ideological orientation: the drama, dark in color, acquired the character of an optimistic tragedy. The image of the heroine is also permeated with the power of love of life radiated from folk scenes. The glorification of open, simple and strong feelings, a direct, impulsive attitude towards life is the main feature of Bizet's opera, its high ethical value. “Carmen,” wrote Romain Rolland, “is all outside, all life, all light, without shadows, without understatement.”

Concentrating the action, compressing it, freeing it from side intrigues, but at the same time expanding To enhance the role of the people, the authors of the opera saturated the drama with vital contrasts and gave its development energy and dynamics. In contrast to Jose, the bullfighter Escamillo acquired a strong-willed, heroic, albeit somewhat external characteristic, and the antithesis to Carmen was the affectionate and gentle Micaela - an image created by the librettists on the basis of a casually thrown phrase by the writer about “a girl in a blue skirt and with blond braids.” This antithesis also has a strong literary tradition. One can recall the contrast between the images of Clelia and the Duchess from Stendhal’s “The Parma Monastery” or in his novel “The Red and the Black” - Madame Renal and Mathilde de Lamole. In the specific context of the opera, this antithesis helped to show Jose’s spiritual drama and his painful search for happiness in a multifaceted way.

Bizet's music further emphasized the contrast and dynamics of dramatic development: it is characterized by liveliness, brilliance, and variety of movements. These qualities, typical of the composer, perfectly corresponded to the depiction of the action of the Spanish plot. Only in rare cases, using folk melodies, did Bizet aptly convey the Spanish national flavor. This was not the first time he turned to it: the symphony-cantata “Vasco da Gama” (1859), an arrangement of six Spanish songs (1867), gypsy songs and dances in “The Perth Beauty” (1867) - and the features of gypsy music are included as an important element in folklore of the southern regions of Spain - and, finally, the unfinished opera "Cid" (1873-1874) - these are the stages of Bizet's creative quest to discover his method of reproducing the Spanish national spirit. The role of the “Arlesienne” is also significant, since the folklore of Provence, as well as its language, is partly close to Spanish.

Only three genuine folk melodies are used in the opera's score: this is the habanera of Act I, the music of which gives a free adaptation of a song of Cuban origin, published in 1864 in one of the collections (see examples 194 a, b); polo (Spanish folk dance) from the orchestral introduction to Act IV - its melody is inspired by the song of the famous Spanish singer M. Garcia (see example 283 V) and, finally, the melody of Carmen Zuniga’s daring response in Act I (see example 195), for which the librettists used the text of Zemfira’s song from Pushkin’s “Gypsies” translated by P. Merimee.

Along with such “quotations,” Bizet interspersed into the musical fabric individual turns and development techniques - melodic and rhythmic, characteristic of Spanish music. These are the methods of cadence highlighting the V stage - the mentioned intermission ends on the dominant; comparisons within the framework of the seven-step mode of major and minor tetrachords, and the final sound of the first of them coincides with the initial sound of the second, which occurs both in the aforementioned intermission and in the seguidilla of Act I.

Development of a music lesson in 7th grade on the topic:

The opera “Carmen” by J. Bizet is the most popular opera in the world. Image of Carmen.

Goals:

Introducing schoolchildren to J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”.

Development of an educational mini-project “The Image of Carmen”.

Tasks:

Educational: introduce students to the work of a brilliant musician and help them understand and feel that the music of J. Bizet is diverse, diverse and multifaceted. Pay attention to the features of J. Bizet’s musical style, working in groups to complete creative tasks - learn and perform “Habanera from J. Bizet’s opera Carmen” on musical instruments; create a poster for J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”, compose a verbal portrait of Carmen.

Developmental: contribute to the development of self-expression of students through worldview and perception of the musical work, through various forms of activity.

Educators: contribute to the development of a culture of thinking and language culture of students; personal interest in participation in the creative process, the formation of a sustainable interest in music, the cultivation of emotional responsiveness to music.

Corrective tasks:

Development of the psychological basis of speech: auditory attention, visual memory.

Development of ensemble and solo singing skills.

Development of a dialogical form of speech (question-answer).

Enriching the vocabulary of nouns in practical activities.

Subject competencies:

Give an idea of ​​the features of musical terms: recitative, mezzo-soprano;

Develop a listening and performing culture;

To teach to understand meta-subject connections in the art of music;

To foster a culture of speech and language culture, to bring students closer to understanding the specific language of music.

Social competencies:

Ability to listen, hear and understand the opinions of others

Develop a culture of thinking and feeling

Communication competence:

Culture of monologue, dialogue and polylogue.

Personal competencies:

Mastering various forms of artistic activity in the direction of spiritual self-expression and self-development.

Choosing an independent route in communication with art.

Regulatory UUD: provide the ability to manage cognitive and educational activities through goal setting, planning, control, correction of one’s actions and assessment of the success of assimilation.

Cognitive UUD:

The student learns to learn and explore the world around him. The student masters not only general educational activities (the ability to set a goal, work with information, simulate a situation), but also logical operations.

Communication UUD:

Provide opportunities for cooperation - the ability to hear, listen and understand a partner, plan and coordinately carry out joint activities, distribute roles, mutually control each other’s actions, the ability to negotiate, conduct a discussion, correctly express one’s thoughts in speech, respect the partner and oneself in communication and cooperation .

Personal UUD:

By mastering personal universal skills, the student more successfully accepts the norms of behavior in a team, society, and learns to correctly evaluate himself and his actions. The student begins to realize his involvement in the country in which he lives, and as a result, he develops a sense of patriotism, and the need arises to study the history of his state. This contains a moral aspect: the ability to empathize, provide mutual assistance, and show responsiveness to your loved ones.

Lesson type: mini-project lesson.

Lesson equipment:

Textbook “Music” for grade 7, ed. E.D. Kritskaya, creative notebook for the textbook “Music” for grade 7, blank for a poster, blank for a verbal portrait, overture to the opera “Carmen”, Habanera, fortune telling scene from the opera, minus the song “Together we are a great force”, multimedia, synthesizer.

Form of work:

Work in creative groups (type of groups: musicians, artists, writers)

Teaching methods: teacher's word, problem questions, group work, product manufacturing, product presentation.

Pedagogical technologies: personal-oriented, project activities, cognitive-creative project, ICT technologies, elements of gaming technology, health-saving technology (transition from one type of activity to another)

During the classes

Organizing time

Greeting in the form of vocalization of the teacher and students;

Definition of absentees;

Checking students' readiness for the lesson

Emotional mood

The school bell is ringing,

An interesting and useful lesson awaits us.

May you be in a good mood.

And the teaching is given to you with joy.

And to make the mood joyful, smile at each other, give smiles to our guests and give a smile to me. We begin our lesson on such a joyful note.

Motivation and updating of knowledge

Let's close our eyes and imagine ourselves in musical theater. Theater is a world of fairy tales, amazing adventures and transformations. We will listen to the opera. This word translated from Italian, as you already know, means “work”, “deed”, “composition”. Every opera performance is an inspired work... by whom?(Composer, singers, choir and orchestra, conductor) .

Opera is a musical performance in which the characters sing accompanied by an orchestra.

Introductory information from the teacher and formation of the lesson goal:

Our lesson will be held in the form of a lesson - a project. This lesson will give you the opportunity to do something interesting. To do this, we will divide into groups, and we will see what we get at the end of the lesson.

The epigraph to our lesson sounds like this: “The mind consists not only in knowledge, but also in the ability to apply knowledge in practice” (Aristotle)

How do you understand this?(knowing something and not telling anyone is bad, you need to share your knowledge with others).

We will return to this epigraph later, and you yourself will be able to explain why I chose it for our lesson.

Today we will go to France, where at the end of the 19th century J. Bizet lived and created his musical works, and his opera “Carmen” is one of the most popular in the world. What opera is popular?(famous, best, favorite opera) .

As you understand, the topic of the lesson... Maybe someone has already guessed?(Opera by J. Bizet “Carmen”) .

The topic of our lesson: “ Carmen" is the most popular opera in the world. And the topic of today’s mini-project is “The Image of Carmen.”

So let's formulate togetherThe purpose of our lesson - project:

(Get acquainted with J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen” and the image of Carmen.)

Immersion in the project

The first performance of the opera "Carmen" in Paris was not successful; the author was accused of immorality. Free expressions of the feelings of heroes - ordinary people from the people - were prohibited at that time. One of the first among Bizet’s great contemporaries to appreciate the music of “Carmen” was P.I. Chaikovsky.

“In ten years, Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world,” wrote the Russian composer. What made Bizet's opera so beloved and famous? It had everything that was needed for a work to become truly popular - the truth of life, strong feelings, music full of fascination, expressiveness, and beauty.

So what is this opera about?

The plot is based on a story by the French writer Prosper Merimee. It tells the story of love and the tragic death of its main characters. These are people from the people: the soldier Jose and the gypsy Carmen. Because of his love for Carmen, Jose forgot his duty and became a robber. Out of jealousy and grief, he killed Carmen when she betrayed his love and fell in love with a bullfighter. The image of the strong-willed, courageous bullfighter Escamillo received a vivid description. Guys, who is a bullfighter? (This is a brave, strong man, he fights with bulls in the arena).

The events in the opera develop against the backdrop of Spanish life, full of bright colors, on streets and squares filled with people. The orchestra in opera not only enhances the beauty of the vocal parts, but often speaks for the characters.

Getting to know new musical material

The opera has 4 acts. It opens with an overture. You know what this is, right?(This is a discovery, a beginning. By its character we get an idea of ​​the opera as a whole)

The overture juxtaposes images of sunny Spain, jubilant folk festivals and the tragic fate of Carmen. Let's listen carefully to the overture.

*Listening to the overture to J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”*

Beautiful music? How many themes do you think were heard in the overture, or rather, how many themes did you hear?(2 themes. 1 theme: powerful, bright, temperamental, dance, 2 theme: song and march).

This is correct, these two themes make up the jubilant part of the overture, but we have heard music of a different nature, what kind?(tragic, gloomy, sad, alarming).

The two themes are a colorful world of life, celebration and light. He is confronted by another world, of dark passions, of the tragic fate of Carmen, the motif of “fatal passion” that haunts Carmen like a shadow throughout the entire opera.

You already know how to use musical terms. Let's intelligently think about the means of musical expression.(1 topic: the melody takes off, fickle, its character changes, okay – major key, life-affirming music, emotional. Register – medium and high, rhythm – both smooth and intermittent, pace - fast, dynamics – changes (loud – quiet).

(topic 2: character is decisive, courageous. Melody – smooth, without ups and downs).

Lad – major,register - average,rhythm – smooth, clear,pace - average,dynamics – not loudly.

The melody was constantly changing, the volume, tempo and rhythm were changing, which kept us on edge, that is, the music was unpredictable. The music of the overture created the image of a free gypsy and a jubilant procession of people.

Now let's talk about the main character.

Carmen is a gypsy, a cigar factory worker. How did she seem to you while listening to the overture?(She is beautiful, passionate, loves freedom). Carmen in the opera is the embodiment of female beauty and charm, passion and courage. J. Bizet masterfully conveys the fiery temperament of the gypsy, her indomitable character, beauty and enthusiasm. Carmen's vocal part is full of intonations and rhythms of Spanish folk songs and dances. Performs the role of Carmen in the operamezzo-soprano (low female voice).

Carmen's entrance is preceded by the sound of an orchestra. The musical characteristic of the freedom-loving Carmen, the habanera, contains the rhythms of this folk dance.

*Listening to “Habanera” from J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”*

Habanera is a free love song that sounds like a challenge to Jose. At the end of the scene, Carmen throws a flower to Jose, the young soldier, thereby recognizing him as her chosen one, and promises love.

In Act 3, another characteristic of Carmen appears. The difference between Jose and Carmen is too great. Jose dreams of a quiet life as a peasant, but Carmen no longer loves him. A gap between them is inevitable. She and her friends are telling fortunes with cards. What will they tell her? Only fate does not promise anything good for Carmen; she saw her death sentence in the cards. With deep sorrow she reflects on the future.

INrecitative For Carmen, the motif of “fatal passion” acquires great importance.

Recitative is a type of vocal music based on speech intonations; it is constructed freely, close to speech.

*Listening to Scenes of fortune telling from J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”*

(“If the cards gave me the wrong answer”)

We got acquainted with the overture to the opera “Carmen” and the image of the main character, listening to her performance with Habanera and the Fortune Telling Scene with the motif of “fatal passion”.

Work on the mini-project “Image of Carmen”.

Let's divide into three creative groups (optional).

Musicians: Bobrova M., Kharkin D., Vorontsov V., Ovchinnikov A.

Artists: Khasanov R., Gurchenok D., Kuznetsova T.

Writers: Kuznetsova M., Kolodochkin V., Pozdnyakov R., Basagin A.

Now you will begin to work in creative groups, using the materials that I will distribute to each group. You must work quickly to have time to showcase your creative products. If you have any questions or difficulties, I will help you.

The writers will begin , they make up a verbal portrait of Carmen. The guys will read to us a poem by A. Blok, which he dedicated to the scene of Carmen’s entrance. Compare your impressions with the poet’s opinion.

How the ocean changes color

When in a heaped cloud

Suddenly a flashing light blazes, -

So the heart is under a singing thunderstorm

Changes the system, afraid to breathe,

And the blood rushes to the cheeks,

And tears of happiness choke my chest

Before the appearance of Carmencita.

What is your characteristic of Carmen?(Carmen is a very beautiful, proud, free, passionate gypsy) . Do your impressions coincide with the opinion of A. Blok?(Yes, Bizet’s music helped us understand this).

Artists create a poster for the opera.

The musicians learn the Habanera melody and perform it.

Well done boys! You worked very well in groups and showed us the results of your creativity.

For the next lesson we will continue our acquaintance with J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”.

Now let's get down to vocal and choral work.

Let's do the exercises:

To develop breathing (inhale-exhale). Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Starting position – main stance. On the strong beat, inhale through the nose, on the weak beat, exhale through the mouth.

We sing according to the notes do-re-mi-fa-sol, sol-fa-mi-re-do

Here I go up

Here I go down

In our school children live together, and teachers are their true friends. Together we are a great force, and we will sing about this with you now.

Performance of the song “Together we are a great force”

Lesson summary.

Our lesson is coming to an end. Today we made a fascinating journey to the musical theater and got acquainted with the opera “Carmen” by J. Bizet: we listened to the overture, the Habanera, the Fortune Telling Scene from the opera “Carmen”, and completed a mini-project “The Image of Carmen”.

Reflection.

Let's remember the goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the lesson? (Get acquainted with J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen” and the image of Carmen).

Answer the questions:

Have we achieved this goal?(Yes)

What do you consider significant and interesting when completing a project?(That we split up and worked in groups)

What are your feelings and impressions of participating in the project?(It was interesting to listen to guys from other groups and perform myself)

What experience have you gained? (Experience working in a group, ability to listen to classical music)

Where will the knowledge you gain be useful?(In other lessons, in life)

The knowledge gained will expand our understanding of world musical culture and will be useful to us in our future life. Let us turn to our epigraph, which expresses the idea that knowledge must be able to be applied in practice. And our project today is proof of this. Isn't it true, guys?(Yes)

Assessing students' work in class.

Homework:

I am giving you homework sheets on the topic of today's lesson. Try it at home. If something doesn't work out, we'll do it together in class.

Musical chant:

Goodbye children!

Goodbye!

“Carmen” is the culmination of the work of the French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) and one of the pinnacles of all opera music. This opera became Bizet's last work: its premiere took place on March 3, 1875, and exactly three months later the composer died. His premature death was accelerated by the enormous scandal that erupted around Carmen: the respectable public found the plot of the opera indecent, and the music too learned, imitative (“Wagnerian”).

Plot and libretto

The plot is borrowed from the novella of the same name by Prosper Merimee, or more precisely, from its final chapter, containing Jose’s story about his life drama.

The libretto was written by experienced playwrights A. Melyak and L. Halevi, significantly rethinking the original source:

• The images of the main characters have been changed. Jose is not a gloomy and stern robber, on whose conscience there are many crimes, but an ordinary person, straightforward and honest, somewhat weak-willed and hot-tempered. He loves his mother dearly and dreams of calm family happiness. Carmen is ennobled, her cunning and thievery are excluded, her love of freedom and independence are more actively emphasized;
• The very flavor of Spain became different. The action takes place not in wild mountain gorges and gloomy city slums, but on the sun-drenched streets and squares of Seville, the mountain expanses. Mérimée's Spain is shrouded in night darkness, Bizet's Spain is full of a stormy and joyful effervescence of life;
• To enhance the contrast, the librettists expanded the role of side characters that were barely outlined in Mérimée. The lyrical contrast to the ardent and temperamental Carmen was the gentle and quiet Micaela, and the opposite of Jose was the cheerful and self-confident bullfighter Escamillo;
• The significance of folk scenes, which expanded the scope of the narrative, was enhanced. Life began to boil around the main characters, they were surrounded by living masses of people - tobacco workers, dragoons, gypsies, smugglers, etc.

Genre

The Carmen genre is very unique. Bizet gave it the subtitle “comic opera,” although its content is truly tragic. This name for the genre is explained by the long tradition of the French theater to classify as comedy any work that is plot-related to the everyday life of ordinary people. In addition, Bizet chose for his opera the traditional structural principle of French comic opera - the alternation of complete musical numbers and spoken prose episodes. After Bizet's death, his friend, composer Ernst Guiraud replaced colloquial speech with musical, i.e. recitatives. This contributed to the continuity of musical development, but the connection with the genre of comic opera was completely broken. While remaining formally within the framework of comic opera, Bizet opened a completely new genre for the French opera theater - realistic musical drama, which synthesized the best features of other opera genres:

• expanded scale, bright theatricality, extensive use of crowd scenes with dance numbers, “Carmen” is close to the “grand French opera”;
• appeal to love drama, deep truthfulness and sincerity in revealing human relationships, democratic musical language comes from lyrical opera;
• reliance on genre and everyday elements, comic details in Zuniga's part are a sign of comic opera.

Opera idea is to affirm the human right to freedom of feelings. In “Carmen,” two different ways of life, two worldviews, two psychologies collide, the “incompatibility” of which naturally leads to a tragic outcome (in Jose it is “patriarchal”, in Carmen it is free, not constrained by the norms of generally accepted morality).

Dramaturgy The opera is based on a contrasting comparison of a love drama full of drama and fatal doom and bright, festive scenes of folk life. This opposition develops throughout the work, from the overture to the climactic final scene.

1 action opens with a mass choral scene, showing the backdrop against which the drama will unfold and previewing the appearance of the main character, Carmen. Here an exposition of almost all the main characters (except Escamillo) is given and the beginning of the drama takes place - in the scene with the flower. The culminating peak of this action is seguidilla: Jose, overwhelmed by passion, no longer able to resist Carmen’s charms, he violates the order, facilitating her escape.

Act 2 also opens with a noisy, lively folk scene in the Lilas Pastya tavern (a secret meeting place for smugglers). Here Escamillo receives his portrait description. In the same action, the first conflict arises in the relationship between Carmen and Jose: a quarrel overshadows the very first love date. The unexpected arrival of Zuniga decides the fate of Jose, who is forced to stay with the smugglers.

IN Act 3 the conflict escalates and a tragic outcome is outlined: Jose suffers from betrayal of duty, longing for his home, jealousy and increasingly passionate love for Carmen, but she has already lost interest in him. The center of Act 3 is the fortune-telling scene, where Carmen's fate is predicted, and the climax is the scene of the fight between Jose and Escamillo and Carmen's breakup with him. However, the denouement is delayed: in the finale of this action, Jose leaves Michaela to visit his sick mother. In general, Act 3, a turning point in the dramaturgy of the opera, is distinguished by its gloomy coloring (the events take place at night in the mountains) and is permeated with a feeling of anxious anticipation. The march and the sextet of smugglers with their restless, wary character play a large role in the emotional coloring of the action.

IN Act 4 the development of the conflict enters its final stage and reaches its climax. The denouement of the drama takes place in the final scene of Carmen and Jose. It is prepared by a festive folk scene awaiting a bullfight. The jubilant screams of the crowd from the circus form the background in the duet itself. That. folk scenes are constantly accompanied by episodes revealing personal drama.

Overture is divided into two contrasting sections, representing two opposite spheres of the work: Section I, in a complex three-part form, is built on the themes of the folk festival and the music of Escamillo’s couplets (in a trio); The 2nd section is on the theme of Carmen's fatal passion.

Now let's talk about the main character.

Carmen is a gypsy, a cigar factory worker. She is beautiful, passionate, loves freedom. Carmen in the opera is the embodiment of female beauty and charm, passion and courage. J. Bizet masterfully conveys the fiery temperament of the gypsy, her indomitable character, beauty and enthusiasm. Carmen's vocal part is full of intonations and rhythms of Spanish folk songs and dances. Carmen's entrance is preceded by the sound of an orchestra. The musical characteristic of the freedom-loving Carmen, the habanera, contains the rhythms of this folk dance.

“Habanera” from J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”

Habanera is a free love song that sounds like a challenge to Jose. At the end of the scene, Carmen throws a flower to Jose, the young soldier, thereby recognizing him as her chosen one, and promises love.

In Act 3, another characteristic of Carmen appears. The difference between Jose and Carmen is too great. Jose dreams of a quiet life as a peasant, but Carmen no longer loves him. A gap between them is inevitable. She and her friends are telling fortunes with cards. What will they tell her? Only fate does not promise anything good for Carmen; she saw her death sentence in the cards. With deep sorrow she reflects on the future.

The image of Carmen in literature

Carmen- Spanish gypsy Carmencita. The narrator, a French historian, meets her in 1830 in Andalusia, and later learns her story from her lover, an awaiting execution robber called José Navarro. José, who served as a non-commissioned officer in Seville, met K. when she worked in a tobacco factory there. Forced to arrest her for a fight with another worker, he lets her go, succumbing to a sudden passion; K. becomes his mistress. Having become jealous of her for the officer of his regiment, he kills his rival and is forced to hide from court. K. hides him and introduces him to a gang of robbers and smugglers who rob rich travelers, whom the gypsy lures into a trap with her beauty. Here Jose has a new rival - “husband” Carmen, a cruel bandit who escaped from prison; Having killed him in the fight, Jose himself becomes her “husband,” but Carmen does not accept his claims to power and sole possession. In Cordoba, she meets the bullfighter Lucas, and then Jose, who is “tired of killing Carmen’s lovers,” takes her to the mountains to put her to death; she refuses the offer to go to America together and dies courageously, without trying to escape or beg for mercy. Jose, unable to survive the death of his beloved, surrenders to the authorities and goes to the scaffold. Karme is a robber, she participates in robberies and murders and herself finds death from a dagger. The love she inspires in men is a romantically cruel and frantic passion. Carmen's inconstancy is interpreted in Merimee's novel not as a manifestation of weak female nature, but as a fanatical devotion of a romantic individual to the idea of ​​freedom.

The image of Carmen in art and literature

Often writers, poets, composers and artists turn to eternal images of literature and art. Each author has the right to introduce other features into an already existing image, and to remove the old ones altogether. But still, the brightest facets of this eternal image remain unchanged. The so-called “wandering” plots and images are interesting in all the diversity of these transformations.

There are many eternal images known: Don Juan, Don Quixote, Sancho Panzo, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and many, many others. One of the most recognizable, popular and, perhaps, even the most beloved is the image of Carmen.

When you see a dark-haired girl with a scarlet flower in her hair at a carnival, the name Carmen pops up at the level of association, and along with the name, everything else that is associated with this name comes to mind: the girl’s love of freedom, pride, charm, divine beauty, insidiousness, cunning, - everything that defeated Jose and that defeats other men.

Carmen became the first world-famous femme fatale in literary history, although there are other popular characters. The “femme fatale” has been popular at all times and comes across us, in one form or another, in every culture.

It seems that Merimee wrote a story that could very well have happened in reality. Merimee does not idealize her heroes. In the image of Carmen, he embodies all the “bad passions”: she is insidious and evil, she betrays her husband, the crooked Garcia, she is merciless towards her abandoned lover. Why then does she attract men so much?

Carmen is an integral person with a love of freedom, a protest against all violence and oppression. It was these character traits that impressed the composer Georges Bizet, who continued to develop the image in his opera.

Immediately after the premiere of the opera, which took place in 1875, many negative reviews followed, but at the same time, great geniuses appreciated Bizet’s opera.

P. I. Tchaikovsky wrote: “Bizet’s opera is a masterpiece, one of those few things that are destined to reflect to the greatest extent the musical aspirations of an entire era. In ten years, Carmen will be the most popular opera in the world.” These words turned out to be truly prophetic. Nowadays, the opera is included in the repertoire of all opera troupes and is performed in all languages ​​of the world, including even Japanese.

"Carmen" is one of the masterpieces of opera. Bizet masterfully recreated the Spanish flavor, the peculiarities of the gypsy nature, and the drama of conflicts.

The image of the beautiful, unpredictable gypsy Carmen is very mysterious. Many writers and poets tried to understand what exactly was so enchanting about her.

The name Carmen is associated with beauty, deceit, love of freedom, rose, habanera, Spain, love - that is why there are so many interpretations in different fields of art. And yet, for many, Carmen is a symbol of love of freedom and the trampling of all violence.

Opera Carmen and its history

The material was “taken away” from the site http://site/

Opera "Carmen" is one of my favorite operas, attracting me not so much with its plot and action, but with the amazing music of Georges Bizet, which just gives me goosebumps every time. It excites and takes you with you to distant Spain, engulfed in love passions and incendiary bullfights.

Poster for the opera “Carmen”, 2016, Opera and Ballet Theater, Minsk

It seems surprising that “the most Spanish opera,” as it is often called, was written by a Frenchman who had never been to Spain! The opera Carmen is rightfully considered a classic of Spanish music. Her Suite No. 2 is considered to be the brightest example of classical Spanish flamenco dance. The rhythm of this suite is still used as the basis for many flamenco music and dance performances. "March of the Toreodores" has long been recognized as the best passado doble.

History of the opera Carmen

The 4-act opera Carmen was written by Georges Bizet in 1874. The libretto for it was written by Henri Meillac and Ludovic Halévy. The inspiration for its creation was the short story of the same name by a French writer.

The premiere took place in Paris, on the stage of the Opera Comique theater. The production director was Charles Ponchard, whom Bizet himself considered to be to blame for the failure of his opera.

“Carmen” became Georges Bizet’s sixth opera. Of his previous 5 creations, three were staged during the author’s lifetime, but none of them were successful. The composer, however, continued to compose in the manner he considered necessary. The plot for the new opera, which he was offered to write in 1872 by the directors of the Opera-Comique, Camille du Locle and Adolphe de Leuven, was proposed by Bizet himself. He took Merimee’s famous short story “Carmen” as a basis.

Changed Carmen

To write the libretto, Bizet chose his longtime collaborators Henri Meillac and Ludovic Halévy, whose cousin, by the way, the composer was married to. Experienced librettists approached the plot creatively, discarding all the digressions in Merimee's plot and focusing on the action. Bizet also took an active part in writing the libretto. Instead of showing Jose as a bandit, they made him a simple village guy who committed a crime out of stupidity and ended up in the army. Through honest service he achieved the rank of corporal. He has a fiancée, a kind and simple girl, Michaela, whom he loves. This character didn't have one at all. The image of the bullfighter Escamillo was also an innovation of Melhak and Halévy. In the original, he was not popular, but was nameless and did not have any special merits in the arena. The main character has also undergone changes. Instead of a brazen and cunning cheat, she appeared before the audience as a straightforward and free-thinking beauty. She is distinguished not only by her cheerful disposition and lively tongue, but also by her seductive charm coupled with uncontrollable courage. In the opera Carmen, the heroine seems to rise above everyone else, who despise the poor gypsy in her. She behaves nobly and independently, protecting her freedom even at the cost of her own life!