Free stream tonight: Carmen in her original provocative form
OperaThe first Parisian audiences at the Opéra Comique were supposedly shocked to see the incarnation of such an independent heroine. But what did those audiences in 1875 actually see on stage? With the support of Palazzetto Bru Zane (Centre de Musique Romantique Française), Opéra de Rouen Normandie have (re)created Bizet’s Carmen with the original costumes, sets and staging of the 1875 premiere. It has been a long journey for Carmen, the French opera that has now become the one most performed around the globe. After the outrage at the première and Bizet’s sudden death in the same year, Carmen started to win the hearts of audiences in Vienna, Brussels, Saint-Petersburg, New York… and only triumphed in Paris in 1883. This production, brought to you by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision, offers the restoration of the original mise-en-scène, costumes and sets, to give audiences today an idea of what Bizet’s searing depiction of a woman, who craves love but creates obsession, looked like in its early days.
Conducted by Ben Glassberg and directed by Romain Gilbert. Carmen is sung by Deepa Johnny, Don José by Stanislas de Barbeyrac and Escamillo by Nicolas Courjal.
Sung in French with subtitles in English, French, Italian and German.
The Plot: among Seville’s cigar makers, Carmen is the most attractive woman around. Arrested for the assault of a friend, she enthrals the brigadier Don José who lets her escape. For her, José abandons his childhood sweetheart, he gives up his rank, deserts the army… and to what ends will passion drive him when he loses Carmen’s love to the glamorous bullfighter Escamillo?
Streamed on Friday 10th January 2025 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
A production recreating the “… original costumes, sets and staging of the 1875 premiere”. Is the original score used too? (Orininally an operetta, the work was revised to be presented as an opera.)
But they’re singing recititatives so presumably not the original opera-comique version (with spoken dialogue) at all.
Refreshingly, a return to the original, making it seem “new” after now-cliched and predictable contemporary stagings (i.e., Carmen twerks on the hood of a Jeep as the Spanish Civil War rages).
The famous protagonist is now celebrated as one of the women in opera to demand her equal human rights, after Leonore, Sieglinde, Brünhilde and Isolde. But was Carmen such a nice woman? First she assaults a friend, then she seduces José to escape the law, then breaks his heart when she leaves him for a glamorous bull killer. Independent a woman or not, it is not entirely incomprehensible that José – who left all that was important in his life to be with Carmen – got into a blind fury.The murder could have been prevented if a good friend had taken him to a therapist. And surely, Carmen would have had enough of the toreador quite soon, we know what kind of types they are.
Original costumes and staging. Pity they didn’t also do the original score as Bizet intended. At the very least they could have present the recits as dialogue. As talented as Guiraud was, it’s just not Bizet, nor his conception, though his cuts to the dialogue are quite good.