Carmen is the opera that has ensured Bizet’s lasting fame but which, somewhat uniquely, was partly fashioned by pressures from the directorate of the commissioning theatre, the Opéra-Comique. The revenue from this theatre was largely dependent on attracting the bourgeoisie, providing an evening out for chaperoned couples with an eye on marriage. Thus a setting including a ...
live and people in the Sierra Madre could hear the same musicians on the radio. Moisés Simóns’ ‘The Peanut Vendor’ was a smash hit in North America; Rita Hayworth and Carmen Miranda were Hollywood stars; mambo mania took over New York. Music was being listened to by people who were not its target audience. World music existed. However, the idea ...
‘The Pearl Fishers’ While the success of Carmen overshadows his other operas, Bizet’s first lasting success was with Les pêcheurs de perles, written when he was only 24. Set in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), it uses gently oriental inflections to portray the priestess Leïla torn between love and her sacred vows, and a more romantic and dramatic style for ...
March 1910 and another five before it was premiered in London on 29 May 1915. In 1876, when Tchaikovsky was visiting Paris, he saw a performance of Bizet’s Carmen and became entranced by its tuneful, graceful music. Three years later, echoes of Carmen went into The Queen of Spades and so did the style of another composer ...
premiere of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. She soon became associated with Rossini’s heroines, Angelina, Rosina and Isabella, all of which she sang with irresistible charm and charisma. Her Carmen in Paris in 1930 was a triumph, but she could not translate the success to the Covent Garden stage. She died of complications following childbirth aged 40. Introduction | ...
on French opera extended beyond his libretti for the composer Alfred Bruneau as his realist credo became known not only through his novels but also through public exposure. While Bizet’s Carmen began the trend for realistic events, Zola’s ideas confirmed it. Charpentier’s Louise is notable, and there are also works by Gabriel Dupont, Camille Erlanger, Xavier Leroux ...
Milan, Chicago, New York, London, Buenos Aires, Madrid and St Petersburg. Among Tamagno’s numerous roles were Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila and Gabriele Adorno in the revised version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, in 1881. Introduction | High Romantic | Opera Personalities | Enrico ...
the uncle of Ludovic Halévy (1834–1908), who was the co-librettist both of his first performed work for the stage, the operetta Le Docteur Miracle, and of his last: Carmen itself. Operatic Beginnings Le Docteur Miracle, written when the composer was 20, had been preceded by a one-act opéra comique, La maison du docteur. Both show the ...
considered a failure by the French musical establishment. He had had several operas produced in Paris, but none of them had been wholly successful; now his latest work, Carmen, had caused a scandal. Bizet’s reputation was at its lowest ebb, but already the tide was turning. In less than 10 years Carmen swept across Europe and North ...
(Vocals, b. 1927) Born in Harlem to Caribbean parents, the young Belafonte lived in Jamaica for five years. Multi-talented, he starred on stage and screen (in Carmen Jones, 1954), becoming a folk singer in 1955. He led a brief calypso craze with ‘Jamaica Farewell’, ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ and the million-selling ‘Banana Boat (Day-O)’. The title song from ...
and most famously for Offenbach. Meilhac and Halévy had great talent for depicting and satirizing the foibles and shortcomings of human nature. The Meilhac-Halévy libretto for Bizet’s dramatic and tragic Carmen was something of a departure for them, since their forte lay in operetta. The genre gave them plenty of chances to make fun of ancient myths and parody some ...
(Zhak Of’-fen-bakh) 1819–80 French composer Offenbach’s tuneful, witty and often outrageous satires on Greek mythology and the Second Empire enthralled the French public, including the Emperor Louis-Napoleon. After only one year at the Paris Conservatoire, he joined the Opéra-Comique orchestra, studying with Halévy, and toured as a virtuoso cellist. After conducting at the Théâtre Français, he ...
have secured his place in the operatic firmament. He sings a large number of spinto tenor roles, such as the title role in Don Carlos, Don Jose in Carmen, and Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, alongside an increasing number of Wagnerian roles. His versatility in opera sits comfortably alongside his recital performances, for which he is equally ...
post-Wagnerian exoticism, described by D’Indy as ‘semi-religious eroticism’, illustrated in the seductive lyricism of its famous ‘Méditation’, often played as a violin encore. The gutsy verismo style of Bizet’s Carmen infuses La Navarraise (1894, aptly set in Spain) and Sapho (1897) with expressive power, while the medievalism of his later operas (Esclarmonde, 1888 and Grisélidis, 1894) ...
1834–1908, French Ludovic Halévy was the nephew of the French composer Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) and first made his name as a novelist and playwright. Halévy worked as a civil servant until 1865, when he retired to write full time. By then he had already become friendly with Jacques Offenbach and in 1858, together with Hector Crémieux (1828–92), he ...
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