Today, Friday, March 3, 2000, is "Carmen" Day!

Posted By: Randa Lee
Date: Friday, 3 March 2000, at 9:08 a.m.

Today, Friday, March 3, 2000, is "Carmen" Day!

It was on this day in 1875 that French composer George Bizet was disappointed when his opera "Carmen" opened at Paris's Opéra Comique to, shall we say, less than enthusiastic response.

Actually, it was going to become the most popular opera of all time, but he couldn't know that at the time. And as it turned out, he was in the last year of his all-too-short life, although at that point no one guessed he would be dead within a very few months.

Here's the way it was:
http://www.msu.edu/~colmeiro/bizet.html

Here's a general overview of the story:
http://www.fgo.org/bizetsynopsis.html

And here's one of Bizet's life:
http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/00566_A.html

The poor man never received the adulation he deserved for his music. In fact, "Carmen" was just beginning to get popular when he died. Here's the whole story:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/info/carmen.html

He really may have died early just because he'd been given so much grief over his latest opera. Here's some more of the nitty-gritty:
http://laopera.org/98-99/carmenabout.htm

And here's a fuller synopsis:
http://laopera.org/98-99/carmensynopsis.htm

So. . .was Carmen a witch? or just a free spirit (and a very sexy lady)? You decide. And, hey, if you haven't seen this film version from 1984, you could do worse:

http://www.cduniverse.com/asp/videoinfo.asp?style=videoafl&LCC=33966+60487+3&cart=89864838&vCfg=ALL

The opera's popularity has continued unabated for a century and a quarter. Just as an example, check out this page, which is full of pictures of Geraldine Farrar, a popular singer from yesteryear (and, ahem, the mistress of a famous conductor, it says). Scroll down a screen or two to catch her as "Carmen":
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/matsumo/player/e-page6pa.htm

Here's an old theater poster, showing her with the toreador, Don Escamillo:
http://www.postermart.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=ric-21003792-mi181.html/SID=1332511143

In this recording, Jose Carreras is the soldier who succumbs to Carmen's, uh, charms:

http://www.cduniverse.com/asp/classical/classical_album_info.asp?style=classical&afl=&lc=4236+10088&muzenbr=10534&lk_bnewsl

On the other hand, just in case you'd rather listen to jazz than to opera, here's a tasty bit by a totally different Carmen (and I understand it's on sale this week, too!) It's Carmen MacRae, singing Monk:
http://www.cduniverse.com/asp/albuminfo.asp?style=audio&afl=&LC=MSI97148&lk_bnewsl

Messages In This Thread

Today, Friday, March 3, 2000, is "Carmen" Day!
Randa Lee -- Friday, 3 March 2000, at 9:08 a.m.

Here is the poster
Phil -- Friday, 3 March 2000, at 8:05 p.m.

 

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