|
A Bombshell
Carmen at the movies,
by MARIA NOCKIN
In 1883, Georges Bizet, with librettists Henri Meilhac and Lodovic Halévy, began making an opera from Prosper Mérimée's novella, Carmen. The plot may have been influenced by Alexander Pushkin's narrative poem, The Gypsies, which the French author had translated. To make the story play out better on the opera stage, Bizet's librettists made some changes. They invented the role of Micaëla to give Carmen some competition and they enlarged the part of the bullfighter.
The opera's world première ocurred on 3 March 1875 at the Théâtre National de L'Opéra in Paris before an audience that found the story rather inappropriate for the family groups in attendance....
Copyright © 24 January 2010
Maria Nockin,
Arizona USA
|
