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A Good Night for Singing
Los Angeles Opera's 'Carmen',
reviewed by MARIA NOCKIN
When Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the libretto for Georges Bizet's Carmen, they based their text on one section of Prosper Mérimée's novella, leaving out a great deal of material about its not-exactly-squeaky-clean leading characters. Don José, a Basque, had to leave his native province of Navarre because he killed a man in a fight over a ballgame called paume. On his arrival in Seville he joined a unit of dragoons, soldiers with police functions.
Because she has been accused of having cut an X in a co-worker's face, the dragoons are holding Carmen...
Copyright © 25 September 2013
Maria Nockin,
Arizona USA
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