Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4891030507272
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BIZET
Release Date: 01 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943123829
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BIZET
Description
Georges BIZET (1838-1875)CarmenAmong the great composers, perhaps only Borodin contributed as little to the active repertoire as Georges Bizet, and yet this talented but short-lived Frenchman will never be forgotten. His Carmen is the most popular of all operas, challenged only by Puccini’s La bohème. It is in the repertoire of every opera house and has been recorded innumerable times — it was one of the first operas to be recorded complete. Among the many films that have been made of it is one of the black Broadway version Carmen Jones with English lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The irony is that Bizet himself did not live to see the success of his masterpiece and when he went to his grave, even his friends and supporters must have despaired of his reputation. One or two of his other operas, notably The Pearl Fishers, still have a slight hold on our attention, as do a handful of orchestral pieces, but to all intents and purposes he is a one-work composer. The idea of adapting Prosper Mérimée’s novella into an opera came from Bizet himself. He had the services of the notable librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy — he was related to the latter by marriage — and they did a superb job. In some ways they expanded the original story, inventing the character Micaëla as a counterpart to Carmen and beefing up the toreador’s rôle; in other directions they contracted it, making the hero Don José’s downfall into a crime less degrading. Bizet himself made some contributions to the libretto and in writing the music he surpassed himself, with dazzling solo numbers, deftly tailored ensembles, ranging from the lofty style of the duet of Micaëla and Don José to the almost operetta mode of the famous quintet, and characterful choruses. At other points, for instance the Card Scene and the final confrontation between Carmen and the desperate Don José, he produced his most dramatic music. The opera ran into trouble even during the rehearsals at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, with the chorus, required to act with previously unheard-of naturalism, going on strike at one point. The première on 3rd March 1875 was not well received and while it is easy to see that the subject matter must have appalled bourgeois opera-goers, who did not mind reading about such things but did not want to see them staged, it is strange to find that even the music did not please at first. The management, which had been courageous enough in putting the work on, stood by it and gave it 35 performances; but poor Bizet was dead before the end of the run. Another thirteen performances followed in the next season, and although the Opéra-Comique then dropped the work until 1883, it was soon wildly popular elsewhere. Even at the Opéra-Comique it passed its thousandth performance in 1905. The first singer of Carmen was Galli-Marié and other famous exponents
Tracklisting
Tracklisting
Lotte Lehmann
Lotte Lehmann
Lehmann:Ulanowsky
Lehmann
Lehmann
Landowska
Kriesler
Kreisler
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
