Editing Carmen (section)

==Background==
[[File:Merimee sketch 001.png|thumb|upright|[[Prosper Mérimée]], whose novella ''Carmen'' (1845) inspired the opera]]
In the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a {{lang|fr|[[Prix de Rome]]|italic=no}} laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capital's two main state-funded opera houses—[[Paris Opera|the Opéra]] and the [[Opéra-Comique]]—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent.<ref>Steen, p. 586</ref> Bizet's professional relationship with [[Léon Carvalho]], manager of the independent [[Théâtre Lyrique]] company, enabled him to bring to the stage two full-scale operas, ''[[Les pêcheurs de perles]]'' (1863) and ''[[La jolie fille de Perth]]'' (1867), but neither enjoyed much public success.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 131–142</ref><ref>Dean 1965, pp. 69–73</ref>

When artistic life in Paris resumed after the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870–71, Bizet found wider opportunities for the performance of his works; his one-act opera ''[[Djamileh]]'' opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872. Although this failed and was withdrawn after 11 performances,<ref>Dean 1965, pp. 97–98</ref> it led to a further commission from the theatre, this time for a full-length opera for which [[Henri Meilhac]] and [[Ludovic Halévy]] would provide the libretto.<ref name=D100 /> Halévy, who had written the text for Bizet's student opera ''[[Le docteur Miracle]]'' (1856), was a cousin of Bizet's wife, [[Geneviève Halévy|Geneviève]];<ref>Curtiss, p. 41</ref> he and Meilhac had a solid reputation as the librettists of many of [[Jacques Offenbach]]'s operettas.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 84</ref>

Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in "the absolute certainty of having found my path".<ref name=D100>Dean 1965, p. 100</ref> The subject of the projected work was a matter of discussion between composer, librettists and the Opéra-Comique management; [[Adolphe de Leuven]], on behalf of the theatre, made several suggestions that were politely rejected. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of [[Prosper Mérimée]]'s novella ''[[Carmen (novella)|Carmen]]''.<ref>McClary, p. 15</ref> Mérimée's story is a blend of travelogue and adventure yarn, possibly inspired by the writer's lengthy travels in Spain in 1830, and had originally been published in 1845 in the journal ''[[Revue des deux Mondes]]''.<ref name=Columbia>{{cite web|title= Prosper Mérimée's Novella, Carmen|url= http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee.html|publisher= Columbia University|year= 2003|access-date= 11 March 2012|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121019155224/http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/carmen/merimee.html|archive-date= 19 October 2012}}</ref> It may have been influenced in part by [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s 1824 poem "[[The Gypsies (poem)|The Gypsies]]",<ref>Dean 1965, p. 230</ref> a work Mérimée had translated into French;{{refn|In her act 1 defiance of Zuniga, Carmen sings the words "Coupe-moi, brûle-moi", which are taken from Mérimée's translation from Pushkin.<ref>Newman, pp. 267–268</ref>|group= n}} it has also been suggested that the story was developed from an incident told to Mérimée by his friend the Countess Montijo.<ref name=Columbia /> Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 34</ref>