Editing Carmen (section)

===Writing history===
[[File:Meilhac-et-halevy.jpg|thumb|[[Henri Meilhac]] and [[Ludovic Halévy]] who wrote the libretto for ''Carmen'']]
Meilhac and Halévy were a long-standing duo with an established division of labour: Meilhac, who was completely unmusical, wrote the dialogue and Halévy the verses.<ref name=D112>Dean 1965, pp. 112–113</ref> There is no clear indication of when work began on ''Carmen''.<ref name=OMO>{{cite dictionary|last= Macdonald|first= Hugh|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/51829?q=Georges+Bizet&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1|title= Bizet, Georges (Alexandre-César-Léopold)|dictionary= Oxford Music Online|access-date= 18 February 2012}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> Bizet and the two librettists were all in Paris during 1873 and easily able to meet; thus there is little written record or correspondence relating to the beginning of the collaboration.<ref>Curtiss, p. 352</ref> The libretto was prepared in accordance with the conventions of ''opéra comique'', with dialogue separating musical numbers.{{refn|The term ''opéra comique'', as applied to 19th-century French opera, did not imply "comic opera" but rather the use of spoken dialogue in place of recitative, as a distinction from grand opera.<ref>{{cite dictionary|last= Bartlet|first= Elizabeth C.|title= Opéra comique|url= http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43715?q=Opera+comique&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit|dictionary= Oxford Music Online|access-date= 29 March 2012}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} It deviates from Mérimée's novella in a number of significant respects. In the original, events are spread over a much longer period of time, and much of the main story is narrated by José from his prison cell, as he awaits execution for Carmen's murder. Micaëla does not feature in Mérimée's version, and the Escamillo character is peripheral—a [[picador]] named Lucas who is only briefly Carmen's grand passion. Carmen has a husband called Garcia, whom José kills during a quarrel.<ref>Newman, pp. 249–252</ref> In the novella, Carmen and José are presented much less sympathetically than they are in the opera; Bizet's biographer Mina Curtiss comments that Mérimée's Carmen, on stage, would have seemed "an unmitigated and unconvincing monster, had her character not been simplified and deepened".<ref name=C397>Curtiss, pp. 397–398</ref>

With rehearsals due to begin in October 1873, Bizet began composing in or around January of that year, and by the summer had completed the music for the first act and perhaps sketched more. At that point, according to Bizet's biographer [[Winton Dean]], "some hitch at the Opéra-Comique intervened", and the project was suspended for a while.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 105</ref> One reason for the delay may have been the difficulties in finding a singer for the title role.<ref name=Grove /> Another was a split that developed between the joint directors of the theatre, [[Camille du Locle]] and [[Adolphe de Leuven]], over the advisability of staging the work. De Leuven had vociferously opposed the entire notion of presenting so risqué a story in what he considered a family theatre and was sure audiences would be frightened away. He was assured by Halévy that the story would be toned down, that Carmen's character would be softened, and offset by Micaëla, described by Halévy as "a very innocent, very chaste young girl". Furthermore, the gypsies would be presented as comic characters, and Carmen's death would be overshadowed at the end by "triumphal processions, ballets and joyous fanfares". De Leuven reluctantly agreed, but his continuing hostility towards the project led to his resignation from the theatre early in 1874.<ref>Curtiss, p. 351</ref>

[[File:Georges bizet.jpg|thumb|upright|Georges Bizet, photograph by [[Étienne Carjat]], 1875]]
After the various delays, Bizet appears to have resumed work on ''Carmen'' early in 1874. He completed the draft of the composition—1,200 pages of music—in the summer, which he spent at the artists' colony at [[Bougival]], just outside Paris. He was pleased with the result, informing a friend: "I have written a work that is all clarity and vivacity, full of colour and melody."<ref>Dean 1965, pp. 108–109</ref> During the period of rehearsals, which began in October, Bizet repeatedly altered the music—sometimes at the request of the orchestra who found some of it impossible to perform,<ref name=Grove>Dean 1980, pp. 759–761</ref> sometimes to meet the demands of individual singers, and otherwise in response to the demands of the theatre's management.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 215(n)</ref> The vocal score that Bizet published in March 1875 shows significant changes from the version of the score he sold the publishers, [[Antony Choudens|Choudens]], in January 1875; the conducting score used at the premiere differs from each of these documents. There is no definitive edition, and there are differences among musicologists about which version represents the composer's true intentions.<ref name=Grove /><ref name="McC" /> Bizet also changed the libretto, reordering sequences and imposing his own verses where he felt the librettists had strayed too far from the character of Mérimée's original.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nowinski|first=Judith|title=Sense and Sound in Georges Bizet's ''Carmen''|journal=[[The French Review]]|volume=43|issue=6|date=May 1970|pages=891–900|jstor=386524}} {{subscription}}</ref> Among other changes, he provided new words for Carmen's "Habanera",<ref name="McC">McClary, pp. 25–26</ref> and rewrote the text of Carmen's solo in the act 3 card scene. He also provided a new opening line for the "Seguidilla" in act 1.<ref name=D214>Dean 1965, pp. 214–217</ref>