Editing Carmen (section)

===Characterisation===
Most of the characters in ''Carmen''—the soldiers, the smugglers, the Gypsy women and the secondary leads Micaëla and Escamillo—are reasonably familiar types within the ''opéra comique'' tradition, although drawing them from proletarian life was unusual.<ref name=OMO /> The two principals, José and Carmen, lie outside the genre. While each is presented quite differently from Mérimée's portrayals of a murderous brigand and a treacherous, amoral schemer,<ref name=C397 /> even in their relatively sanitised forms neither corresponds to the norms of ''opéra comique''. They are more akin to the ''[[verismo]]'' style that would find fuller expression in the works of [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]].<ref>Dean 1965, p. 244</ref>

Dean considers that José is the central figure of the opera: "It is his fate rather than Carmen's that interests us."<ref name=D221>Dean 1965, pp. 221–224</ref> The music characterises his gradual decline, act by act, from honest soldier to deserter, vagabond and finally murderer.<ref name=Grove /> In act 1 he is a simple countryman aligned musically with Micaëla; in act 2 he evinces a greater toughness, the result of his experiences as a prisoner, but it is clear that by the end of the act his infatuation with Carmen has driven his emotions beyond control. Dean describes him in act 3 as a trapped animal who refuses to leave his cage even when the door is opened for him, ravaged by a mix of conscience, jealousy and despair. In the final act his music assumes a grimness and purposefulness that reflects his new fatalism: "He will make one more appeal; if Carmen refuses, he knows what to do."<ref name=D221 />

Carmen herself, says Dean, is a new type of operatic heroine representing a new kind of love, not the innocent kind associated with the "spotless soprano" school, but something altogether more vital and dangerous. Her capriciousness, fearlessness and love of freedom are all musically represented: "She is redeemed from any suspicion of vulgarity by her qualities of courage and fatalism so vividly realised in the music".<ref name=Grove /><ref name=D225>Dean 1965, pp. 224–225</ref> Curtiss suggests that Carmen's character, spiritually and musically, may be a realisation of the composer's own unconscious longing for a freedom denied to him by his stifling marriage.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 405–406</ref> [[Harold C. Schonberg]] likens Carmen to "a female Don Giovanni. She would rather die than be false to herself."<ref>Schonberg, p. 35</ref> The dramatic personality of the character, and the range of moods she is required to express, call for exceptional acting and singing talents. This has deterred some of opera's most distinguished exponents; [[Maria Callas]], though she recorded the part, never performed it on stage.<ref>Azaola, pp. 9–10</ref> The musicologist [[Hugh Macdonald (musicologist)|Hugh Macdonald]] observes that "French opera never produced another [[femme fatale|''femme'' as ''fatale'']] as Carmen", though she may have influenced some of [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s heroines. Macdonald suggests that outside the French repertoire, [[Richard Strauss]]'s Salome and [[Alban Berg]]'s Lulu "may be seen as distant degenerate descendants of Bizet's temptress".<ref name=OMO2/>

Bizet was reportedly contemptuous of the music he wrote for Escamillo: "Well, they asked for ordure, and they've got it", he is said to have remarked about the toreador's song—but, as Dean comments, "the triteness lies in the character, not in the music".<ref name=D221 /> Micaëla's music has been criticised for its "Gounodesque" elements, although Dean maintains that her music has greater vitality than that of any of [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]'s own heroines.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 226</ref>