Editing Carmen (section)

==Performance history==

===Assembling the cast===
The search for a singer-actress to play Carmen began in mid-1873. Press speculation favoured [[Zulma Bouffar]], who was perhaps the librettists' preferred choice. She had sung leading roles in many of [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]]'s operas, but she was unacceptable to Bizet and was turned down by du Locle as unsuitable.<ref>Curtiss, p. 355</ref> In September an approach was made to [[Marie Roze]], well known for previous triumphs at the Opéra-Comique, the Opéra and in London. She refused the part when she learned that she would be required to die on stage.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 110</ref> The role was then offered to [[Célestine Galli-Marié]], who agreed to terms with du Locle after several months' negotiation.<ref>Curtiss, p. 364</ref> Galli-Marié, a demanding and at times tempestuous performer, would prove a staunch ally of Bizet, often supporting his resistance to demands from the management that the work should be toned down.<ref>Curtiss, p. 383</ref> At the time it was generally believed that she and the composer were conducting a love affair during the months of rehearsal.<ref name=OMO />

The leading tenor part of Don José was given to [[Paul Lhérie]], a rising star of the Opéra-Comique who had recently appeared in works by [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]] and [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]]. He would later become a baritone, and in 1887 sang the role of Zurga in the [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] premiere of ''Les pêcheurs de perles''.<ref>{{cite dictionary|last=Forbes|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Forbes (musicologist)|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O902707?q=Paul+Lherie&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit|title=Lhérie [Lévy], Paul|dictionary=Oxford Music Online|access-date=1 March 2012}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> [[Jacques Bouhy]], engaged to sing Escamillo, was a young Belgian-born baritone who had already appeared in demanding roles such as Méphistophélès in Gounod's ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'' and as [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s Figaro.<ref>{{cite dictionary|last=Forbes|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Forbes (musicologist)|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/03701?q=Joseph+Bouhy&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit|title=Bouhy, Jacques(-Joseph-André)|dictionary=Oxford Music Online|access-date= 1 March 2012}} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> [[Marguerite Chapuy]], who sang Micaëla, was at the beginning of a short career in which she was briefly a star at London's [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]]; the impresario [[James Henry Mapleson|James H. Mapleson]] thought her "one of the most charming vocalists it has been my pleasure to know". However, she married and left the stage altogether in 1876, refusing Mapleson's considerable cash inducements to return.<ref>{{cite book|last= Mapleson|first= James H.|author-link=James Henry Mapleson|title=The Mapleson Memoirs|volume=I|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36143/36143-h/36143-h.htm|chapter=XI. Marguerite Chapuy|publisher=Belford, Clarke & Co.|location=Chicago, New York and San Francisco|year=1888|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220180102/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36143/36143-h/36143-h.htm|archive-date=20 December 2014}}</ref>

===Premiere and initial run===
[[File:Carmen - illustration by Luc for Journal Amusant 1875.jpg|thumb|Cartoon from ''[[Journal amusant]]'', 1911]]

Because rehearsals did not start until October 1874 and lasted longer than anticipated, the premiere was delayed.<ref>Dean 1965, pp. 111–112</ref> The final rehearsals went well, and in a generally optimistic mood the first night was fixed for 3 March 1875, the day on which, coincidentally, Bizet's appointment as a Chevalier of the [[Legion of Honour]] was formally announced.{{refn|Bizet had been informed of the impending award early in February, and had told Carvalho's wife that he owed the honour to her husband's promotion of his work.<ref>Curtiss, pp. 386–387</ref>|group= n}} The premiere, which was conducted by [[Adolphe Deloffre]], was attended by many of Paris's leading musical figures, including Massenet, Offenbach, Delibes and Gounod;<ref name=D114 /> during the performance the last-named was overheard complaining bitterly that Bizet had stolen the music of Micaëla's act 3 aria from him: "That melody is mine!"<ref name=C391>Curtiss, p. 391</ref> Halévy recorded his impressions of the premiere in a letter to a friend; the first act was evidently well received, with applause for the main numbers and numerous curtain calls. The first part of act 2 also went well, but after the toreador's song there was, Halévy noted, "coldness". In act 3 only Micaëla's aria earned applause as the audience became increasingly disconcerted. The final act was "glacial from first to last", and Bizet was left "only with the consolations of a few friends".<ref name=D114>Dean 1965, pp. 114–115</ref> The critic [[Ernest Newman]] wrote later that the sentimentalist Opéra-Comique audience was "shocked by the drastic realism of the action" and by the low standing and defective morality of most of the characters.<ref name=N248>Newman, p. 248</ref> According to the composer [[Benjamin Godard]], Bizet retorted, in response to a compliment, "Don't you see that all these bourgeois have not understood a wretched word of the work I have written for them?"<ref>Dean 1965, p. 116</ref> In a different vein, shortly after the work had concluded, Massenet sent Bizet a congratulatory note: "How happy you must be at this time—it's a great success!"<ref>Curtiss, pp. 395–396</ref>

The general tone of the next day's press reviews ranged from disappointment to outrage. The more conservative critics complained about "Wagnerism" and the subordination of the voice to the noise of the orchestra.<ref name="Dean 1965, p. 117">Dean 1965, p. 117</ref> There was consternation that the heroine was an amoral seductress rather than a woman of virtue;<ref>Steen, pp. 604–605</ref> Galli-Marié's interpretation of the role was described by one critic as "the very incarnation of vice".<ref name="Dean 1965, p. 117" /> Others compared the work unfavourably with the traditional Opéra-Comique repertoire of [[Daniel Auber|Auber]] and [[François-Adrien Boieldieu|Boieldieu]]. Léon Escudier in ''L'Art Musical'' called ''Carmen''{{'}}s music "dull and obscure{{nbs}}... the ear grows weary of waiting for the cadence that never comes."<ref>Dean 1965, p. 118</ref> It seemed that Bizet had generally failed to fulfill expectations, both of those who (given Halévy's and Meilhac's past associations) had expected something in the Offenbach mould, and of critics such as Adolphe Jullien who had anticipated a [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] music drama. Among the few supportive critics was the poet [[Théodore de Banville]]; writing in ''Le National'', he applauded Bizet for presenting a drama with real men and women instead of the usual Opéra-Comique "puppets".<ref>Curtiss, pp. 408–409</ref>

In its initial run at the Opéra-Comique, ''Carmen'' provoked little public enthusiasm; it shared the theatre for a while with [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s much more popular [[Requiem (Verdi)|''Requiem'']].<ref>Curtiss, p. 379</ref> ''Carmen'' was often performed to half-empty houses, even when the management gave away large numbers of tickets.<ref name=Grove /> Early on 3 June, the day after the opera's 33rd performance, Bizet died suddenly of heart disease, at the age of 36. It was his wedding anniversary. That night's performance was cancelled; the tragic circumstances brought a temporary increase in public interest during the brief period before the season ended.<ref name=OMO /> Du Locle brought ''Carmen'' back in November 1875, with the original cast, and it ran for a further 12 performances until 15 February 1876 to give a year's total for the original production of 48.<ref name=C427>Curtiss, pp. 427–428</ref> Among those who attended one of these later performances was [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], who wrote to his benefactor, [[Nadezhda von Meck]]: "''Carmen'' is a masterpiece in every sense of the word{{nbs}}... one of those rare creations which expresses the efforts of a whole musical epoch."<ref>Weinstock, p. 115</ref> After the final performance, ''Carmen'' was not seen in Paris again until 1883.<ref name=Grove />

===Early revivals===
Shortly before his death Bizet signed a contract for a production of ''Carmen'' by the [[Vienna State Opera|Vienna Court Opera]]. For this version, first staged on 23 October 1875, Bizet's friend [[Ernest Guiraud]] replaced the original dialogue with recitatives, to create a "[[grand opera]]" format. Guiraud also reorchestrated music from Bizet's [[L'Arlésienne (Bizet)|''L'Arlésienne suite'']] to provide a spectacular ballet for ''Carmen''{{'}}s second act.<ref name=C426 /> Shortly before the initial Vienna performance, the Court Opera's director [[Franz von Jauner]] decided to use parts of the original dialogue along with some of Guiraud's recitatives; this hybrid and the full recitative version became the norms for productions of the opera outside France for most of the next century.<ref>Dean 1965, p. 129(n)</ref>

[[File:VariousCarmens.jpg|thumb|left|Many distinguished artistes sang the role of Carmen in early productions of the opera.]]
Despite its deviations from Bizet's original format, and some critical reservations, the 1875 Vienna production was a great success with the city's public. It also won praise from both Wagner and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. The latter reportedly saw the opera twenty times, and said he would have "gone to the ends of the earth to embrace Bizet".<ref name=C426>Curtiss, p. 426</ref> The Viennese triumph began the opera's rapid ascent towards worldwide fame. In February 1876 it began a run in Brussels at [[La Monnaie]]; it returned there the following year, with Galli-Marié in the title role, and thereafter became a permanent fixture in the Brussels repertory. On 17 June 1878 ''Carmen'' was produced in London, at [[Her Majesty's Theatre]], where [[Minnie Hauk]] began her long association with the part of Carmen. A parallel London production at Covent Garden, with [[Adelina Patti]], was cancelled when Patti withdrew. The successful Her Majesty's production, sung in Italian, had an equally enthusiastic reception in [[Dublin]]. On 23 October 1878 the opera received its American premiere, at the New York [[Academy of Music (New York City)|Academy of Music]], and in the same year was introduced to [[Saint Petersburg]].<ref name=C427 />

In the following five years performances were given in numerous American and European cities. The opera found particular favour in Germany, where the Chancellor, [[Otto von Bismarck]], apparently saw it on 27 different occasions and where [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] opined that he "became a better man when Bizet speaks to me".<ref>Nietzsche, p. 3</ref><ref name=C429>Curtiss, pp. 429–431</ref> ''Carmen'' was also acclaimed in numerous French provincial cities including [[Marseille]], [[Lyon]] and, in 1881, [[Dieppe]], where Galli-Marié returned to the role. In August 1881 the singer wrote to Bizet's widow to report that ''Carmen''{{'}}s Spanish premiere, in Barcelona, had been "another great success".<ref>Curtiss, p. 430</ref> But Carvalho, who had assumed the management of the Opéra-Comique, thought the work immoral and refused to reinstate it. Meilhac and Hálevy were more prepared to countenance a revival, provided that Galli-Marié had no part in it; they blamed her interpretation for the relative failure of the opening run.<ref name=C429 />

In April 1883 Carvalho finally revived ''Carmen'' at the Opéra-Comique, with [[Adèle Isaac]] featuring in an under-rehearsed production that removed some of the controversial aspects of the original. Carvalho was roundly condemned by the critics for offering a travesty of what had come to be regarded as a masterpiece of French opera; nevertheless, this version was acclaimed by the public and played to full houses. In October Carvalho yielded to pressure and revised the production; he brought back Galli-Marié, and restored the score and libretto to their 1875 forms.<ref>Dean 1965, pp. 130–131</ref>

===Worldwide success===
[[File:Carmen at the Met1915.jpg|thumb|''Carmen'' at the New York Met in 1915; a publicity photograph that shows the three principal stars: [[Geraldine Farrar]], [[Enrico Caruso]] and [[Pasquale Amato]]]]
On 9 January 1884, ''Carmen'' was given its first New York [[Metropolitan Opera]] performance, to a mixed critical reception. ''[[The New York Times]]'' welcomed Bizet's "pretty and effective work", but compared [[Zelia Trebelli-Bettini|Zelia Trebelli]]'s interpretation of the title role unfavourably with that of Minnie Hauk.<ref name=Met/> Thereafter ''Carmen'' was quickly incorporated into the Met's regular repertory. In February 1906 [[Enrico Caruso]] sang José at the Met for the first time; he continued to perform in this role until 1919, two years before his death.<ref name=Met>{{cite web|title=''Carmen'', 9 January 1884, Met Performance CID: 1590, performance details and reviews|url=https://archives.metopera.org/MetOperaSearch/record.jsp?dockey=0357467|publisher=Metropolitan Opera|access-date=13 August 2024}})</ref> On 17 April 1906, on tour with the Met, he sang the role at the Grand Opera House in [[San Francisco]]. Afterwards he sat up until 3 am reading the reviews in the early editions of the following day's papers.<ref>Winchester, pp. 206–209</ref> Two hours later he was awakened by the first violent shocks of the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]], after which he and his fellow performers made a hurried escape from the [[Palace Hotel, San Francisco|Palace Hotel]].<ref>Winchester, pp. 221–223</ref>

The popularity of ''Carmen'' continued through succeeding generations of American opera-goers; by the beginning of 2011 the Met alone had performed it almost a thousand times.<ref name= Met/> It enjoyed similar success in other American cities and in all parts of the world, in many different languages.<ref name=C435>Curtiss, pp. 435–436</ref> Carmen's [[Habanera (aria)|habanera]] from act 1, and the toreador's song "[[Votre toast]]" from act 2, are among the most popular and best-known of all operatic arias,<ref>{{cite web|title= Ten Pieces|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PfZrGYnFV7zgRMcrqzp1zW/habanera-and-toreador-song-from-carmen-suite-no-2|publisher= BBC|year= 2016|access-date= 22 May 2016|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160923213816/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PfZrGYnFV7zgRMcrqzp1zW/habanera-and-toreador-song-from-carmen-suite-no-2|archive-date= 23 September 2016}}</ref> the latter "a splendid piece of swagger" according to Newman, "against which the voices and the eyebrows of purists have long been raised in vain".<ref>Newman, p. 274</ref> Most of the productions outside France followed the example created in Vienna and incorporated lavish ballet interludes and other spectacles, a practice which [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]] abandoned in Vienna when he revived the work there in 1900.<ref name=N248 /> In 1919, Bizet's aged contemporary [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] was still complaining about the "strange idea" of adding a ballet, which he considered "a hideous blemish in that masterpiece", and he wondered why Bizet's wife had permitted it.<ref>Curtiss, p. 462</ref>

At the Opéra-Comique, after its 1883 revival, ''Carmen'' was always presented in the dialogue version with minimal musical embellishments.<ref name="D218" /> By 1888, the year of the 50th anniversary of Bizet's birth, the opera had been performed there 330 times;<ref name=C435 /> by 1938, his centenary year, the total of performances at the theatre had reached 2,271.<ref>Steen, p. 606</ref> However, outside France the practice of using recitatives remained the norm for many years; the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company]]'s 1947 London production, and [[Walter Felsenstein]]'s 1949 staging at the Berlin [[Komische Oper Berlin|Komische Oper]], are among the first known instances in which the dialogue version was used other than in France.<ref name="D218">Dean 1965, pp. 218–221</ref><ref>Neef, p. 62</ref> Neither of these innovations led to much change in practice; a similar experiment was tried at Covent Garden in 1953 but hurriedly withdrawn, and the first American production with spoken dialogue, in Colorado in 1953, met with a similar fate.<ref name="D218" />

Dean has commented on the dramatic distortions that arise from the suppression of the dialogue; the effect, he says, is that the action moves forward "in a series of jerks, rather instead of by smooth transition", and that most of the minor characters are substantially diminished.<ref name="D218" /><ref>McClary, p. 18</ref> Only late in the 20th century did dialogue versions become common in opera houses outside France, but there is still no universally recognised full score. [[Fritz Oeser]]'s 1964 edition is an attempt to fill this gap, but in Dean's view is unsatisfactory. Oeser reintroduces material removed by Bizet during the first rehearsals, and ignores many of the late changes and improvements that the composer made immediately before the first performance;<ref name=Grove /> he thus, according to [[Susan McClary]], "inadvertently preserves as definitive an early draft of the opera".<ref name="McC" /> In the early 21st century new editions were prepared by Robert Didion and Richard Langham-Smith, published by Schott and Peters respectively.<ref name=Wright>Wright, pp. xviii–xxi</ref> Each departs significantly from Bizet's vocal score of March 1875, published during his lifetime after he had personally corrected the proofs; Dean believes this vocal score should be the basis of any standard edition.<ref name=Grove /> Lesley Wright, a contemporary Bizet scholar, remarks that, unlike his compatriots [[Jean-Philippe Rameau|Rameau]] and [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], Bizet has not been accorded a [[critical edition (opera)|critical edition]] of his principal works;<ref>Wright, pp. ix–x</ref> should this transpire, she says, "we might expect yet another scholar to attempt to refine the details of this vibrant score which has so fascinated the public and performers for more than a century."<ref name=Wright /> Meanwhile, ''Carmen''{{'}}s popularity endures; according to Macdonald: "The memorability of Bizet's tunes will keep the music of Carmen alive in perpetuity," and its status as a popular classic is unchallenged by any other French opera.<ref name=OMO2 />{{refn|A 2018 performance at the [[Teatro Comunale, Florence]], changed the ending to take a stand against violence against women. Instead of being killed, Carmen kills Don José with a pistol she grabs from him.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180208152729/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/02/italy-gives-world-famous-opera-carmen-defiant-new-ending-stand/ "Italy gives world-famous opera Carmen a defiant new ending in stand against violence to women"] by Nick Squires, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', London, 2 January 2018</ref> Many applauded the change, seeing it as way to break the tradition of representing [[misogyny]] in opera while so many women continue to suffer from violence and abuse.<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/florence-italy-change-carmen-1.4482413 "Plot twist: opera Carmen altered in anti-violence protest"], 11 January 2018, CBC News, Associated Press</ref>|group=n}}