Carmen : English National Opera Guide 13

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9780714544175
• ISBN10: 0714544175
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2011-02-01
• Publisher: Oneworld Classics

Summary

English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. Bizet describes himself as 'pagan' and Carmen has a savage Mediterranean beauty quite unique in music. The essays included in this Guide suggest some reasons for its legendary theatrical appeal. Martin Cooper describes the traditional mixture of spoken words and song that stimulated Bizet to exclaim 'I want to revolutionise opera-comique!': the translators show the ingenious and inspired ways in which he set about it. Lesley Wright analyses the score and Michael Rabaud shows the uncanny appropriateness of Nietzche's support for Bizet in his famous attacks on the decadence of Wagner. This is the first time that the complete text of the verses that Bizet set to music and the full dialogue (much of it especially translated for this Opera Guide), have ever been published.

Author Biography

Georges Bizet (Author) : Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875) was a French composer and pianist of the Romantic era, best known for the opera Carmen. Nicholas John (Editor) :

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vi
Introduction	p. 7
Opéra-Comique	p. 9
A Musical Commentary	p. 19
'Carmen': A tragedy of love, sun and death	p. 37
Thematic Guide	p. 45
Bibliography	p. 56
'Carmen'French text
English version	p. 57
Act One	p. 59
Act Two	p. 80
Act Three	p. 103
Act Four	p. 118
Pantomime from Act One	p. 125
Discography	p. 127
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