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Carmen (opera)
#1

Carmen (opera)

Although there are several classical-music threads on the Forum already, I'm taking the liberty of starting one specifically devoted to Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen: partly because it's one of the best entry points into the world of opera for the uninitiated, and partly because out of all the standard operas, Carmen is perhaps the one whose concerns, and whose way of presenting those concerns, Roosh V Forum members might find the most engaging.

The plot is as follows: In Spain in the early nineteenth century, a sexually overheated bad girl/mean girl from a semi-foreign culture (Carmen, a Gypsy) seduces a straight-arrow beta soldier (Don José)--in part because she's attracted to him, in part because the idea of an affair with him amuses her, and in part, apparently, because she thinks she might be able to use him to further her criminal activities. Don José abandons his military career, his good-girl fiancée, and his mother to be with Carmen. Carmen then grows bored with him and dumps him for an alpha celebrity. Don José is understandably enraged; things don't end well for Carmen.

Its heavy subject matter notwithstanding, Carmen is in some ways written like a hybrid of opera and musical comedy (or of opera and operetta, as people would've said at the time of its writing): it even originally had spoken dialog between the musical numbers. (The alternative sung-dialog passages ("recitative") that historically have been most commonly used in performances were written by another composer shortly after Bizet's premature death.) The music is, especially to modern ears, some of the most attractive and accessible ever written for an opera, with several quite familiar, even overfamiliar, melodies in the score. (My personal favorite number is one of the not excessively familiar ones, "Je vais danser en votre honneur", Carmen's haunting Act II song and dance of seduction for Don José, in which a feminine folk-like melody is overlaid on a semi-ironic military-like march of sexual inevitability.)

Another good point about Carmen is that the title character's earthiness has inspired a number of astute singers performing the role to dial down the excessive vibrato that mars a lot of operatic and other classical singing, a move that in some productions may have even inspired other singers to do the same.

One reason I'm creating this thread now is that there's currently a production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (remaining dates January 9, 12, 17, 21, 26, and 29, and February 2, 5, and 8), with the reasonably attractive 35-year-old French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine in the title role; moreover, this production will be broadcast live or almost-live to selected cinemas worldwide on February 2nd, with reruns in the middle of the following week, part of the ongoing Met: Live in HD cinema series.

Besides that, Carmen continues to be performed, 144 years after its premiere, with relative frequency by other opera companies throughout the world.

Another excellent opportunity to see Carmen is Francesco Rosi's 1984 film, available on Blu-ray, with the slightly-too-old but still magnificent Plácido Domingo as Don José, the smoldering Julia Migenes as Carmen, and spectacular costumes, sets, and Spanish scenery.

(Also, while this isn't the opera, Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 silent film version of Carmen, with Metropolitan Opera star and ex-Toscanini-mistress Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967) in the title role, is surprisingly good. I'm sure there are quite a few other good performances of the opera, or non-musical dramatizations of the story, on film and video, but I'm not familiar with them.)
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#2

Carmen (opera)

A few additions to the information in my original post:

(1) Based on some old photos and video clips I'd seen, I previously described French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine, the Carmen of the Met's current production, as "reasonably attractive". Unfortunately, based on some more recent photos and clips I've since come across, it appears she's put on some weight, making her less than physically ideal for the role, at least by present-day standards. (And that on top of her not looking particularly Gypsy-like.) Forum readers who are likely to be bothered by that might want to stay away from the upcoming Met cinema broadcasts, and instead maybe watch the Met's January 16, 2010 performance starring Elina Garanča (streamable in HD from their website and elsewhere), or maybe watch the Blu-ray of the 1984 film. (Warning: Julia Migenes's Carmen in the 1984 film has historically accurate armpit hair, which is a plus as far as I'm concerned, but which I realize a lot of Forum readers won't care for.)

(2) It appears that, in North America at least, the February 2nd, 2019 Met broadcast will be live everywhere: so at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time, 11:55 a.m. Central Time, 10:55 a.m. Mountain Time, etc.

(3) It appears that most North American theaters' midweek reruns will be on February 6th, 2019 at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. local time.

(4) Finally, it turns out that some theaters will also show a rerun on Saturday, February 9th, 2019, in most or all cases at 12:55 local time as far as I can tell.
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