Judge Dennis Davis
George Bizet: Unravelling the Popular Opera “Carmen”, Plus the Great Duet
Judge Dennis Davis | George Bizet: Unraveling the Popular Opera Carmen, Plus the Great Duet | 08.07.21
- Sorry, this is a noisy household. So Dennis, I just have to say to you, I cannot thank you enough because this is a very-
[Dennis] No, that’s a pleasure.
[Wendy] Big day with the rugby.
It’s an absolute pleasure. Being a fanatic doesn’t matter.
I know, I know. So sorry.
A lot of our, I suppose given the fact that there are many South Africans in the, and ex South Africans in our group and English, they appreciate the others.
Oh my. When I realised, I thought oh my goodness, it’s right over the third test. And you know, Siya, he’s a great friend as you know.
Yes, absolutely.
We’ve been texting backwards and forwards and no, this is an important day for us. So huge, huge, huge thank you. And so we won’t, I won’t say anything. I’m not going to let you know what’s going on the other side.
No, don’t let me know what’s going on. I’m recording it and I’ll enjoy it afterwards. But nothing like a little bit of “Carmen” to get us in the better mood.
[Wendy] Exactly. All right, so let’s get started so that we can finish quickly and then you can watch the end of the rugby.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Over to you. Welcome to everybody and thank you for joining us. Thanks.
Visuals displayed and audio played throughout the presentation.
- And good morning and good afternoon, good evening to everybody. I’m going to, when I was asked, let me perhaps start by saying, when I was asked to do this session this evening, Trudy said to me, would I mind doing something of a French kind? And I thought to myself, well, some of the stuff that I, I’m interested in has already been done rather splendidly by my friend David P. Mither. That, in other words, Sartre and Albert Camus. And then I thought, well, should I do something on sort of, you know, the French structuralists? Or semiotics, which means Saussure and Roland Barthes. But for a Saturday that seemed really inappropriate.
And then I thought to myself, well, what about Bizet? And I’ll tell you why I, I said that in the manner in which I did. Because in 1967, when I was in standard nine at Herzlia School in Cape Town, the school, I don’t know if it still does it, but in those days was determined to give us a really, I would’ve thought, integrated education. And one of the things that they did was to take us to important cultural events, musical events. And in 1967, we were schlepped off, which was what we thought it was, be schlepped off because why did we want to do this, to what was then the Alhambra Theatre.
Those of you who lived in Cape Town may remember large film, the cinemas in the middle of the town, the Alhambra Theatre. There was not an opera house at that point. And there we were to be entertained royally by a production of “Carmen” in 1967. Now for people like myself who had really had no exposure to either opera or classical music, this was an extraordinary event. And my dear friend, Gilad Stern, may be known to some of you as Gerald Stern. Gilad Stern and I were totally taken by “Carmen”. Thought it was the most fantastic piece of music we’d ever heard. And so when we finished school, finished the production, and days later we went off to Hans Kramer, and those of you who know Cape Town, in Long Street.
And we bought the highlights, long playing record of the highlights of “Carmen”. And then we also bought batons cause we thought we’d be great conductors. And so there we were with our, listening to our music separately and conducting “Carmen”. We didn’t really know, read music at the time, but what we could do was we counted the various things so we knew exactly when to do the upbeat and the downbeat and so on and so forth. And there we were thinking we were the great conductors of our time.
But “Carmen” had introduced us to a world that we didn’t know about before. And it really was the first time that I’d been exposed to music of this kind. So it seemed to me totally appropriate when Trudy said to me, could you do something with a French flavour, that I would immediately, well not immediately, but after some thought, want to talk to you this afternoon, this evening, this morning about George Bizet and with particular emphasis on “Carmen” but not entirely. So perhaps I should then say, to start off with, let me tell you a little bit about Bizet.
He was born in Paris on the 25th of October, 1838. He died in 1875 at the very young age of 36. One of these, again, tragic situations of, you know, these extraordinary musicians dying far too young. His father was a singing teacher, his mother was an accomplished pianist who gave George his first lessons. The Paris Conservatoire was so impressed by, by the young Bizet’s abilities that had actually waived its rule. And he was offered a place at the conservatoire when he was nine years old. Out of interest, on his maternal side, they were Spanish Jews.
So effectively, Bizet was halachically Jewish, although I don’t think there’s much of record of him actually showing any commitment to the traditions, etcetera. But there is an aspect about that, which I do want to dwell on slightly later, which was he always felt of himself as an outsider. And in many ways that one reads about Bizet just in the same way as one reads about my great hero, Mahler, who I’ve spoken about often in this lockdown previous lectures. There was a real sense in the music of how you portrayed the outsider in that he felt deeply that he was outside the mainstream of Parisian society.
But he was an incredibly talented young boy and he won many prizes at the Conservatoire. And the composer, Gounod, was a lasting influence on his musical style. And in fact, it was extraordinary, that if you look at it, Bizet wrote a symphony, the Symphony in C, when he was roughly about 17 year olds old and was very, that itself was influenced by Gounod. Now, it is also true that he be became a regular guest at Offenbach’s parties. That we had a splendid lecture by Patrick on Sunday in this regard.
And there he met a whole lot of musicians, including the rather, at that stage, aged Racine, whom Bizet described as quote, “The greatest of them all.” Because like Mozart, he has all the virtues. Indeed, in 1861, at a dinner party, Liszt was present. And Bizet astonished everyone by a sight reading of one of Liszt’s most difficult piano pieces, which amazed everybody, Liszt included. So he was an incredibly talented young man. In 1869, he married Geneviève Halévy.
Now what is interesting about that was that he therefore married into a Jewish family. The family themselves were opposed to the match. Not necessarily, not because he was, had Jewish, as it were, origins on his mother’s side, but rather because, quote, “He was penniless, left wing, anti-religious and bohemian.” Well, I suppose many Jewish mothers have thought about that, about their perspective son-in-laws, but be that as it may, the marriage was intermittently happy, it produced a son. What is interesting, just out, just out of some significance, is that given that we were going to have, and hopefully will have a lecture on Proust at some point.
Geneviève Halévy was actually regarded as the model for the Duchess in Proust’s, “In Search of Lost Time”. And her father, her grandfather had been a, a cantor hazzan and a Talmud scholar. So there was a deep religious, Jewish religious connection on that side. To a man who did not regard himself necessarily as Jewish, put him in force, as I said, was on his mother’s side. Now… Apart from the two operas that I want to talk about, being “The Pearl Fishers” and “Carmen”. I’ve already mentioned the Symphony in C and I also want to mention, of course, the L'Arlésienne Suites, which I’m pronouncing poorly and I’m sorry, which were also very important works and which are played at concert halls regularly.
But perhaps one wants to start with the first really major breakthrough, which was in, apart from the Symphony in C. But in 1863, when the 24 year old Bizet, who at that point had not, wasn’t regarded as a front rank composer of any particular kind, composed “The Pearl Fishers”. And, and it was, it was the libretto had been hastily cobbled together with a team of Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It wasn’t necessarily a great libretto. It premiered in September, 1863, with some level of controversy. He was accused of having fallen under the influence of the new Italian style of opera.
Worse, for some, he was accused of agrarianism which was a popular epithet hurled at young composers at that particular point in time. And therefore, in a very little by way of compliment was paid to Bizet in relation to “The Pearl Fishers”. But what was interesting was that somebody who really did know, a real maven, if you wish, which was Hector Berlioz. And who himself had been very critical of mediocre music, did say about this work, that it was full of fire and then went on to say the score does Bizet the greatest honour. But if you took a different approach, for example, Benjamin Jouvin of Le Figaro, who perhaps in one of the most famously critical lines of any critic in relation to music, opera music, said quote, “There were neither fishermen in the libretto, nor pearls in the music.”
And it’s had a very chequered history. So there is a photograph at the Metropolitan Opera, which shows Enrico Caruso, the soprano, Frieda Hempel, and the baritone, Giuseppe De Luca, who are costumed for a 1916 premier of “The Pearl Fishers”. What is interesting about it is that you have this stellar cast and the music apparently ran for three, the opera, for three performances. And according to one newspaper at least, brought the house down but it then vanished for over a century. So for over a century, it really wasn’t played at the Met and played rarely. Although it has come back into vogue more recently.
It has a number of very, very fine pieces of music in it, but none more than the famous duet. A duet of quite extraordinary proportions, which is a sung by a baritone and a tenor. Zurga, the baritone, Nadir, the tenor. They’re two old friends that commence at the opera, reflecting on their past. And of course, in many ways, the duet is a foreshadow of the entire opera. But in all of the history of opera, this duet, which just captures in a way the tapestry of a relationship and the question the soldier and reminisces possibilities for the future, very few have been, pieces of music, to my mind, seem to have captured as well.
Unsurprisingly therefore, Peter Weir in the film “Gallipoli” used, apart from “Albinoni”, also used “The Pearl Fishers” duet as part of the music score to show camaraderie amongst people. And I felt, quite frankly, that I couldn’t not do a lecture on Bizet, even though most of my focus will be on “Carmen”, without talking about this duet, which for me is just a magnificent piece of music for all the reasons that I’ve outlined. There are many great recordings of this particular duet. I’ve chosen for you the one that is my personal favourite, which is sung by Robert Merrill and Jussi Björling.
Just a couple of words about Robert Merrill and Jussi Björling. Robert Merrill was one of those group of Jewish singers who really were very, very prominent at the Met in particular after the second World War. I’m also referring to Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker, of which much more when I do a lecture before Yom Kippur, they have attainment on the question of cantorial music and its relevance to the prayers cause both of them will feature there. Robert Merrill, of course, was born Moishe Miller but he was one of the dominant baritones at the Met for a very long time. Got mixed reviews, I accept. And there’s some that are very critical of him.
Gumfing around the stage in a very bad fashion according to one of the New York Times critics. But it seems to me that in this particular piece, he exceeded himself. And he sang it together with Jussi Björling, the Swedish tenor who died sadly at 49 years old in 1960. And if you haven’t heard Jussi Björling, you should, because his recording is just fantastic. Pavarotti said about Björling, that whenever he did a new opera, he listened to Jussi Björling interpretation, for he felt that that would give him some insight of a kind that he otherwise wouldn’t have.
And it does seem to me that that really captured the genius of that voice of Jussi Björling. And so here, in this magnificent recording, we listen to Robert Merrill, baritone, and Jussi Björling, tenor, in the duet from “The Pearl Fishers” in Act I of that opera. Lauren, if we can have the first clip.
♪ Opera Plays ♪
Okay, Lauren. Unsurprising, when you think about how wonderful that music is, that it was played at Bizet’s funeral when he died at 36 years old of a heart attack. Just for me, it’s just one of the glories of 19th century opera. One aspect about it, which I just should dwell on before we move on to “Carmen”, is you may ask the question, why was there such controversy about this opera which has some other wonderful pieces as well?
And this comes back at the, towards the end of the opera as well in a slightly different format. And it seems, I suppose if one reads about it at the time, and I don’t have time to go into this in this lecture, but it’s well worth a discussion, is that French opera at that particular point in time was reaching a crossroad between grand opera and opera comique. And they both got stuck in their own conventions. And there was a great sort of debate about the fact that French opera needed a reboot. And suddenly this opera came along, which had the accessibility as it were, of opera comique.
But it didn’t, it was very carefully composed and it didn’t have any spoken dialogue. And to some extent it, it did therefore emerge in this particular period of controversy. And sadly, as a result, seemed to have been forgotten for a long time. Although it has been recovered, as I say, more recently. Then onto “Carmen”. So, of course, Bizet composes “Carmen”. It’s really great work. And he composes it in 1874. The production of “Carmen”, I should say, was delayed because the fears of the, the themes of betrayal and murder would offend the audiences. And it’s interesting that at the opera’s premiere, Massone and Saint-Saëns loved the opera.
Gounod accused him of plagiarism. The press were very negative. Bizet was convinced that the opera was going to be a failure. And ironically, he died, as I say, without really realising just what an extraordinary success this opera had been. Now, the opera was based on a novella by Mérimée’s, “Carmen”. And I mentioned to you earlier that Bizet felt himself to be an outsider. And there can be little doubt that this particular novella, which had been produced, which had been written by Mérimée, which effectively did focus upon the fissures of French society in many ways, attracted Bizet. And the opera really has a serious focus, seems to me, on sexuality, on race and class. Just consider it.
The exoticism is a particularly prevalent feature of “Carmen”. She’s associated with the exotic, the gypsy woman. And during the time of political unrest in France, there was certainly also a fascination with the orient. Musicologist, Susan McClary, has written a really good book on Bizet and “Carmen”, states that the, the orient, that first the Middle East, later East, East Asia and Africa seemed to serve merely as a free zone for the European imagination. Setting musical works in the orient gave composers the opportunity to criticise their own culture. And in a way the opera reflects Don Jose as an example of how European man can be born into central nature of the Orient.
And so in so many ways, this particular opera, which is incredibly famous for all sorts of reasons, really is about the life of a gypsy portrayed as a free spirit that has to be controlled. The character of Don Jose reflects the white bourgeois attraction to the free spirited life of the gypsy. His attraction becomes fatal because he has a need to control her. Society gives him control over Carmen because he’s a white middle class man. The military occupation of Seville, on which the opera begins, draws the lines of gender, class, race at the very opening.
The white Spanish soldiers are trusted to keep the peace. It’s the women who are the labourers. The soldiers stand by and gawk at the women as they leave and enter the cigarette factory. They placed in an inferior position that is the women to the soldiers because of their gender and race. And consistently through the opera, we see this interface of gender, race and class coming through. Bizet certainly had political agendas in mind when he wrote this opera. It’s not just a simple, you know, frolic in the park as it were. There is a serious part to it, as I’ve tried to outline. Of course, it’s become perhaps the most iconic in terms of popularity opera of any kind.
How many people one might want to ask rhetorically, have not been drawn into the Opera House because of the Toreador aria. And the opera itself has been portrayed in numerous versions of film starting in 1915, I should tell you. There was a French version in ‘42, which came out in '44. There was of course the famous Zeffirelli version in '83. There was the American adaptation called “Carmen Jones” with Harry Belafonte. So this is an opera that really catches the imagination, but there is something profound about it.
The idea of of him focusing on the other, on somebody who represents people, perhaps even of the commune if you wish, who defied the law and fell victim to the government in the end. And bearing in mind, as I indicated, that Bizet had not been accepted by his wife. He had been referred to as a bohemian and an outsider. It’s not entirely surprising that he would have been attracted to Mérimée’s novella. Of course he was also a member of the French Military at a point, so he’d experienced political massacre firsthand. He had certainly written letters, according to McClary, to his mother-in-law about his distaste for society.
First with Napoleon, then with the government under Adolphe Thiers. And lastly with the bloodshed that had occurred during the Paris Commune. So we are talking about somebody who really had a particular view of the world, influenced by his own background. And it seems to me not accidental therefore that he chose “Carmen” to illustrate these particular ideas that he had in mind. Now, what I’d like to do now, is to take you through some of the music of “Carmen”. It’s so hard to know precisely what to choose because there is so much that one can talk about.
So excuse me for having been selective in this regard. I’m going to start with the overture. Now the overture is really interesting because you know, you get the overture in opera and the whole idea is it sort of gives you some idea of exactly what’s going to happen in terms of the great musical themes of the opera. In this particular case, what is curious, the opera, the overture comprises three major themes. And they’re used later in the opera in a particular way. So it’s interesting that the overture begins with music that we will hear sung by the chorus at the beginning of Act 4, as they begin to prepare to be spectators at the bull fight.
It then has the interjection of the famous Toreador Song, sung by Escamillo in Act 2. And it ends with a mysterious and unsettling musical theme, which is regarded as the 'fate’ theme, represent both Carmen as well as the concept of fate. And it’s done and what is particularly interesting about this fate motif, which comes through very often, is the way that he does it. He makes it up of three musical elements. A fortissimo tremolo, which is a sort of particularly large version of a wavering effect in the music caused by a rapid repetition of a musical tone. There’s a repeated chromatic melodic line, I’ll come back to that in, a little later.
And two foreboding pulsating low notes played by the double bass drum and the bass drum. And this particular motif is almost, after the joy, as it were, of the Toreador Song, is a chilling musical foreshadowing of what is going to happen in this opera. Let us now listen to the overture with those thoughts in mind. And here is Zubin Mehta conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
♪ Opera Plays ♪
Okay Lauren, we can stop there. It’s just repeating. I’m sorry that it was so soft. I do apologise. Thought when I sent it through, it would be louder but I’m afraid, there we are. So that’s the overture. And very shortly thereafter, Carmen enters in the first act and she sings the famous Habanera aria, which is a term that describes a form of Cuban dance, which was brought to Spain by sailors. It has a distinctive rhythm and sound.
And in Bizet’s opera, there’s a haunting melody and a cadence which communicate certainly the passion, the exoticism, the sexuality and the intensity of Carmen. It’s shown particularly well in the version I’m about to play for you. But before I do that, let me just, I wanted to make one other comment about this, which is this, that Bizet uses in this regard chromatic notes, which are not those which belong to prevailing harmony. They named because in early music notation the notes were coloured and they made have of 12 notes, each separated from its neighbour by the smallest common interest.
The idea about the chromatic use here, is that it gives added drama and intensity to the music. And he uses it, Bizet, no doubt to create an exotic feel in the music which is sung by Carmen indeed, to some extent as well, by Escamillo. But the Habanera is certainly an example of a long chromatic descent. And in this particular case, which I’m scratching around for, cause I’m not going to be able to pronounce the name properly, there is a version by, here we go, by Anna Caterina Antonacci, an Italian soprano. She sings Carmen here with Jonas Kaufmann. It’s a wonderful recording. And just observe quite how, in a sense, her portrayal is exactly what I was trying to talk about earlier.
So here she is singing the Habanera.
♪ Opera Plays ♪
Now, I want to compare that to the one aria that Bizet gives to Micaëla. As you may recall, Micaëla is from the rural areas. She appears in Act 1. She sings a beautiful duet with Don Jose. And then in the penultimate act, she’s given an aria. It’s the only aria she sings in the opera. And again, what is so remarkable is the way in which Bizet actually orchestrates it because it’s a really good example of the way a character can be represented by the music. The mood of this aria is so different from the aria we just heard and from the rest of the music that Carmen sings.
It’s indicative of how dissimilar the two women are. Micaëla sings of the courage she will need when facing Carmen, who has bewitched her beloved, Don Jose. The aria starts off quite timidly with the tempo and dynamics increasing as she gains strength and conviction in her desire to persuade Micaëla, to persuade Don Jose. And then it ends with a very gentle plea for God to protect her and give her courage. In this version, we hear the incomparable Joan Sutherland.
I have no video of it. I hope the recording will be loud enough. It starts very quietly, but that’s because it starts quietly. But hopefully it’ll be sufficient for you to hear Joan Sutherland doing the Micaëla aria. And just contrast that to what we just heard.
♪ Opera Plays ♪
If you compare that to the Habanera, which, it’s so different. And so wonderfully, as it were, orchestrated, that this reflects this very, very innocent girl from the rural area, the heartfelt plea to the man whom she feels has been bewitched by Carmen. And compare this to Habanera, which encapsulates as it were, Carmen’s elusive and exotic allure. She’s a gypsy, she belongs to no nation. She’s sexually emancipated. She lives outside the of traditional boundaries.
In fact, in the song she says, “Love is a gypsy child, she has never heard of law.” There is, she says that in the opera. And contrast that, it’s quite an extraordinarily, wonderfully textured composition. And so we come therefore, to the last act of the opera, which now recalls both of the aspects we heard in the overture. It begins with a large crowd of spectators. You know, they’re waiting. The procession of the bull fighters and Escamillo. They start to sing the beginning of that we heard in the overture. That is sung.
And then the way in which Bizet divides up the chorus and has them taking turns and singing about different aspects of the procession. Quite remarkable. And then finally when Escamillo comes, we hear the reprise of the Toreador Song. But I’m not going to go over that. I want to just play the last couple of minutes of the, of the opera. And in this particular recording that I’m going to play for you, it’s Roberto Alagna, the French tenor, and Elina Garanca, the Latvian.
Now, let me say something about Elina Garanca. I had the privilege of hearing her sing Carmen in 2015 at the Met. I’ve never heard a Carmen like that in my life. Was just absolutely spectacular. I wasn’t the only one. Many of the music critics felt the same way as I did. An absolutely magnificent recording if you can get hold of it. She really is brilliant. I heard her recently in the recital with the Berlin Philharmonic, which was equally brilliant. And here she is in the last couple of minutes, the last dramatic minutes in which again, the Toreador Song comes back in a particular way, in a haunting way.
The way in which as it were, Bizet uses his music in this adaptable fashion to come to the final conclusion. The conclusion that was foreshadowed in that tremolo, the fortissimo tremolo, which I spoke about at the end of the, at the end of the overture. It all comes back in this almost symmetric fashion. Here are the last two minutes with Roberto Alagna as the love crazed Don Jose and Elina Garanca as Carmen.
♪ Opera Plays ♪
So that is the final dramatic part. I could have played the whole of that version, particularly Garanca. I just think it’s absolutely fascinating and it seems to me quite sad and particularly instructive that Bizet died without realising how wonderful that opera was. And when you think about it and you think about the way you can analyse it, it really is a remarkable piece of music. And that was it for him.
At 36 years old, never having realised that he’d basically composed an opera, which for so many of us, such as I began my talk, was the entry into this wonderful world of opera. I’m not suggesting for one moment that it’s necessarily my favourite opera, but it is magnificent in so many ways. And when you listen to people like Joan Sutherland with her magnificent voice singing Micaëla, you just realise how extraordinary it is.
So that’s “Carmen” and that is Bizet. And it’s been a pleasure, as it were, providing you with this absolutely glorious music from George Bizet. I’m happy to, just see whether anything on the chat line… That anybody would like.
Q&A and Comments
Bizet died, as I indicated, of a heart attack. Very heavy smoker. Thank you very much for all these. I see there are lots of people. I see Sandy Landau says the most incredible “Carmen” was the Met 2010. That’s the same one I saw in 2015. And as you could see, Garanca just looks the part, but she’s also got a magnificent voice. Absolutely wonderful.
I think, Ina, that everybody has told you, that it’s Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill. B-J-O-R-L-I-N-G. And yes, Merrill was on the, on the left. It’s true that Robert Merrill was criticised cause he was in popular television programmes. But I actually do think, and he was a crossover artist, but some of his recordings are fabulous. Carmen is usually seen as a woman who his self-assured, yes. Exactly the reasons that are indicated. Absolutely right.
I’m sorry that the one overture was so soft. I do apologise. Next time I do music, I must check it’s rather better. Yes, you’re right, Jonathan. Bizet never went to Spain at all. Interestingly, when he wrote “The Pearl Fishers”, although it’s about salon, not very much about that sort of, in the music either, out of interest.
Gee, Francine. “Robert Merrill was supposed to sing at my husband’s Bar Mitzvah, but cancelled because of another commitment.” How extraordinary. I am going to talk about the two great tenors, Peerce and Tucker, who of course sang a lot of Hazanout, as well as the fact that they were great opera singers. I don’t know whether Bizet said that, “They asked for rubbish, so I wrote it.” I haven’t found that in any of the research I did for this.
Yes, Margaret, the Carmen sung by Victoria De Los Angeles, conducted by Thomas Beecham, was exactly the highlight CD, sorry, long playing record that I had. In other words, she was there. I have a feeling, I’m trying to think who the tenor was. I’ll think about it. I’m having a senior moment. I know exactly who it was. Nicolai Gedda was the tenor with Victoria De Los Angeles. And so yes, it was my favourite “Carmen” in many ways. But I have to tell you, the 2015 performances, 2010 performances, blew me away.
Yes, the film “U-Carmen”, which was done in Xhosa is really with, there’s a film version of this. And as you rightly say, Tony, and well worth watching. It’s fabulous. And it really is just, you know, terrific. A terrific version. I think all these, thank you very much for all the other compliments.
Q: Ron, “What is your assessment of "Carmen Jones”, particularly the lyrics and the book by Oscar Hammerstein?“ A: It was, yes, it was before the Civil Rights Movement. It was particularly interesting and I mean, I think it has a series of political implications, political statements, well worth watching now. I haven’t seen it for years, but it’d be particularly interesting in the, in the light of, of the present.
Thank you very much for the other compliments. That seems to be it, I think, Wendy. So thank you to everybody. And I think that’s it for the evening.
[Woman] Thank you so much, Dennis. It was a real pleasure.
Okay. Take care everybody. Stay safe.