musical languages

aspects of different genres used

opera comique, melodrama, pantomine, operetta, cafe-concert, romani music, ‘german’ music (fugue at carmen’s arrest; wagnerian melody in finale), church for micaela, grand - different editions all bring out different aspects

each act opens with

a crowd sequence, following comique conventions, followed by balanced numbers. the features disintegrate but each act begins conventionally with diatonic music

when are comique conventions broken

most obviously in act 2 with DJ’s arrival, which breaks the pattern of self contained songs before leading to an unconventional duet where they battle in opposing musical languages

introduction sur la place

the soldiers are a different class and ethnicity - clear in the libretto, ‘droles de gens’

mcclary soldiers different class

standing in for french or western audiences, legitimising audiences to gaze at the other

carmen as performer

showgirl, invites herself to be watched. jose doesn’t look at her when she is first attracted

sur la place unmarked music

light parisian, not spain - no dance rhythms or modal inflections - we might not even notice it against the spectacle - later spanish illusions are more striking - but also possible to be easy for the chorus

choruses over time

begin as women and workers, soldiers, and children but become unified all into romani in act 3 and the festival crowd in act 4 - shows jose’s social alienation, having become the other to dominant groups

micaela as heroine

bourgeois sentiment as sent by his mother, harps, organ, hymnlike melodies, opposed to carmen’s chromaticism - saint’sulpicien style

francesca rosi micaela 1984

filmed from above, looking up to heaven in duet

micaela and jose duet

first time jose sings - only at moments of emotion, thinking of his mum. they sing in parallel strophes before joining together - from the same world, matched, restrained. C’s act 4 duet with E is also conventional - well matched

micaela act 3 aria

written in style of gounod, thought his O ma lyre immortelle influenced bizet - presents her as christian. she has the most accessible and familiar music

carmen and jose duet

never matched - seguidille - teasing, act 2 duet - conflict, finale - slaughter. they all reinforce difference

escamillo arrival music

four square with fanfares and choruses. his song has a martial section and lyrical section - dominates the first half of the prelude, meeting audience expectations, before it starts the fate motif, foreshadowing the end

opening music conventional bizet

so they want trash? all right, I’ll give them trash

opening unresolved fate motif mcclary

destabilising the opera, and demanding a closure which can only be achieved when carmen is killed. E is on display even as other man - similar to C as performers

don jose prelude music

no sign. end of opera also dominated by E and C motifs. he fails to make his voice heard even as he kills carmen. he joins in with m’s musical language

mcclary jose weak

submissive, succumbing to the idiom of whichever female he is under the influence of. he falls victim to carmen’s contamination, as symptoms of chromatic discourse begin to flower his language

after carmen throws the flower

the orchestra explodes in passion - possibly conveying dj’s feelings before he can put them into words. does the fate motif therefore represent more than C, as only in the orchestra

roger parker sympathy

it’s difficult to imagine that most people don’t at that moment feel some sympathy for him … if you love an opera … you tend to want to be all the parts.

nelly furman blurred genders

no longer characters endowned with stock gendered personae, they suggest rather the possibility of mixed gender features within each sex. - dj’s music is always governed by strong females, while c is always in control

carmen low class songs

performance gives little sense of who she is - no authenticity. exotic with dance rhythms, chromaticism, metallic percussion and augmented 2nd

does the fate motif relate to don jose

symbolic of his attraction to c or of their doomed relationship. the final orchestral countermelody sees it again when he kills her

seguedille jose’s language

begins exoticly, but she slips into the same language that marked j and m’s chats - musical bait

seguidille steven huebner jose music

the syntax of his line does not belong to him but lingers from that of the habanera.

shift away from explicit exoticism

c’s musical language isn’t so exotic by halfway through - having used her exotic wiles to seduce jose … then treatting him with an honesty which he can’t handle - ralph locke, collapse of oriental fantasy - disappears when dj enters her world

gypsies interact with each other

typical western operetta - not marked as different. not filtered by the lens of a western character, not performing - carmen sounds like a grand opera heroine - ralph locke

mcclary fate trio

we overhear her private thoughts for the first time. she sings not in the style of her characteristic gypsy discourse, but rather in the tongue of universal subjectivity. as she faces death, she is no longer radically other; she is just like everyone else.

mcclary carmen changing languages

mastered the languages of those around her and can slip easily in and out of them without revealing herself - discursive perversity

carmen threatening to foundations of bourgeois society

can slip between exotic dances to high opera, throwing cultural boundaries of class, race and sex aside