paris reception

opening night was attended by

journalists, politicians, composers like gounod and offenbach - but not bizet’s wife. we don’t know bizet’s reaction to the reception because halevy’s journal was burnt

halevy in article

at carmen’s 1000th performance 1904 - well received and applauded … bizet was surrounded, congratulated. the second act, less enthusiasm … surprised, unhappy, ill at ease … no enthusiasm at all for the thirdact except for micaela’s aria … carmen was not a success

how many periodicals in paris 1875

over 750. some were vicious and hostile

oscar commettant bizet reaction to critique

furious, with bloodshot eyes, descending upon men and looking as though he intended to strangle me … to prove to him how much I esteemed his great talent and his honourable character - integrity in 1883 as carmen was now a success and had to prove that he had always known that

what was praised

costumes, set designs, and micaela

practical problems at premiere

bass drum miscounted and entered while C was singing quietly. DJ struggled to sing his act 2 song moving between g and e flat major, e major and minor. bizet asked a student to play backstage to keep him in tune

director’s fault

didn’t launch the work or warn the critics beforehand of the opera’s scandalous nature - they were offended

halevy director’s fault

the press was not admitted to the dress rehearsal. we invited only about 50 people … none seemed to find the work scandalous … we might have gone to the opening performance full of confidence, had not several morning papers published vitriolic letters, written as though by the same person

were all reviews bad

no but these dominated and fed into the perception of failure. could affect future performance - possibly du locle’s insurance against scandal

pierre berton success

my friends … had told me of a failure, and i had just been present at a success

how many performances

48 - decent, but the house was often empty. mina curtis suggested that the publisher may have paid to keep it on stage as an appearance of success

mcclary why did people hate it

sparked antagonism along two fronts: moral propriety and musical style - the reports attacked female sexuality and carmen in the flesh rather than distanced by a narrator

francois oswald on galli marie

it is difficult to go further without provoking intervention from the police

carmen as prostitute achile de lauzieres

once an author has become befouled in the social sewer, he is forced to descent to the lowest level for a choice of models … a woman, mad over her body, giving herself to the first soldier who comes along - alludes to bizet’s relation with celeste cafe concert

theodore de banville innovation

bizet has tried to show real men and real women … found the only associates who could have the idea, the courage and the audacity to give him enough range by throwing out the window all the old rubbish and old ghosts of the opera comique

wagnerism french opera

seen as the epitome by german audiences because of the french lucidity in his music

bizet german training

taught with bach, beethoven and mendelssohn music - I am german by conviction, heart and soul … i put beethoven at the head of the greatest

1870s france musical style

associated with wagner - bizet saw it as empty and lacking in invention initially but came to appreciate his music by 1981

bizet wagner imitation

of course, if i thought i was imitating wagner, despite my admiration, I would not write another note in my life - had to fight against wagnerian hegemony

theophile gautier how is carmen wagnerian

melody does not consist of waltzes and popular folk songs - moves from dialogue heavy to almost entirely sung through as wagner’s model of endless melody

is it wagnerian

not an example of endless melody, based on a vague notion of wagner traits, rather than an actual understanding - critics didn’t actually know much of his music and weren’t specific

shorthand wagner

reviews were based on his writings - harmonic oddities, musical obscurity, volume, loss of melody, idea of symphony music in opera

wagner bad critics

seen as grotesque and could be used as shorthand for denouncing a work - evoked noise or complexity and did away with the relationship between melody and harmony - not invoking his music, but what his name came to mean

why did paris hate wagner

he tried to conquer paris, moving in 1838 and 1860 to try to get his works performed, but failed. he staged tannhauser at the paris opera in 1861 but the ballet was too early and it was shut after 3 performances

wagner eine kapitulation 1870

antique comedy written during the fp war, when paris was under siege. characters were based on victor hugo, the mayor of paris, director of paris opera, government members - very satirical and nasty, begins with hugo appearing from the sewers

cosima wagner diary written for wagner’s play

the burning of paris would be a symbol of the world’s liberation from the pressure of all that is bad … richard would like to write to bismarck, requesting him to shoot all of paris down - the play was not innocent

when were wagner’s operas performed in france

not until 16 years after his play, and then it was shut down after 3 days

what did invoking wagner in a review do in 1875

criticised too modern or too difficult music, not french enough, attempts to reform the opera comique which demanded a truly french musical culture

french identity need

after losing the war, had to rebuild - opera comique was truly french so bizet’s lack of convention was taken with a sense of national rejection

communard

used for any artist who was thought to stray from convention - even though bizet reacted with horror to the revolution. actual communards attacked the values of the 2nd empire, knocking down the government

escudier on carmen

equated it with wagner to make bizet seem like a communard - exploited associations of anti french and paris commune to attack the score

mcclary class tensions

perceived by the original audiences in terms of the commune … bizet introduces carmen as a common labourer … none of this would have seemed coincidental in 1875, a scant four years after the trauma of the commune

women in the uprising

depicted in prose and pictures as vulgar, smoking, drinking - accusations of setting fire to the city. carmen embodies some traits

bizet view of communards

a band of incendiaries, of brigands, of cannibals

censorship of paris commune

government wanted to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again - censoring massacres, battles. by 1875, 225 illustrations had been banned

ernest pichio censorship

painted Le triomphe de l’ordre in 1875 but was rejected - a dangerous thing to revive the barely forgotten memories of those dead people; men are too often like those bulls in spanish arenas: you must not show them red - le gaulois

reminders of the paris commune

much of the city had to be rebuilt, like the tuileries palace which remained in ruin for a decade - a warning against further revolutions. bourgeois artists tried to reclaim paris by painting scenes which didn’t show ruins like Les tuileries by monet which showed no damage

government rmost prominent reminder

1875, founding stone of the sacre coeur placed on the butte de montmatre march - expediting the sins of the congregation at the site of the commune’s birth. they used funds which had been raised during the fp war to buy canons

what happened to communards

arrests, deportations and executions - over 13000 were prosecuted for many years

act 1 reference to commune

marche et choeur des gamins - the urchins imitate marching soldiers. can be seen as charming, but also an echo of the government’s intention to prepare the next generation of soldiers to avenge the nation

child soldiers

mapped onto the commune - literature shows children defending the city against the republican government, building barricades and setting fires, and were not spared arrest

women accusations

fire - created a myth of a petroleuse - a torch thrower, with red flags of the commune, setting fire to paris. these became dominant symbols, true evils of the revolts - they spoke on feminist issues and manned the barricades

carmen petroleuse

refusal to be dictated to, rejecting dj in her final act while knowing the consequences - a warning to the ease at which one can be swept up by promises of freedom from responsibility

manifestations of commune in carmen’s character

smoking which was masculine - wilfully flouting gender rules and threatening the stability of society - an australian production later pulled this. marriage sought to be overthrown during the commune, with women seeking equality

brigandry

act 2 quintet emphasises women’s skills in deception and theft. the comic music tempers the scandalous text and description of women

act 3 tavern

potential to inspire memories - use for underhand dealings emulating the offstage association with cafes, crime and political activitism - laboratories of revolution

critics threatened by carmen

she was dangerous but also beautiful - allure is scary - described with animal imagery - twists like a serpent - comettant

colour red

political symbolic significance, seen in carmen’s skirt. a symbol of eroticism, blood, fire, and revolution - flags. communard women wore red sashes, scarves and skirts

opera as a site of memory

recent and traumatic shared experiences - codes invoke the commune when explicit reference was actively forbidden

reception of work changes

historically contingent - the opera saw almost immediate success when leaving france for venice, who weren’t concerned with the common

return to france reception

1883, context had changed, with less immediate memory of the commune - accompanied by an aura of global success

adapting the story into a new context

relates to new audiences with feminist, class based, spanish or revolutionary threads