In the early autumn of 1830, an inquisitive scientist (Merime himself is guessed in him) hires a guide in Cordoba and goes in search of ancient Munda, where the last victorious Spanish battle of Julius Caesar took place. The midday heat makes him seek refuge in a shady gorge. But the place by the stream is already taken. Towards the narrator, a dexterous and strong fellow with a gloomy proud look and blond hair rises warily. The traveler disarms him with an offer to share a cigar and a meal with him, and then they continue on their way together, despite the eloquent signs of the guide. They stop for the night in a remote vent. The companion puts a blunderbuss next to him and falls asleep with the sleep of the righteous, but the scientist cannot sleep. He leaves the house and sees a crouching guide who is going to warn the uhlan post that the robber José Navarro has stopped in the vent, for the capture of which two hundred ducats are promised. The traveler warns the companion of danger. Now they are bound by bonds of friendship.
The scientist continues his search in the library of the Dominican monastery in Cordoba. After sunset, he usually walks along the banks of the Guadalquivir. One evening, on the embankment, a woman approaches him, dressed as a grisette, and with a bunch of jasmine in her hair. She is short, young, well built, and has huge, slanting eyes. The scientist is struck by her strange, wild beauty and especially her gaze, which is both sensual and wild. He treats her with cigarettes, finds out that her name is Carmen, that she is a gypsy and knows how to tell fortunes. He asks permission to take her home and show him his art. But fortune-telling is interrupted at the very beginning - the door swings open, and a man wrapped in a cloak bursts into the room with curses. The scientist recognizes him as his friend José. After a furious skirmish with Carmen in an unfamiliar language, Jose takes the guest out of the house and shows the way to the hotel. The scientist discovers that in the meantime, his golden watch with a fight, which Carmen liked so much, has disappeared from him. Disappointed and ashamed, the scientist leaves the city. A few months later, he again finds himself in Cordoba and learns that the robber José Navarro has been arrested and is awaiting execution in prison. The curiosity of the researcher of local customs prompts the scientist to visit the robber and listen to his confession.
José Aizarrabengoa tells him that he is a Basque, was born in Elizondo and belongs to an old noble family. After a bloody fight, he flees from his native land, joins the dragoon regiment, serves diligently and becomes a brigadier. But one day, to his misfortune, he was assigned to guard the Seville tobacco factory. That Friday, he sees Carmen for the first time - his love, torment and death. Together with other girls, she goes to work. She has an acacia flower in her mouth, and she walks with her hips moving like a young Cordovan mare. Two hours later, a squad is called in to stop a bloody quarrel at the factory. Jose must take to prison the instigator of the quarrel, Carmen, who mutilated the face of one of the workers with a knife. On the way, she tells Jose a touching story that she, too, is from the Basque country, all alone in Seville, she is being poisoned as a stranger, which is why she took up the knife. She lies, as she has lied all her life, but José believes her and helps her escape. For this, he was demoted and sent to prison for a month. There he receives a gift from Carmen - a loaf of bread with a file, a gold coin and two piastres. But Jose does not want to run - military honor keeps him. Now he serves as a simple soldier. One day he stands on the clock outside his colonel's house. A carriage arrives with gypsies invited to entertain the guests. Among them is Carmen. She appoints José a meeting, they spend together recklessly happy day and night. At parting, Carmen says: “We are even. Farewell... You know, son, I think I fell in love with you a little. But […] a wolf can't get along with a dog”, José tries in vain to find Carmen. She only appears when the smugglers need to be led through the gap in the city wall, which is guarded by José. So, for Carmen's promise to give him a night, he violates the military oath. He then kills the lieutenant, who is brought in by Carmen. He becomes a smuggler. For a while, he is almost happy, as Carmen is sometimes affectionate with him - until the day when Garcia Curve, a disgusting freak, appears in the smuggling squad. This is Carmen's husband, whom she finally manages to get out of prison. Jose and his "companions" are engaged in smuggling, robbing and sometimes killing travelers. Carmen serves as their liaison and gunner. Rare meetings bring short happiness and unbearable pain. One day, Carmen hints to Jose that during the next "case" it would be possible to substitute a crooked husband under enemy bullets. José prefers to kill his opponent in a fair fight and becomes Carmen's gypsy husband, but she is increasingly burdened by his obsessive love. He invites her to change her life, to leave for the New World. She makes fun of him: "We are not created to plant cabbage." After some time, José finds out that Carmen is infatuated with the matador Lucas. José is furiously jealous and again offers Carmen to go to America. She replies that she is fine in Spain, but she will not live with him anyway. José takes Carmen to a secluded gorge and asks again and again if she will follow him. “I can’t love you. I don’t want to live with you, ”Carmen answers and tears off the ring he gave him from her finger. Enraged, José stabs her twice with a knife. He buries her in the forest - she always wanted to find eternal rest in the forest - and puts a ring and a small cross in the grave. In the fourth and final chapter of the novel, the narrator enthusiastically shares with readers his observations on the customs and language of the Spanish gypsies. In the end, he cites a meaningful gypsy proverb: "The move is ordered into the tightly closed mouth of the fly."
Georges Bizet (years of life 1838-1875) "Carmen" based on the short story of the same name by Prosper Mérimée has now gained worldwide fame. The popularity of a piece of music is so great that in many theaters it is performed in the national language (including in Japan). The summary of the opera "Carmen" by Bizet as a whole corresponds to the plot of the novel, however, there are some differences.
It may seem surprising to a modern listener that the first production of the opera, which took place on March 3, 1875 in Paris (the Opera-Comic), turned out to be a failure. The scandalous debut of Carmen, accompanied by an abundance of accusatory comments from French journalists, nevertheless had its positive effect. The work, which received such a wide resonance in the press, could not but attract the attention of the world. About 50 performances took place on the stage of the Opéra-Comique alone during the premiere season.
Nevertheless, after some time the opera was withdrawn from the show and returned to the stage only in 1883. The author of the opera Carmen himself did not live to see this moment - he suddenly died at the age of 36, three months after the premiere of his great work.
Bizet's opera "Carmen" has a four-part form, each act of which is preceded by a separate symphonic intermission. All overtures of the work in their development contain musical material, to one degree or another representing a given action (a general picture of events, a tragic foreboding, etc.).
The plot of the opera "Carmen" takes place in the city of Seville and its environs (Spain) at the beginning. 19th century. The specificity of the characters chosen by the author of the opera was, for that time, to a certain extent provocative. The images of simple tobacco factory workers behaving rather cheekily (some of them smoke), soldiers, policemen, and thieves and smugglers ran counter to the strict requirements of secular society.
In order to somehow smooth the impression created by such a society (women of easy virtue, fickle in their affections; men sacrificing honor in the name of passion, etc.), the author of the opera Carmen, together with the authors of the libretto, introduces a new character into the work. This is the image of Michaela - a pure and innocent girl, which was not in the novel by Prosper Merimee. Due to this heroine, touching in her affection for Don Jose, the characters acquire greater contrast, and the work, in turn, becomes more dramatic. Thus, the summary of the libretto of the opera "Carmen" has its own specifics.
Character | vocal part |
|
mezzo-soprano (or soprano, contralto) |
||
Don Jose (Jose) | ||
fiancé Jose, peasant woman | ||
Escamillo | bullfighter | |
romendado | smuggler | |
Dancairo | smuggler | |
Frasquita | Carmen's friend, a gypsy | |
Mercedes | Carmen's friend, a gypsy | |
Lillas Pastia | tavern owner | without vocals |
Guide, gypsies, smugglers, factory workers, soldiers, officers, picadors, bullfighters, boys, young people, people | ||
Consider the summary of the opera "Carmen". Seville, town square. Hot afternoon. Off-duty soldiers stand at the barracks, next to the cigar factory, cynically discussing passers-by walking by. Michaela approaches the soldiers - she is looking for Don Jose. Upon learning that he is not now, embarrassed leaves. The changing of the guard begins, and Don José appears among the guards. Together with their commander, Captain Zuniga, they discuss the attractiveness of the cigar factory workers. The bell rings - the factory is on a break. Workers run out into the street in a crowd. They smoke and behave quite cheekily.
Carmen exits. She flirts with young men and sings her famous habanera (“Love has wings like a bird”). At the end of the song, the girl throws a flower at Jose. Laughing at his embarrassment, the workers return to the factory.
Michaela reappears with a letter and a hotel for José. Their duet "What relatives said" sounds. At this time, a terrible noise begins at the factory. It turns out that Carmen slashed one of the girls with a knife. Jose receives an order from the commander to arrest Carmen and take him to the barracks. José and Carmen are left alone. The seguidilla "Near the Bastion in Seville" sounds, in which the girl promises to love José. The young corporal is completely fascinated. However, on the way to the barracks, Carmen manages to push him away and escape. As a result, Jose himself is taken into custody.
We continue to describe the summary of the opera "Carmen". Two months later. The tavern of Lillas Pastia, Carmen's friend, is the very place where the young gypsy promised to sing and dance for José. Here reigns unbridled fun. Among the most important visitors is Captain Zuniga, Commander José. He tries to woo Carmen, but he doesn't succeed. At the same time, the girl learns that Jose's detention period is ending, and this pleases her.
The bullfighter Escamillo appears, he performs the famous couplets "Toast, friends, I accept yours." The patrons of the tavern chorus join in his singing. Escamillo is also fascinated by Carmen, but she does not reciprocate.
It's getting late. José appears. Delighted by his arrival, Carmen escorts the remaining visitors from the tavern - four smugglers (the bandits El Dancairo and El Remendado, as well as the girls - Mercedes and Frasquita). A young gypsy performs a dance for José, as promised before his arrest. However, the appearance of Captain Zunig, who also came on a date with Carmen, destroys the romantic atmosphere. A quarrel breaks out between rivals, ready to escalate into bloodshed. However, the gypsies arrived in time to disarm the captain. Don Jose has no choice but to give up his military career. He joins a gang of smugglers, much to Carmen's delight.
What else does the summary of the opera Carmen tell about? An idyllic picture of nature, in a secluded place among the mountains. The smugglers have a short halt. Don Jose yearns for home, for peasant life, the trade of smugglers does not seduce him at all - only Carmen and passionate love for her seduces. However, the young gypsy no longer loves him, the case is nearing a break. According to Mercedes and Franchita's divination, Carmen is in danger of death.
The halt is over, the smugglers go to work, only José remains to look after the abandoned goods. Mikaela appears unexpectedly. She continues to look for José. Her aria “In vain I assure myself” sounds.
At this time, the sound of a shot is heard. Frightened, Michaela hides. It turns out that it was Jose who shot when he saw Escamillo. The bullfighter, in love with Carmen, is looking for her. A fight begins between the rivals, which inevitably threatens Escamillo with death, but Carmen, who arrived in time, manages to intervene and save the bullfighter. Escamillo leaves, finally inviting everyone to his performance in Seville.
The next moment, José discovers Michaela. The girl gives him sad news - his mother is dying and wants to say goodbye to her son before her death. Carmen contemptuously agrees that José is better off leaving. In anger, he warns her that they will meet again, and only death can separate them. Roughly pushing Carmen away, José leaves. The musical motif of the bullfighter sounds ominously.
The following is a summary of the opera "Carmen" about the festive festivities in Seville. Residents of the city in smart clothes are all in anticipation of the bullfight performance. Escamillo is to perform in the arena. Soon the bullfighter himself appears arm in arm with Carmen. The young gypsy is also dressed with great luxury. A duet of two lovers.
Escamillo, and after him all the spectators rush to the theater. Only Carmen remains, despite the fact that Mercedes and Francquita manage to warn her about Jose hiding nearby. The girl with a challenge says that she is not afraid of him.
José enters. He is wounded, his clothes turned into tatters. Jose begs the girl to return to him, but in response he receives only a contemptuous refusal. The young man continues to insist. Enraged, Carmen throws the golden ring he gave him. At this time, a choir sounds behind the scenes, praising the victory of the bullfighter - Jose's happy rival. Jose, who has lost his mind, takes out a dagger and plunges it into his beloved just at the moment when the enthusiastic crowd in the theater welcomes Escamillo, the winner of the bullfight.
The festive crowd pours out of the theater into the street, where a terrible picture opens up to their eyes. Mentally broken Jose with the words: “I killed her! Oh, my Carmen!..” - falls at the feet of his dead lover.
Thus, "Carmen" is an opera, the summary of which can be described in almost two sentences. However, the gamut of human feelings and passions that the heroes of the work experience cannot be conveyed in any words - only with music and theatrical acting, which Georges Bizet and the opera actors managed to masterfully accomplish.
"Carmen"- a short story by the French writer Prosper Merime about the passionate love of the Basque Jose for the gypsy Carmensita. Robbery life, customs and culture of the Spanish gypsies are described in detail. Jose demanded complete submission from Carmen, but Carmen, a freedom-loving gypsy, refused to submit at the cost of her own life.
The narrator, an archaeologist by trade, travels to Cordoba to locate Munda, the city where Julius Caesar won one of his victories. On the elevated part of the Kachenskaya Plain, thirst attacks him. He finds a stream that leads him to a picturesque lawn, where the archaeologist meets a young man of average height. The stranger at first frightens the hero with his ferocious appearance and blunderbuss, but then the author offers him a Havana cigar and a conversation begins between them.
The stranger shows himself to be a good connoisseur of horses. The narrator treats him to ham. The young man greedily pounces on the treat. The hero's guide, Antonio, who has been chatting all the way, falls silent and tries to stay away from the fierce fellow.
Upon learning that the narrator plans to spend the night in the Voronya vent, the Spaniard offers to keep him company. On the way to the lodging for the night, the archaeologist tries to find out from the stranger if he is the famous robber José Maria, but the latter prefers to remain silent.
The mistress of the Crow Vent calls the stranger Don José. After dinner, at the request of the narrator, the robber plays the mandolin and sings the national Basque song. Antonio tries to call his master to a private conversation in the stable, but the narrator decides to show his trust in Don Jose and does not go anywhere. He spends the night with the robber, but waking up from an itch, he carefully gets out into the street, where he learns from the guide that he wants to give José Navarro to the ulans and get two hundred ducats for it. The narrator warns the robber of betrayal. José Navarro leaves the Crow Vent.
In Cordoba, the narrator spends several days. He gets acquainted with monastic manuscripts, walks along the city embankment. One evening, the hero meets the beautiful gypsy Carmen, the most famous witch in the area. He invites her to a cafe for ice cream, after which he escorts her home, where the girl tells fortunes to him on the cards. Suddenly, a stranger wrapped in a brown cloak appears in the room, in whom the narrator recognizes Don Jose. Carmen in the gypsy dialect passionately convinces the robber to do something. From her gestures, the narrator guesses that we are talking about his murder. Don José refuses. He leads the hero to the bridge. At the inn, the narrator discovers the loss of a gold watch, but does nothing to find it.
After spending several months in Andalusia, the hero returns to Cordoba. One of the monks of the Dominican monastery happily meets the archaeologist. He informs him about the capture of Jose Navarro, during which the narrator's gold watch was found, and invites the hero to go to the chapel to talk with the bandit, who is a local landmark and of interest to any explorer of Spain.
The narrator offers the robber his help. Don José asks that Mass be served for him and Carmen, and that a woman in Pamplona be given his silver icon.
The next day, the hero visits Don Jose again. The latter tells him his story. José Navarro was born in Elizondo, in the Bastan Valley. He bore the surname Lisarrabengoa and was a full-blooded Basque and Christian. In his youth, Don José joined the Almann Cavalry Regiment, where he quickly became a corporal. Standing on guard at the Seville tobacco factory, he met Carmen, who was the first to flirt with the young cavalryman, offended by the inattention to her person. On the same day, a gypsy woman slashed the face of one of the factory workers with a knife. Don Jose, summoned by the sergeant-major, was supposed to accompany her to prison. On the way, Carmen began to persuade the young man to give her the opportunity to escape. In return, she offered a piece of bar lachi - magical magnetic ore that can bewitch any woman. Realizing that nothing could be achieved by bribery, Carmen switched to the Basque language. Don Jose succumbed to the gypsy woman's seduction and decided to help the "compatriot" to escape, deliberately falling backwards from a light blow of a girl's fist.
For the misconduct committed, the cavalryman was imprisoned for a month. There he kept thinking about Carmen. Once the jailer brought him an alkalin bread from his "cousin", in which he found a small file and two piastres. Don José did not run away. After his release, he was demoted to ordinary soldiers. Standing on watch at the door of the young, wealthy colonel, don Jose again met Carmen, who had come with other gypsies to a secular evening to amuse the public. Before leaving, the girl hinted to the former cavalryman that she could be found in the food shop Triana, at Lillas Pastier.
Carmen goes for a walk in Seville with Don José. The soldier returns the money sent to her in the bread. On them, Carmen buys food and sweets. She brings Don José to a house belonging to some old woman and spends the whole day with him. The next morning, the girl explains that she paid the soldier in full and offers to leave.
The next meeting with Carmen takes place at Don Jose, when he stands guard over the gap through which the smugglers deliver their goods at night. A gypsy woman offers a soldier a night of love in exchange for a bandit pass. Don Jose at first does not agree, but, thinking that Carmen can get his corporal, he decides to commit a crime of malfeasance. A date on Candeliho Street turns into a quarrel with reconciliation.
Don José does not know where Carmen is for a long time. He often visits Dorothea, an old woman in whose house he met a gypsy. One day he finds Carmen there with a lieutenant of his regiment. A quarrel breaks out between young people. Don Jose kills the lieutenant. Carmen dresses him up as a peasant and takes him to an unfamiliar house. The next morning, the girl reports that the hero has no other way but to take the path of a smuggler himself. Don Jose likes a new life in which he has money, a lover and the respect of his comrades.
Don José learns from the head of the gang, Dancaire, that Carmen managed to free her Roma (husband), Garcia Crooked, from the Tarif prison. Terrible in appearance of the gypsies and in the soul turned out to be a real devil - he without a twinge of conscience shot one of his comrades, preventing him from retreating from the cavalrymen.
Carmen sends to Gibraltar on gypsy business. In Sierra Ronda, Don Jose meets the robber Jose Maria. Communication with Carmen breaks. Don Jose, at the insistence of his comrades, goes in search of a gypsy. He finds Carmen in the company of an English officer. The gypsy urges him not to be jealous, content with the title of her "minchorro" - a lover or a fad. She persuades Don José to kill the Englishman and Garcia. The robber refuses to kill the gypsy by accident. He starts a quarrel with him at the fire and takes his life in a fair duel. Carmen agrees to become Romi Don José.
Living together with the jealous Don Jose is hard for the freedom-loving Carmen. After the murder of Dankayre and a severe wound, the robber offers the gypsy to move to the New World and begin to lead a new, honest way of life. The girl laughs at him. Don José returns to his former trade.
Carmen is cheating on her husband with picador Lucas. She offers Don Jose either to profit from his money, or to take him into a gang in return for the murdered smugglers. During this period, the robber just meets the narrator.
Carmen continues to cheat on Don José with Lucas. The robber asks the gypsy to go with him to the New World. He says he's tired of killing her lovers. The next time, Don José promises to kill Carmen herself. The gypsy sees her fate in this and refuses to travel. She tells Don José several times that she does not love him and will not live with him. In a fit of rage, the robber kills the gypsy. He buries her in the forest and turns himself in to the authorities.
The narrator describes in detail the places of settlement, occupations, appearance and character traits of the Spanish gypsies, which are characterized by loyalty to their fellow tribesmen, hospitality, lack of belonging to any religion, and the desire for fraud. The author calls India the birthplace of the gypsies. The narrator emphasizes the linguistic commonality and difference of the nomadic peoples living in Spain, Germany and France.
It was early autumn of 1830. One scientist, no doubt inquisitive and enthusiastic, goes to the place of the last battle of the great Julius Caesar in order to find the ancient Munda. Along the way, he, along with his guide, are forced to stop, the reason for which was the midday heat, forcing them to flee in the shade. They turn to one gorge, but a convenient place to rest, located near the stream, is already occupied by someone: a fair-haired man rises to meet them. In his gait, not only strength was guessed, but also undoubted dexterity. and the face, on which piercing eyes can be noted, looking proudly and confidently, betrayed wariness. Despite the obvious hostility of the stranger, the offer of the newcomers to share a meal with them, and after a good cigar, relieves the tension of the meeting. After a rest, our scientist continues his journey together with his new acquaintance, while he does not pay any attention to the guide who gives him signs. When evening falls, travelers decide to stop for the night, choosing a place in a remote vent. After dinner, a new acquaintance, putting a blunderbuss next to him, immediately begins to snore, and the scientist, tormented by insomnia, goes out into the street. In the darkness of the night, he suddenly notices how his guide quietly sneaks, and asking what is the matter, the scientist finds out that he decided to warn the ulans post that a certain Jose Navarro, a robber, was promised a reward for his help in arrest two hundred ducats. The scientist does not wish evil to his new acquaintance and warns him that he is in danger, which is why he imbues the hero with a feeling of true friendship.
Some time passes and our scientist continues his research in one of the libraries of the monastery located in Cordoba. In the evenings, he walks and watches the sunset on the banks of the Guadalquivir. During one of these walks, he is approached by a woman who was dressed in a grisette, short, young, with a charming figure and piercing slanting eyes. Her beauty, wild and unnatural, struck our scientist. He treats her to a cigarette and the girl is provided. Her name was Carmen, she is a gypsy and knows how to tell fortunes. The scientist asks to let him see the girl, and at the same time, to look at her unusual art. However, Carmen's stories about the future were unexpectedly interrupted by a man wrapped in a cloak, who, cursing, bursts into the house, where his new acquaintance had recently brought the scientist. This man turns out to be a traveler saved by a scientist in recent times. After his conversation with Carmen, from which the scientist could not understand anything, because he passed, albeit emotionally, but in an unfamiliar language, Jose takes the hero outside and shows him the direction to the hotel. Only here, our scientist suddenly discovers that he has lost his gold watch, which the girl really liked. Disappointed, he leaves the city in the next few days.
Several months have passed. The scientist again arrives in Cordoba, where he accidentally learns that Jose is already in prison and awaiting execution. The hero decides to go to his friend and listen to his story about life.
Arriving in the dungeon to the robber, the scientist learned from Jose that he himself was a Basque and was born in a family belonging to a noble family, old and respectable. His hometown was Elizondo, from where he fled after a fight.
Jose enters the service in the dragoon regiment. In the army, he showed diligence and was soon able to rise to the rank of brigadier. One day he was assigned to the guard, who guarded a tobacco factory in Seville. It was here that he met Carmen, whom he fell in love with at the moment he first saw a girl going to work. Two hours pass and Jose is summoned to the factory, where he was to arrest Carmen, who has sunk into his heart, because she severely cut one worker's face with a knife. When Jose was leading her, she told him that she was also from the Basques, and in this city she feels very, very lonely, everyone poisoned her, because they considered her a stranger, that's why she grabbed a knife in order to protect herself and her dignity. Of course she was lying, but he believed her and let her go. For this, however, he was imprisoned for a month and demoted, but then he did not regret what he had done.
In prison, he receives a gift from Carmen - bread, in which a file was hidden, a gold coin and two piastres. However, a sense of military duty and honor do not allow him to decide to escape, and he returns to the unit as a private. One day he stood guard at the house of his colonel. In the evening, a carriage drove up to the gate, on which the called gypsies arrived - there was some kind of holiday in the house. Among the gypsies, Jose unexpectedly notices his acquaintance, who sets up a date with him and it was their happiest night. When they said goodbye, Carmen said that they were in the calculation, but at the same time admitted that she fell in love with him, but, as she noted, a wolf and a sheep cannot get along side by side. After that, he tried for a long time to find the missing girl, but his search was unsuccessful. When he was guarding the passage in the city wall, she again appears with a request to help guide the smugglers. Carmen gives her word to give Jose the night, and he breaks this oath. After that, José was happy for a long time, Carmen was affectionate with him, but suddenly a certain Garcia Curve appears in the smugglers' squad, nicknamed so for his exceptional ugliness. He turned out to be Carmen's husband and she had been trying for a long time to get him out of prison.
Jose began to trade in smuggling and sometimes rob and kill travelers. One day, Carmen tells José that once again, when they do their next thing, he could expose her husband to bullets, but he does not agree and kills his rival in a fair fight, challenging him to a duel, after which he officially becomes her husband. Only Carmen herself is starting to get tired of this love and Jose himself more and more.
One day, Jose offered his beloved to change their lives and go to the New World, but she only laughed at him in response. A little more time passes and Jose finds out that his Carmen had some kind of affair with the matador Lucas. Jose is very jealous and once again calls Carmen to America, but she refuses and declares that they still won’t be able to live together, and she and Spain live very well. The enraged man takes his beloved away to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that she does not want to live with him, and she will no longer love either. Jose is furious, in a fit of anger he kills Carmen with a knife, after which he buries his beloved in the forest, putting a small cross and a ring in the grave.
This is where the story of the unfortunate Jose ends, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the gypsies in the subsequent part of the novel.
Please note that this is only a summary of the literary work "Carmen". This summary omits many important points and quotations.
Carmen is the culmination of the work of the French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) and one of the pinnacles of all operatic music. This opera was the last work of Bizet: its premiere took place on March 3, 1875, and exactly three months later the composer died. His premature death was hastened by the grandiose scandal that broke out around Carmen: the respectable public found the plot of the opera indecent, and the music too learned, imitative ("Wagnerian").
The plot is borrowed from the short story of the same name by Prosper Mérimée, more precisely, from its final chapter, containing Jose's story about his life drama.
The libretto was written by experienced playwrights A. Melyak and L. Halevi, significantly rethinking the original source:
The genre of "Carmen" is very original. Bizet gave it the subtitle "comic opera", although its content is distinguished by genuine tragedy. This name of the genre is explained by the long tradition of the French theater to classify as a comedy any work that is plotly connected with the everyday life of ordinary people. In addition, Bizet chose for his opera the traditional structural principle of French comic opera - the alternation of finished musical numbers and spoken prose episodes. After Bizet's death, his friend, composer Ernst Giro replaced the colloquial speech with music, i.e. recitatives. This contributed to the continuity of musical development, but the connection with the comic opera genre was completely broken. Remaining formally within the framework of the comic opera, Bizet opened a completely new genre for the French opera theater - realistic musical drama which synthesized the best features of other operatic genres:
Opera idea is to affirm the human right to freedom of feelings. In "Carmen" two different ways of life, two worldviews, two psychologies collide, the "incompatibility" of which naturally leads to a tragic outcome (for José - "patriarchal", for Carmen - free, not constrained by the norms of generally accepted morality).
Dramaturgy The opera is based on a contrasting juxtaposition of a love drama full of drama and fatal doom and bright, festive scenes of folk life. This opposition develops throughout the work, from the overture to the climactic final scene.
1 action begins with a massive choral scene showing the backdrop against which the drama will unfold and foreshadowing the appearance of the main character, Carmen. Here the exposition of almost all the main characters (except Escamillo) is given and the plot of the drama takes place - in the scene with the flower. The climax of this action is the seguidilla: Jose, seized by passion, no longer able to resist Carmen's charms, he violates the order, contributing to her escape.
2 action also opens with a noisier, lively folk scene in the Lilas-Pastya tavern (secret meeting place for smugglers). Here Escamillo receives his portrait characteristic. In the same action, the first conflict arises in the relationship between Carmen and Jose: a quarrel overshadows the very first love date. The unexpected arrival of Zunigi decides the fate of Jose, who is forced to stay with the smugglers.
IN 3 actions the conflict escalates and a tragic denouement is outlined: Jose suffers from betrayal of duty, homesickness, jealousy and an increasingly passionate love for Carmen, but she has already cooled off towards him. The center of act 3 is the scene of fortune-telling, where the fate of Carmen is predicted, and the culmination is the scene of the duel between José and Escamillo and Carmen's break with him. However, the denouement is delayed: in the finale of this action, Jose leaves the Michaels to visit his sick mother. On the whole, act 3, a turning point in the dramaturgy of the opera, is distinguished by a gloomy color (the events take place at night in the mountains), and is permeated with a sense of anxious expectation. A large role in the emotional coloring of the action is played by the march and sextet of smugglers with their restless, wary character.
IN 4 actions the development of the conflict enters its last stage and reaches a climax. The denouement of the drama takes place in the final scene of Carmen and José. It is prepared by a festive folk scene of waiting for a bullfight. The jubilant cries of the crowd from the circus form the background in the duet itself. That. folk scenes constantly accompany episodes that reveal personal drama.
Overture is divided into two contrasting sections, representing two opposite spheres of the work: Section I, in a complex Partial form, is built on the themes of a folk festival and the music of Escamillo's couplets (in a trio); 2nd section - on the theme of Carmen's fatal passion.
