Written by Georges Bizet, a French composer during the romantic period, Carmen quickly became a smash-hit because of its vibrant themes of seduction and heartbreak. The masterpiece was composed and preformed at the end of the romantic period in 1875 (metopera.com). Along with Bizet, Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac assisted in writing the original French text used to this day. However, the DVD recording I watched provided English subtitles so I was able to track the plot. The production of Carmen found in the Northwestern Library was directed by Peter Hall with the assistance of the London Philharmonic conducted by Bernard Haitink. Barry McCauley and Maria Ewing played the major protagonist roles of Don José and Carmen respectively, while Marie McLaughlin and …show more content…
David Holloway played the supporting roles of Micaëla and Escamillo. (Thesis statement) Each act opens with an overture played by the orchestra, which outlines the common themes to be heard.
For example, the overture from Act I begins with the familiar theme from The Habanera before moving to the more subtle themes. In a sense, the overture functions to spark the audience’s curiosity while providing a glimpse into the plot. Carmen tells the story of a proud military corporal name Don José and a beautiful gypsy temptress Carmen. The set opens at a guard post outside a cigarette factory in Seville. Micaëla, Don José’s adopted sister, arrives first on scene carrying a letter for Don José from his mother. Upon opening the letter, Don José reads his dyeing mother’s last wish, which is to marry the kind and moral Micaëla. When all seems well the audience is introduced to Carmen, a beautiful gypsy girl working in the cigarette factory. Carmen uses her looks and charm to capture the attention of all the men in Seville except for the noble Don José. Yet, an altercation breaks out in the cigarette factory, which forces Don José to arrest and escort Carmen. Desperately wanting to be free, Carmen seduces Don José and tricks him into letter her go. For his disobedience, Don José is sentenced to a month in prison. After a month, Carmen and
Don José reunite and confess their passionate love for one another. However, love is not enough for Carmen who desires Don José to relinquish his position in the military in order to live with her in the mountains. Complying with his lover’s desires, Don José deserts the French military and moves with Carmen to the mountains where he finds nothing but anger and disappointment. At this point, Carmen reveals to Don José that she no longer loves him, but has fallen for another man, a bullfighter named Escamillo. Don José is filled with rage and demands the love promised to him by Carmen. In the midst of this conflict, Micaëla arrives in search of Don José hoping to convince him to return to his sick mother. Caught in between love for Carmen and love for his mother, Don José opts to see his mother one last time, but promises that he and Carmen will see each other again. The final act’s setting is a bullfighting competition at which Carmen and her new lover Escamillo are in attendance. Amidst the commotion, Carmen spots Don José in an alleyway looking forlorn. Boldly, Carmen approaches Don José and exclaims she no longer loves him and will never love him as long as both of them are living. Carmen’s statements infuriate Don José who pulls a knife from his waist. He threatens Carmen but she does not give in, causing Don José to murder the woman he so desperately loves. The opera concludes with Don José crying as Carmen bleeds to death in his arms.
Carmen: A Hip Hopera; a musical film starring Beyoncé as an inspiring actress. However, Carmen Brown was once Carmen Jones; starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in the 1954 version. However, the 1954 version of Carmen is not the original playwright, as there have been many adaptations to create relevance of the production. The first production of Carmen was written as a novel that was published in 1845, which there is a four-part compromise. However, the novel Carmen was later turned into an urban film. The history of Carmen will be identified through analyzing and critiques the history of the playwrights. Therefore, the adaptations and along with the history of Carmen, will be examined to further establish the importance of the film.
The first movement felt as though it was the beginning of a riddle sure to be solved later in the symphony. It began with a sense of suspense with all basic elements of music: tonality, melody, and rhythm. The entire first movement was of an established sonata, between all instruments. However, what caught my attention was the mumble of the low strings which erupted into violins. I was on the edge of my seat for what was to come.
Carmen is an opera written by famous French composer George Bizet in 1873. The libretto was written in French by Henri Meilhac and Ludohvic Halevy, with its plot being based on a novella also entitled Carmen, which was written in 1845. The story centers around two main characters: Don Jose, a naïve corporal and Carmen, a seductive Gypsy. Throughout the opera these characters experience have an emotional love experience, although it ends with one dying. Bizet portrayed the ideals of both realism and exoticism within this particular work, which is one of the reasons why it became one of the most popular Western operas in history.
Grande introduces to the audience various characters that cross Juana 's path to either alter or assist her on her journey to find her father. Through those individuals, Grande offers a strong comparison of female characters who follow the norms, versus those that challenge gender roles that
In the award winning play The Oxcart “La carreta”, by René Marqués is about a Puerto Rican family trying to escape poverty by moving to a more prosperous place. The Characters of the Oxcart are: Doña Gabriela who is a widow and the mother of Juanita and chaguito and also the stepmom of Luis, she is very strong woman. Juanita her daughter in the other hand stars off as a docile person whoever after something tragic happens to her she then becomes this strong defying character and eventually she becomes a prostitute. Chaguito is a very naughty boy he loves that streets and hates school he is extremely disrespectful. Don Chago is the father of Luis and Doña Gabriela’s husband he’s the typical and traditional man who won’t leave behind his place of origin. Luis, Doña Gabriela’s stepson, he is the head of the household; he works very hard but eventually dies coincidentally while working. Those are the primarily characters of the Oxcart then we have the others such as Lidia, whose Juanita’s friend while living in New York, we also have Lito, who is a family neighbor while they are living in San Juan, we also have Germana, the nosey neighbor. Matilde who is the one that encourages Juanita to enter the world of prostitution, and then we have Paco, a radio personality that meets Juanita in New York and ask her to marry him. There is also Mr. Parkinton an American preacher and lastly Doña Isabel, a former teacher and Luis’ fiancé’s aunt that also has a brief affair with him
The Trujillo system in the Dominican Republic, under which the Cabral’s are associated with, exploits women and the Gangster, just like Trujillo did exactly that. This path of life that Beli embarks on is the wrong choice because it is plagued with the fuk. She sees the Gangster as an escape from her current life because he is extremely rich. The Gangster promises her a house in Miami with as many bedrooms as she wants. Beli is nave and does not realize that the Gangster cannot help her escape her life that she is unhappy with.
The music and sound effects are in the same pont with what the author nedded to say in that play. In the smok and sword fight on the first act we thought will be a play where every body is confusing and fight each other. The phone ringing all the time and this help the actors to play around in the hury and action come up with rehearsal process. The purposes of the phone is any time we heart that something is going to happen, so we expectin to change the sequence in the play. Ringing the phone open a problem, hanging up the phone close the problem. Opening and shoutting the door of dressing room as a slamming it create for the audience understanding the flow of the show and leaves the flexibility as we see white and black to the performance. Crying with tears make the player dramatic, but afraid of discover which it trying to keep things together laughting and
Here he presents use with some of the main characters who are Nayeli, Tacho, Vampi, Yolo, Matt, and Atomiko. The girls have been affected by the absence of the town’s men who have left the small town to seek work in the United States. The purpose in presenting us with the information of why these men have left the town is to present the fact, of why so many others in small towns like this one have left their towns, in search for work. He also provides a personal account of the everyday life of the people of Tres Camarones in a way that the reader can get a better idea of life in a small Mexican town. One of the main characters Nayeli is a dreamer, who fantasizes about living in a U.S. city and whose father that has left the town to the new world to seek work. The father was the town police man and someone who Nayeli looked up to. Nayeli and her friends take on a task to bring back seven men from the United States, for the purpose of helping to deal with the narcols that have threaten the daily life of the town’s people. But also feel that it is there duty to repopulate the town and prevent it from dying out. At this point the story takes on a different meaning and a new direction of heroism to save the town from the bad men. But the journey has many borders that the girls and one guy have to encounter in order to be successful. There are many different social and
At the start of the play, in Act 1 Scene 1, there is a theme of
The synopsis of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet is about a woman named Carmen. She is introduced with a song about the natural of love Habanera. She is surrounded by men, which plead with her to choose a lover, but end up throwing a flower at José who shows no interest in her. José is engaged Micaela, whom his mothers approve of. She brought him a letter from his mother saying she wants him to hurry up and marry Micaela. First, José finally decides to heed to his mother request, then Carmen reveals her affection for him by throwing a flower to him. Carmen has committed a crime, she attacks women with a knife. Jose ties her hands, but later to release her because she sings a song that mesmerized him.
The play is structured so that the climax, or rather the main premise of the play, appears near the beginning; al...
Carmen now with her friends in the “Windy City” continues to exude aspects of freedom and desirability away from the control of men but she falters when she finds herself suddenly short on cash. In several scenes that follow, Carmen begins to blend into the background in contrast to her friends. Having no other clothing except the pink dress she wore in Louisiana, she appears almost “ordinary” in comparison to her best friend Frankie, who is now thriving with Husky Miller’s entourage. Frankie, no longer in her mismatched clothing and loud costume jewelry, is now wearing a luxurious brown satin gown with a feathered headdress and brilliant jewels (fig. 9). Frankie tries to encourage Carmen to use her beauty to get Husky’s affections in order
The theme of the play is also change. At the end of the play when
The fascination with exoticism was more and more prevalent within romantic compositions as there was an increased yearning for far off lands within the composer’s imagination. ‘Composers of such works were not terribly interested in authenticity; their primary concern was to create a picturesque atmosphere that would appeal to audiences.’(Machlis p.190) Bizet romanticized gypsy culture in his opera and through the character, ‘Carmen’. The libretto gives off ideas in relation to the emerging theme of ‘naturalism’, where much focus was given to the working class and their suffering. Carmen and the other gypsies don’t have that middle class virtue. ‘But they are seen against the exotic allure of Spain and Bizet’s music invests them with a human dignity.’ (Machlis192) In much of the art, music and literature of the 19th century the female gypsy, in particular was characterized and stereotyped as free-spirited, strong, deviant, demanding, sexually arousing, alluring and dismissive. This romantic construct of the Gypsy woman may be viewed as completely opposite to the proper, controlled and chaste, submissive woman held as the Victorian, European ideal. These descriptions are likened to the characters of Carmen in contrast to Micaela. ‘Carmen’ is all about women, especially women with exotic qualities who challenge the traditional morale. The women in ‘Carmen’ are seen not as passive but as active players in the social game. Carmen forever sings about freedom and love with no limits. ‘The freedom to travel, the freedom to exist – Carmen fights for the right to live.’(Feminist endings) The oriental fascination with the forbidden and taboo world of the gypsy other in music is characterized by the spontaneous dance-like rhythms, melodies and orchestration. Carmen’s most famous aria, ‘Habanera’ in which she tells of her conception of love, is a borrowed Cuban dance form, from Havana exhibiting Spanish flounces and likened to the ‘Tango’ dance style. The duple metre slow dance, lined with graceful dotted rhythms involves a lot of body movement and expression, characteristic of the gypsy. ‘Seguidilla’ also demonstrates the importance of dance to the gypsy culture, set in a typical ¾ rhythm and sung to a poetic verse form. The combination of guitar-like accompaniment, pizzicato on the strings laced with ornaments and triplets, gives the piece character and cheek, as Carmen taunts Don Jose to fall for her charms. The accelerating gypsy dance opening Act 2 uses dissonances and sliding harmonies, creating that colour and richness typical of the exotic influence.
Isabella is strong and feisty and Miguel is protective of Isabella. Ramon is pushed around, but the scene reveals his anger issues when he pushes the boy into the path of the bus. This foreshadows more violence to come.