CARMEN
CARMEN RE-IMAGINED
In this intimate version of Bizet's Carmen, scored for four voices with piano accompaniment and a new English script by Director Bronwen Stephens-Harding, Rogue Opera presents a compact production re-imagined to bring you the essence of the story, the complexities of the characters and the beauty of the music along with new dialogue and insights into the characters thoughts and motivations.
Passion ... obsession ... ruin ...
Bizet’s Carmen is one of the most popular and familiar operas, with its music and characters known well outside the genre, but it is more than just a grand spectacle or operatic tragedy. When Bizet created Carmen from the short story by Prosper Merrimée, he broke operatic convention by celebrating proletarian and immoral ways of life. He also vividly brought to life the character of Carmen (almost a side note in the original text) as a complex, proud and spirited woman who strove at every turn to claim independence and agency in her life, love and friendships.
Rogue Opera strips away the pomp and pageantry to present a raw and intimate piece of theatre, examining the power dynamics between people and social classes through this tale of seduction,
obsession, rejection and revenge, heightened by Bizet’s captivating music.
Carmen and the gypsies seek a bohemian life, finding freedom outside of the law. José, drawn to Carmen and this unconventional world, is torn between love, duty and honour. Micaëla, innocent and pious, represents a simpler way of life, and the charismatic bullfighter Escamillo, in many ways also free of society’s restrictions, soon becomes a rival for Carmen’s affections.
The dramatic resolution of the opera’s story was shocking and unconventional in depicting such violence on stage at its premiere in 1875. Just as shocking is that this tragedy is still pertinent today, where the simple act of saying ‘no’ too often turns love and passion into abuse and fatal revenge.
CHARACTERS
Carmen a gypsy
Don José a corporal
Micaëla a village girl
Moralès a captain
Frasquita a gypsy
Escamillo a bullfighter
Le Dancaïre a gypsy
PART ONE
Act I
The opera, set in Spain in the 1830s, opens in a square in Seville outside a tobacco factory, where Carmen works as a cigarette girl. The factory guardhouse is manned by a regiment of dragoons. We first meet Carmen on a break, dealing fortune cards for amusement, and musing on her life and desires.
Captain Moralès and Don José are on duty in the square, observing the passers-by. But all is not as it seems for José who was forced to leave his home in Navarre to join the army after a fatal brawl. Moralès’ attention is caught by Micaëla who has come from the country in search of José. She evades the unwanted attentions of the captain, Moralès, deciding to return when José comes on duty.
The shift at the tobacco factory ends and Carmen appears, flirting with the soldiers and singing of love’s wild and untameable nature. She is intrigued by José’s protestations and overt lack of interest in her and taunts both him and Moralès, before throwing José a flower she has been wearing before leaving.
Micaëla, having witnessed this disturbing scene, approaches José as soon as he is alone and delivers a letter – and a kiss – from his mother. Memories of home persuade him to reject any thoughts of Carmen and swear to marry Micaëla, as his mother wishes.
His reverie is interrupted by screams from one of the cigarette girls. Carmen has stabbed her in a fight and is making her escape. Seeing it is Don José who has stopped her, she realises her advantage and when Moralès ordersCarmen’s arrest, she mocks the Captain before offering herself meekly to Don Josè, knowing exactly how she can manipulate the situation. Left alone under José’s guard, Carmen persuades him to help her escape, inviting himto join her at a tavern on the ramparts and promising him a life together.
In the end, José cannot resist his feelings, and loosens the rope around Carmen’s wrists, allowing her to escape.
Act II
Two months have passed. Carmen has joined her gypsy friends Frasquita and Dancaïre, at Lillas Pastia’s tavern, where they sing and dance. José, who has been in prison for helping Carmen evade arrest, arrives in search of Carmen.
PART Two
Act II - continued
Carmen, although pleased to see José, reproaches him for not following her plan to escape sooner. She also teases him, testing his character, and sees the first hints of his jealous nature. The souring mood is interrupted by the entrance of Escamillo, a famous bullfighter, who enters and is offered a toast by Frasquita and Carmen He sings of his exploits in the bullring and of the love that awaits a toreador, hoping to gain Carmen’s attention. She rejects his advances in favour of Don José, who has given her a gift of a ring.
Escamillo leaves with Frasquita, and José, whose jealousy has again been aroused by Carmen’s enjoyment of the Toreador’s song and dance, challenges her once more. She declares that her heart is not Escamillo’s for the taking but someone who has spent two months in prison for her is much more intriguing than the flamboyant bullfighter.
She offers to dance just for him, but soon the sound of bugles in the distance distracts José, who feels obliged to return to his regiment. Carmen mocks his sense of duty and declares he does not truly love her. He sings of the flower he has kept with him in prison, proof of his love for her. Carmen again challenges his dramatic declaration of love and reveals her own dream - that they could ride off and live a bohemian life together far away from the restrictions of Seville and the army.
There is a knock at the tavern door and Moralès enters. He is put out that Carmen prefers a corporal to a captain and orders José to leave. He refuses and threatens Moralès. Carmen calls Frasquita back and tests José’s resolve – join them or go back to his barracks. José reluctantly ties up Moralès and Frasquita and Carmen rejoice in the thrill of their free way of life, eventually rousing José to join the celebration. Before the three can leave the tavern, Moralès escapes his bonds, lunges for Carmen and is fatally stabbed by José. José is now truly forced to join Carmen and the gypsy band.
PART THREE
Act III
The gypsies are in their camp in the mountains.
Tension is building between Carmen and José: Carmen feels constrained by José, and all he has given up for her weighs heavily on him. When Carmen discovers he is holding a letter to his mother, she mocks him and suggests he runs back home to Navarre. But he cannot leave Carmen, even though he now thinks she is the devil.
The gypsy band is continuing their smuggling trade, and they sing of their “profession” and its dangers and rewards, while threatening Jose to rein in his behaviour and criticisms.
Frasquita and Dancaïre settle to reading their future in the cards, finding good fortune as they shuffle and deal. When Carmen tries her hand, though, the cards fall very differently – diamonds and spades repeatedly predict her death, and José’s – and she is convinced they tell the truth of her fate. José rejects this as superstition and ignores Carmen’s pleas and warnings.
Micaëla appears at the edge of the camp seeking José and calling on her faith to give her courage to confront him and Carmen. She hears someone coming and hides. Out of sight, she watches José and sees Escamillo arrive. Escamillo, who has also been captivated by Carmen, has come to find her. He mocks José with rumours of the failure of his affair. José forces a fight between them which ends when Carmen rushes in to stop José from killing his rival. Escamillo sees this as proof of Carmen’s loss of interest in José and invites all those who love him to his next bullfight. Carmen, conflicted and tired of José jealous, favours Escamillo and deliberately provokes José.
José's aggressive reaction is interrupted by Micaëla, who has come to persuade José to return to his mother. Carmen both mocks and entices José, and when he responds with violence, Micaëla and Escamillo try to intervene. Carmen defends herself and the final escalation of the fight is interrupted by Micaëla desperately telling José that his mother is dying. José agrees to leave but threatens Carmen that it is not over between them. Escamillo taunts José with the Toreador refrain and Carmen makes her choice, leaving Micaëla to drag José away.
Act IV
A few weeks later, on the day of a bullfight: Carmen, now Escamillo’s lover, is waiting to meet him outside the arena. José has also come to the city in search of Carmen and Micaëla once again has followed him, hoping to somehow still save him.
Carmen and Escamillo meet briefly as he heads towards the arena and declare their love for each other. Micaëla finds Carmen and tells her that José is somewhere in the crowd and warns her to take care. Carmen is defiant, saying she is not afraid and that she will not flee.
When José appears, he begs Carmen to make a life with him again, but she tells him she no longer loves him. As he desperately insists they can still have a future, she declares all is finished between them.
Hearing sounds of Escamillo’s triumph from the arena, José refuses to let Carmen pass, imagining her laughing at him in Escamillo’s arms. Carmen declares her love for the toreador and repeats that she will not go with Don José, knowing that this is the fate the cards predicted, but proudly defiant to the end.