George Bizet composed his opera, Carmen, in 1874. During the lengthy rehearsals for the first performance, Bizet fought hard against a reluctant management to retain the earthy realism of the story of Carmen, the cigarette-factory girl whose flirtations with an army officer and a toreador lead to her dramatic murder. The composer was constantly revising the score to tighten the action and heighten the tension.
The lead singer, Célestine Galli-Marié, instructed Bizet to rewrite the famous Habanera no fewer than 14 times to accommodate her voice. Ironically, this most famous of mezzo-soprano arias was plagiarized by Bizet from El Arreglito, a song by Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier (1809-65).
Carmen was first performed on March 3, 1875. Its critical reception dealt Bizet a terrible blow. Unprepared for the sight of women smoking on stage, the “low-life” characters and its theme of erotic obsession, the critics viewed Carmen as “vulgar”, “undramatic” and “contemptible”. Today we know better, as millions of listeners have enjoyed this music at the world’s opera houses.
Here is pianist Yuja Wang, playing an arrangement by Vladimir Horowitz of this music for you:
