"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" (What is it?) mezzo-soprano Celestine Galli-Marie asked when offered the title role in the 1875 premier of Bizet's new opera, Carmen. She was only the first in a long line of performers to ask. In the 140+ years since, each singer has crafted her own portrayal of the inscrutable Gypsy. The famous soprano Geraldine Farrar wrote: "Each one of us probably sees something that the others have not seen--or thinks she does--and that 'something' is her individual Carmen." This book explores the history of operatic portrayals of Bizet's elusive enchantress, tracing the development of vocal and dramatic interpretations from generation to generation around the globe.

A comprehensive guide to Bizet's CARMEN, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, a complete, newly translated Libretto with French/English side-by side, and over 30 music highlight examples."

A transnational history of the performance, reception, translation, adaptation and appropriation of Bizet's Carmen from 1875 to 1945. This volume explores how Bizet's opera swiftly travelled the globe, and how the story, the music, the staging and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse contexts.

A word-by-word translation in English and IPA, and annotated guides to the dialogue and recitative versions of the opera, this book is a complete reference for anyone studying or producing Bizet's Carmen. It provides all the material necessary for practical use by singers, conductors, coaches, stage directors, opera producers, students and teachers. - from the publisher's notes.

This inexpensive, authoritative edition of one of the world's most popular operas presents the classic 1895 Schirmer edition in the original French, with a complete English singing version by Dr. Theodore Baker. Indispensable for singers, chorus, and rehearsal pianists, this beautiful engraved volume will delight performers and all devotees of great operatic literature. Text in French and English.

"The heroine of the most performed opera in the world since 1875, Carmen has become a universal cultural icon. She has appeared in a multitude of ballets, on stage as well as ice rinks, and in some eighty international films. The success of Bizet' opera owns a lot to the libretto's singular accounting of the 1845 short story on which it is based. In her close textual analyses of Ludovic Halévy's and Henri Meilhac's libretto and Prosper Mérimée's novella, the author strives to account for the multiple aspects of Carmen's attraction that support George Bizet's acclaimed musical score. Through its multi-facetted cultural renditions through time and place, the story of Carmen can be said to have attained the status of a myth. Myths are stories that speak to us, in our own time and place, about personal, social, or cultural issues"--

Carmen in Diaspora is a cultural history of Carmen adaptations set in African diasporic contexts. Beginning with Prosper Mérimée's novella and Georges Bizet's opera and continuing through twentieth- and twentieth-first century interpretations in literature, film, and musical theatre, the book explores how opera's most famous character has exceeded the 19th-century French context in which she was created and taken on a life of her own. Through this transformation, the Carmen figure has sparked important conversations not only about French culture and canonical opera but also about Black womanhood, community, and self-determination.

A premier singer and master teacher here tells other singers how to get the most from 151 famous arias selected for their popularity or their greatness from 66 operas, ranging in time and style from Christopher Gluck to Carlisle Floyd, from Mozart to Menotti. "The most memorable thrills in an opera singer's life," according to the author's Introduction, "may easily derive from the great arias in his or her repertoire." This book continues the work Martial Singher has done, in performances, in concerts, and in master classes and lessons, by drawing attention "not only to precise features of text, notes, and markings but also to psychological motivations and emotional impulses, to laughter and tears, to technical skills, to strokes of genius, and even here and there to variations from the original works that have proved to be fortunate." For each aria, the author gives the dramatic and musical context, advice about interpretation, and the lyric--with the original language (if it is not English) and an idiomatic American English translation, in parallel columns. The major operatic traditions--French, German, Italian, Russian, and American--are represented, as are the major voice types--soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone, and bass. The dramatic context is not a mere summary of the plot but is a penetrating and often witty personality sketch of an operatic character in the midst of a situation. The musical context is presented with the dramatic situation in a cleverly integrated way. Suggestions about interpretation, often illustrated with musical notation and phonetic symbols, are interspersed among the author's explication of the music and the action. An overview of Martial Singher's approach--based on fifty years of experience on stage in a hundred roles and in class at four leading conservatories--is presented in his Introduction. As the reader approaches each opera discussed in this book, he or she experiences the feeling of participation in a rehearsal on stage under an urbane though demanding coach and director. The Interpretive Guide will be of value to professional singers as a source of reference or renewed inspiration and a memory refresher, to coaches for checking and broadening personal impressions, to young singers and students for learning, to teachers who have enjoyed less than a half century of experience, and to opera broadcast listeners and telecast viewers who want to understand what goes into the sounds and sights that delight them.

Covering famous operas from 14 Italian, French and German composers, this handbook is designed to help listeners understand and appreciate the special skills required to sing famous operatic songs. The book includes a plot synopsis of each opera with information about each song, which are introduced in their dramatic settings along with the vocal requirements for the most demanding passages. Interactive literary and rhyming exercises help the reader become more engaged and knowledgeable. Foreign language passages are translated into English and key words are highlighted in each language. The operatic vocabulary is defined to help the listener better understand the technical demands for a highly trained voice. The book is designed as a useful handbook for both experienced and beginning opera listeners. Appendices provide information on singers, recordings and useful references.