Sunday Classics: "And long live the music that falls on us from heaven" (Carmen)

Plácido Domingo sings the Flower Song at the Vienna State Opera, Dec. 9, 1978, with Carlos Kleiber conducting and Franco Zeffirelli directing. (The unheard Carmen is Elena Obraztsova.)

DON JOSÉ: The flower that you threw me
stayed with me in my prison.
Withered and dried out, that flower
always kept its sweet perfume;
and for hours at a time,
with my eyes closed,
I became drunk with its smell,
and in the night I saw you.
I took to cursin gyou,
to desting you, to saying to myself,
"Why did fate have
to put her there in my path?
Then -- I accused myself of blasphemy,
and I felt within myself
I felt only one desire,
one lone desire, one lone hope:
to see you again, Carmen, to see you again.
For you had only to appear,
only to cast a glance at me,
to take possession of my whole being,
o my Carmen,
and I was your possession!
Carmen, I love you!

Enrico Caruso, tenor; orchestra. Victor, recorded Nov. 26, 1911 (restored by Bob Varney)

Georges Thill, tenor; symphony orchestra, Philippe Gaubert, cond. EMI, recorded 1928-29

Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; Frederick Schauwecker, piano. RCA/BMG, recorded in recital at Carnegie Hall, Sept. 24, 1955

Jonas Kaufmann, tenor; Prague Phliharmonic Orchestra, Marco Armiliato, cond. Decca, recorded August 2007

by Ken

As I mentioned in Friday night's preview ('If you don't love me, I love you, and if I love you, watch out' -- meet La Carmencita"), we're putting our Mahler Seventh Symphony project on hold after doing the three middle movements last week ("Mahler's most characteristically 'Mahlerian' symphony is also his least loved"). (I can report that the set containing the Klemperer-EMI recording finally arrived yesterday!)

Instead this week we've started another two-part post, in effect a continuation of a series that began with a fair amount of still-not-completed poking around the two great operatic retellings of the story of Manon and the Chévalier des Grieux an then the famous Letter Scene inspired by the passion of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onegin. The subject here is obsessive passion: first as shared by Manon and des Grieux, then as experienced unidirectionally by Tatiana, and starting this week going in the opposite direction, with the obsession of the Basque Don José, an army sergeant, for the gypsy Carmen.


LET'S QUICKLY REMIND OURSELVES HOW CARMEN STARTS

We've heard the Carmen Prelude and the entr'actes to Acts II-IV, back in March. The rousing Prelude is music that has entered the popular imagination. We hear it hear continuing on into the first statement of the "fate motif," which we've already heard attached to Carmen's hurling of a cassia flower at José's feet (which he would shortly after be seen picking up), and we just heard as the lead-in to José's desperately imploring Flower Song from Act II.

BIZET: Carmen: Prelude


Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded July 1969-Feb. 1970

Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded November 1963

Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 2002


IN THE PREVIEW I SUGGESTED KEEPING AN EYE ON
THAT FLOWER THAT CARMEN HURLS AT DON JOSÉ


It may seem ironic that Carmen should wind up the victim of José's obsessive passion for her when their "relationship," such as it is, begins with him being possibly the only man in Seville who's paying absolutely no attention to her. In fact, as she made clear in her byplay with the soldiers and the hooked local fellows, the men she's most attracted to are the ones who pay the least attention to her. They, at least, represent a challenge.

When Carmen turns out to be at the center of a fracas among the cigarette girls, cutting up one of her coworkers (in self-defense, she claims, but then, she claims a lot of things), and when the lieutenant charges José with taking custody of the prisoner and escorting her to prison, she has added interest in winning the handsome sergeant to her cause, suggesting to him that he loosen the rope he has tied around her hands. The music Bizet provided her, a seguidilla, is both figuratively and literally seductive. And one of the ways in which her physicality is persistently musicalized is in rhythmically forceful dance forms.

First we're going to hear our three Carmens from Friday night: Grace Bumby, Maria Callas, and Jessye Norman (the latter again on the gradual, rhythmically more rounded side). Then we have two "newcomers": Leontyne Price (another for-records-only Carmen, introduced here more for her José, about whom more when we get to Act II) and Angela Gheorghiu.

BIZET: Carmen: Act I: Carmen-Don José, Séguidille (Carmen, "Près des ramparts de Séville" -- "Near the ramparts of Seville")

CARMEN: Near the ramparts of Seville,
at the place of my friend Lillas Pastia,
I'm going to dance the seguidilla
and drink manzanilla.
I'm going o the place of my friend Lillas Pastia!
Yes, but all alone one gets bored,
and real pleasures
are for two.
So, to keep my company,
I shall take my lover!
My lover . . . he's gone to the devil;
I showed him the door yesterday.
My poor heart so consolable --
my eart is as free as air.
I have suitors by the dozen,
but they are not to my liking.
Here we are at the weekend;
who wants to love me? I'll love him.
Who wants my heart? It's for the taking!
You've come at the right moment!
I have hardly time to wait,
for with my new lover . . .
Near the ramparts of Seville &c.
DON JOSÉ: Be quiet! I told you not to speak to me!
CARMEN: I'm not speaking to you,
I'm singing for myself;
and I'm thinking -- it's not forbidden to think!
I'm thinking about a certain officer
who loves me, and who in turn,
yes, in turn I could well love!
DON JOSÉ: Carmen!
CARMEN: My officer isn't a captain,
not even a lieutenant,
he's only a sergeant;
but that's enough for a gypsy girl,
and I deign to be conent with that.
DON JOSÉ [untying CARMEN's hands]:
Carmen, I'm like a drunken man,
if I yield, if I give in,
you promise, you'll hold to it?
Ah! if I love you, Carmen, you'll love me?
CARMEN: Yes! We'll dance the seguidilla
while drinking manzanilla.
DON JOSÉ: At Lillas Pastia's place . . .
you promise it!
Carmen . . .
you promise it!
CARMEN: Near the ramparts of Seville &c.
[CARMEN goes and repositons herself on her stool, her hands behind her back.]

Grace Bumbry (ms), Carmen; Jon Vickers (t), Don José; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded July and Sept. 1969, Jan. and Feb. 1970

Maria Callas (s), Carmen; Nicolai Gedda (t), Don José; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Georges Prêtre, cond. EMI, recorded July 6-20, 1964

Jessye Norman (s), Carmen; Neil Shicoff (t), Don José; Orchestre National de France, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded July 13-22, 1988


Leontyne Price (s), Carmen; Franco Corelli (t), Don José; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded November 1963

Angela Gheorghiu (s), Carmen; Roberto Alagna (t), Don José; Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 2002


NOW WE MOVE ON TO ACT II

The act is introduced by an entr'acte that has a sort of military swagger. As we're going to discover, in case we hadn't already guessed, this music is associated with José -- it's a ditty he sings as he makes his way to the tavern of Carmen's friend Lilla Pastia.

BIZET: Carmen: Entr'acte to Act II


Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded July 1969-Feb. 1970

Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded November 1963

Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 2002


NOW LET'S HEAR JOSÉ MAKE HIS ACT II ENTRANCE

The scene, in case you haven't guessed, is that famous place of Carmen's friend Lillas Pastia ("chez Lillas Pastia"). Carmen, in the company of four gypsy-smuggler friends -- two male (Remendado and Danczïre) and two female (Mercédès and Frasquita) -- is clearly distracted, waiting for something or perhaps someone. Eventually he arrives.

BIZET: Carmen: Act II, Don José, "Alte là! Qui va là?" ("Halt there! Who goes there?")

DON JOSÉ [in the far distance]: Halt there!
Who goes there?
Dragoon of Alcala!
CARMEN: Listen!
DON JOSÉ: Where are you going there?
Dragoon of Alcala.
CARMEN: There he is!
DON JOSÉ: "Me, I'm going off to cause
some eating of dust
by my adversary."
If that's the case,
pass, my friend.
Affair of honor,
affair of the heart;
for us that's all that matters,
dragoons of Alcala!
[Recitatives composed by Ernest Guiraud
[FRASQUITA: He's a handsome dragoon!
[MERCÉDÈS: A very handsome dragoon!
[DANCAÏRE: Who could be for us a proud companion!
[REMENDADO: Tell him to follow us.
[CARMEN: He will refuse.
[DANCAÏRE: But try, at least.
[CARMEN: Done! I'll try.]
[REMENDADO exits. DANCAÏRE follows him and exits in turn leading MERCÉDÈS and FRASQUITA.]
DON JOSÉ [the voice much closer]: Halt there!
Who goes there?
Dragoon of Alcala!
Where are you going there?
Dragoon of Alcala.
"Punctual and faithful
I'm going where I'm called
by love for my beauty!"
If that's the case,
pass, my friend.
Affair of honor,
affair of the heart;
for us that's all that matters,
dragoons of Alcala!
[DON JOSÉ enters.]

Franco Corelli (t), Don José; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded November 1963

Roberto Alagna (t), Don José; Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 2002

FOR NOW, THE PASSION BETWEEN CARMEN AND
JOSÉ IS MUTUAL (LIKE MANON AND DES GRIEUX'S)

The first thing to note is the swaggering yet highly precise rhythm of Carmen's "La-la-la-la" dance -- a perfect rhythm for castanet accompaniment, which is meant to be played by Carmen herself (using shards of pottery from a plate she breaks for the occasion), but if necessary provided from the orchestra's percussion battery. (The castanet part is precisely notated.) Then note -- at Carmen's third "La-la-la-la" round, 0:38 of both clips below -- how this same rhythm serves equally well for the trumpet fanfare that's sounded by a pair of "bugles" in the distance.

Which brings us to the delicious tug of war which develops between José and Carmen over what he realizes is the call for retreat, summoning all the soldiers back to barracks. Carmen, in her inimitable way, interprets as "music that falls to us from heaven."

[One hears in the distance bugles sounding retreat. DON JOSÉ lends an ear. He approaches CARMEN and forces her to stop.]
DON JOSÉ: Wait a moment, Carmen.
Wait, just a moment.
CARMEN: And why, if you please?
DON JOSÉ: Its seems . . . I hear . . .
Yes. The trumpets sound retreat.
CARMEN [continuing to dance]: Bravo! Bravo! I was trying in vain.
It is melancholy
to sing without an orchestra.
Long live the music that falls to us from the sky!


Victoria de los Angeles (s), Carmen; Nicolai Gedda (t), Don José; Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Sir Thomas Beecham, cond. EMI, recorded 1958-59

Tatiana Troyanos (ms), Carmen; Plácido Domingo (t), Don José; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded 1975

As for the Flower Song itself, there may be literally nothing like it in the repertory. Leonard Bernstein observed that it's the only aria he knew that is through-composed with no musical repetition whatsoever. Vocally, this is plausibly lyric-tenor territory, but the effect is very different if it's sung, and sung well, by the sort of dramatic tenor implied by the role's most emphatic writing.

Happily, EMI recorded extensive excerpts from Carmen with the great tenor Georges Thill as José, and we're going to hear him here with a really quite presentable Carmen, Raymonde Visconti. (I made an audio clip of their Séguidille, which I cut. But if anyone really wants to hear it . . . .) Unhappily, the passage "C'est mal à toi, Carmen, de te moquer do moi" ("It's wrong of you, Carmen, to make fun of me"), one of the things one would most wish to hear Thill sing, was omitted in the recording.

After that, our clips are grouped in two pairs, based on their tenors, since after all it's really the man who's our principals concern in this pair of Carmen posts. In the Callas-EMI recording we hear Nicolai Gedda in less than his best vocal form, but also in a role that really wants a significantly heavier-weight tenor, and the same is true of Roberto Alagana in the Gheorghiu-Plasson recording, where we can hear him frequently pushing the voice mercilessly when it isn't even really necessary.

Then we hear two force-of-nature heroic tenors, Jon Vickers and Franco Corelli. There are important things to be said against both of them, starting with the fact that neither sings French well. Then there's Vickers's all-too-frequent "over-studied" quality, and with Corelli there's the sense that this isn't the most dramatically alert singer we're ever going to hear sing this music. But with all of that said, the caliber of the voices puts them in another category altogether, which obviously matters when José's music taps into his inner rage, but may matter even more when the music scales down into what theoretically should be lyric-tenor mode -- a scaled-back big voice is an entirely different sound from a pleasantly piping smaller one.

BIZET: Carmen: Act II: Scene Carmen-Don José -- Carmen, "Je vais danser en votre honneur" . . . Don José, Flower Song ("La fleur que tu m'as jetée" -- "The flower that you threw at me") . . . Carmen, "Non, tu ne m'aimes pas" ("No, you don't love me") . . . "Là-bas, là-bas dans la montagne" ("Out there, out there in the mountains"

CARMEN: I'm going to dance in your honor.
Sit there, Don José.
The dance begins.
[She has DON JOSÉ sit in a corner of the space. Little dance. CARMEN from the end of her lips hums an air that she accompanies with her castanets. DON JOSÉ devours her with his eyes. One hears in the distance bugles sounding retreat. DON JOSÉ lends an ear. He approaches CARMEN and forces her to stop.]
DON JOSÉ: Wait a moment, Carmen.
Wait, just a moment.
CARMEN: And why, if you please?
DON JOSÉ: Its seems . . . I hear . . .
Yes. The trumpets sound retreat.
CARMEN [continuing to dance]: Bravo! Bravo! I was trying in vain.
It is melancholy
to sing without an orchestra.
Long live the music that falls to us from the sky!
[She resumes her song. The retreat gets nearer, passes under the windows of the inn, then becomes more distant.]
DON JOSÉ: You don’t understand, Carmen.
It’s the signal for retreat.
I have to return to my barracks.
CARMEN: Return? To your barracks!
Ah! I have been a fool!
How I put myself out to amuse and please you.
I sang for you! I danced for you!
I think, God forgive me,
that a little bit, I loved you!
Ta-ra-ta-ta! It's the bugle sounding!
Ta-ra-ta-ta! He's leaving, he's left!
Get going then, coward!
[With fury sending his shako flying at him]
Hold! Take your shako,
your sword, your bandolier;
and get going, my boy, get going!
Return to your barracks!
DON JOSÉ: It is wrong of you, Carmen, to mock me.
I suffer at leaving you.
Never has a woman so consumed my soul.
CARMEN: [taunting him]: "Ta-ra-ta-ta! My God!
It’s retreat. I will be late!
He loses his nerve.
And then -- he loses his love!
DON JOSÉ: So you don’t believe I love you?
CARMEN: No!
Listen to me.
But you will be late.
You will listen to me, Carmen.
Aria, Don José
[He rummages around under his tunic for the cassia flower that CARMEN threw at him in Act I.]
DON JOSÉ: The flower that you threw at me
stayed with me in my prison.
Withered and dried out, that flower
always kept its sweet perfume;
and for hours at a time,
with my eyes closed,
I became drunk with its smell,
and in the night I saw you.
I took to cursin gyou,
to desting you, to saying to myself,
"Why did fate have
to put her there in my path?
Then -- I accused myself of blasphemy,
and I felt within myself
I felt only one desire,
one lone desire, one lone hope:
to see you again, Carmen, to see you again.
For you had only to appear,
only to cast a glance at me,
to take possession of my whole being,
o my Carmen,
and I was your possession!
Carmen, I love you!
CARMEN: No. You do not love me.
DON JOSÉ: What did you say?
CARMEN: No. You do not love me.
For if you loved me,
you would follow me -- there . . .
Yes! To the mountains.
You would follow me.
You would take me on your horse
and like a hero, sweep me away.
Out there, out there in the mountains,
out there you would follow me.
Up there no officers can order you.
And no trumpets sounding retreat
making you leave me.
The open sky. The gypsy life.
The universe as country.
Free will as law!
And most of all, the thing most intoxicating:
freedom!
DON JOSÉ: Alas! Carmen, have pity on me.
CARMEN: Come with me to the mountains.
Take me!
DON JOSÉ: Ah! No more.
No! I will hear no more!
Desert my regiment! Dishonor!
Infamy! I will not!
DON JOSÉ: Carmen. Have pity.
CARMEN: No. I will love you no more.
DON JOSÉ: Listen. Please, Carmen.
CARMEN: So be it. Farewell. Forever! Go then.
DON JOSÉ: Carmen. Farewell forever!
CARMEN: Go then!

Raymonde Visconti (ms), Carmen; Georges Thill (t), Don José; symphony orchestra, Philippe Gaubert (Flower Song) and Élie Cohen, cond. EMI, recorded 1928-29


Maria Callas (s), Carmen; Nicolai Gedda (t), Don José; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Georges Prêtre, cond. EMI, recorded July 6-20, 1964

Angela Gheorghiu (s), Carmen; Roberto Alagna (t), Don José; Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar. 2002


Grace Bumbry (ms), Carmen; Jon Vickers (t), Don José; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded July and Sept. 1969, Jan. and Feb. 1970

Leontyne Price (s), Carmen; Franco Corelli (t), Don José; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded November 1963


IN THE SECOND PART OF THIS POST . . .

Once Carmen completely withdraws from the relationship, we really see romantic obsession unfold. (Next week, or perhaps the following week -- after we finish Mahler 7.)

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