- Phillips, Harvey E. The Carmen Chronicle: The Making of an Opera.New
York: Stein & Day, 1973. 288p. ISBN 0-8128-1609-9. ML410 .B62 P65.
Describes the planning of the Metropolitan production of 1972 by Goeran
Gentele, who was killed before it could take place. Unfortunately, the book is
in a chatty style, with invented conversations. - Furman, Nelly. “The Languages of Love in Carmen.” In Reading Opera
(#218), 168–183.
The usual reading of the story centers on the victimization of Don José and his
justified murder of the villainous Carmen. Furman reads it another way, as
Carmen’s story and her “struggle for freedom.” For José love is “narcissistic
eroticism,” but for Carmen it is a bird in flight: it just happens. She loves love
itself and its freedom. - Dean, Winton. “The True Carmen?” Musical Times106 (1965): 846–855.
Reprinted in GL, v.12.
Criticizes Carmen: Kritische Neuausgabe nach den Quellen,by Fritz Oeser,
published by Bärenreiter. Oeser examines the sources, as well as Bizet’s revi-
sions (rejecting some). Dean finds the editor has made dubious changes and
“has slighted Bizet’s genius.” - Huebner, Steven. “Carmenas corrida de toros.” Journal of Musicological
Research13 (1993): 3–29.
Carmenis “about male madness, and the transformation of José into an ani-
mal—in stark contrast to Escamillo, the other leading male and a ‘true-life’
matador.” Carmen is also a matador, “without a sword”—she is impaled, and
Escamillo is victorious. These ideas are realized in the music, which is subtly
analyzed with micro- and macrotechniques. Most of the Carmenliterature is
cited in 35 footnotes. - Wright, Lesley A. “A New Source for Carmen.” 19thCM2-1 (July 1978): 61–
Examines the so-called censor’s libretto; discusses variant readings and
sources. A new “revision chronology” is proposed, in contrast to that in Fritz
Oeser’s edition (see #583). Useful references to earlier work.
- Leicester, H. Marshall. “Discourse and the Film Text: Four Readings of Car-
men.” COJ6-3 (November 1994): 245–282.
Compares four motion picture versions of 1982–1983, by the directors Jean-
Luc Godard, Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, and Francesco Rosi. Concentrates on
the use of Bizet’s music in the films, rather than on the Carmen story. Godard
scarcely uses the music at all; Saura uses record playing to bring in the music;
Brook actually presents the opera, but reduced and reconstituted. Rosi’s ver-
sion is a faithful rendition of the opera as staged.
See also McClary (#391).
128 Opera