Bizet's Carmen is probably the best known opera of the standard repertoire, yet its very familiarity often prevents us from approaching it with the seriousness it deserves. This handbook explores the opera in a number of contexts, bringing to the surface the controversies over gender, race, class and musical propriety that greeted its premiere and that have been rekindled by the recent spate of film versions. Beginning with a study of the Mérimée story by Peter Robinson and an examination of the social tensions in nineteenth-century France that inform both that story and the opera, the book traces the latter through its genesis and reception. The central core of the book presents a close reading of the opera that offers new interpretive possibilities. The handbook concludes with discussions of four films based on the opera: Carmen Jones and the versions of Carmen by Carlos Saura, Peter Brook, and Francesco Rosi. The volume contains a bibliography, music examples, and a synopsis.

Russia, 1905. Behind the gates of the Karenin Palace, Sergei, son of Anna Karenina, meets Tolstoy in his dreams and finds reminders of his mother everywhere: the almost-living portrait that the Tsar intends to acquire and the opium-infused manuscripts she wrote just before her death, one of which opens a trapdoor to a wild feminist fairytale. Across the city, Clementine, an anarchist seamstress, and Father Gapón, the charismatic leader of the proletariat, tip the country ever closer to revolution. Boullosa lifts the voices of coachmen, sailors, maids, and seamstresses in this playful, polyphonic, and subversive revision of the Russian revolution, told through the lens of Tolstoy’s most beloved work.

"The ongoing proliferation of new versions of Carmen presents an ideal opportunity to study both the cultural power and renewability of certain literary texts and the relationship between literature and the performing arts. Since its introduction in Prosper Mérimée's 1845 novella, the Carmen character has been the subject of countless portrayals, from Bizet's 1874 opera, to various dramatic, dance and musical renditions, to films by such directors as Peter Brook, Jean-Luc Godard, Francesco Rosi, and Carlos Saura. In [this book], [the author] studies competing representations of Carmen as either dangerous femme fatale, liberated woman, or vanguard warrior in the battle between the sexes. [The author] locates the impetus for the continual renewal of this modern myth in the cultural ideal of Bohemia, tracing the history of this ideal from nineteenth-century Paris to the European Union of today"--Back cover.

Offers brief summaries of the plots of one hundred operas, and includes background commentary and recommendations for favorite recordings of each opera.

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."