The stylistic composer Georges Bizet who composed the world-renowned Carmen was performed at the Metropolitan Opera House last week. Among other opera versions of Carmen, Bizet had an extremely firm and yet ambitious vision of what he wanted to accomplish with simple melody lines. The unifying wholeness of the opera in addition to its cardinal elements was not only impressive, but achieved an ethereal level of musicality. He has always strived for perfect compositions that constitute the quintessential opera: libretto, the direction of the stage，score of music, and vocal talent. The way producer Richard Eyre presented Bizet’s Carmen formed an incredibly stolid foundation for the structure of the work, giving the stage an intense atmosphere …show more content…
Instead of indulging the audience into deep thoughts, Bizet tries to draw the attention of the audience. The Habeñera in Act I impressed me the most. In this scene, Carme’s opening aria – L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (an untamable bird) has a melodic sexuality that is captured in the ingenious exoticism of Bizet. The strophe explains Carmen’s personality very well that she is not an ordinary woman in the so-called bottom social class, but she has her own interpretation of love and philosophy of life. That is, her freedom is beyond the mundane world. Carmen compares the fickleness of love and the transient qualities to the two inconstant creatures: birds and gypsies. The beginning of the song brightens the audience’s mood instantly. It seemed that the starting tone was two notes higher than the chorus section immediately preceding Carmen’s song. It was hard to comprehend the reason for such a high tone, but later, the pattern showed as every time a Gypsy character was singing, the tone lifted spontaneously, suggesting that the brighter tone was used to characterize the vocal trait of Gypsies. Then, the …show more content…
Carmen’s pursuit of freedom is stubborn. She is not backing down even if the price of such freedom is death. Carmen represents, to some extent, our inner self. Every living person in this society abides to rules, disciplines that are stringent and somewhat stifling. Very often, we only make the most realistic choice, which would maximize our benefits. To Carmen, rules are not her primary focuses. Her passion of rebellious is the ultimate guidance for her. Her prophesied death is very disturbing in a sense that there is no absolute sense of right or wrong. Her death is the ultimate culmination of her freedom. As a girl from Gypsy ancestry, she is equipped with the skills she needs to seek for her freedom. It is hypocritical and pathetic that the more substance a person has the less freedom a person is to possess. Don Hose is clearly not going to let Carmen go and be with Escamillo, since he has given up everything for her: Micaela, his honor and his mother. Death seems to be the only option that Carmen has to maintain her