ENO Carmen Mini-Site

English National Opera Brings Audiences Backstage During Production

Aug 4, 2007

As part of an experimental project, the English National Opera opens up the behind-the-scenes process of staging an opera through its internet chronicle of Carmen.

English National Opera Behind the Scenes

Audiences curious about the inner workings of an opera production are invited to follow the ENO through the process of staging Carmen. Through the ENO Carmen mini-site, interested audiences can view auditions and interviews with the artistic director, listen to clips of music from the opera, and read the cast bios. A timeline traces the production process while director Sally Potter’s blog gives readers a glimpse of what goes into running an opera.

Carmen: Popular Opera of the Exotic

Written by French composer Georges Bizet, Carmen premiered at the Opéra Comique of Paris in 1875. Though the lyrics are in French, the story takes place in Seville and recounts the conflict between the despised gypsies and the occupying Spanish class. The Spanish soldier Don José is engaged to Micaëla, a nice, quiet girl of good family, but he falls desperately in love with the gypsy Carmen, imprisoned under his care. He helps her escape and spends time in prison himself for his part in subverting justice. Carmen loves Don José back, but her lust for adventure and her realization of the disparity between herself and Don José cools her love. She is attracted to the heroic bullfighter Escamillo and eventually leaves Don José. The soldier cannot bear the rejection and dramatically kills Carmen at Escamillo’s big fight, her death paralleling the bull’s death.

Bizet set the music of the lower class/exotic gypsies and bullfighter to hummable “pop tunes” and used more “serious” winding melodies for the introspective bourgeois characters, Don Jose and Micaëla.

For further insight, musicologist Susan McClary provides a fascinating socio-historical analysis of the opera (Georges Bizet's Carmen, Cambridge University Press, 1992) .

About the English National Opera

The English National Opera performs in the London Coliseum located in London’s West End. Starting out in 1898 as a series of opera recitals by Lillian Baylis, the company has grown steadily, receiving its current name in 1974.

Other Productions on the 2007-2008 ENO Season

In addition to Carmen, the ENO will be performing, among other things, the following operas and ballets this 2007-2008 season:

For more information on Carmen and the ENO mini-site project, please read the BBC story.

The copyright of the article ENO Carmen Mini-Site in Classical Music Performances is owned by Sarah Canice Funke. Permission to republish ENO Carmen Mini-Site in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.