1984 Israel OPERA MOVIE POSTER Film CARMEN Hebrew PLACIDO DOMINGO Maazel BIZET

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Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,805) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 285590931456 1984 Israel OPERA MOVIE POSTER Film CARMEN Hebrew PLACIDO DOMINGO Maazel BIZET.

  DESCRIPTION : Here for sale is an ORIGINAL beautifuly illustrated colorful ISRAELI Theatre POSTER .  The theatre poster which depicts an impressive IMAGE from the FRANCESCO ROSI film " CARMEN" , A cinematic interpretation of the BIZET OPERA .   Starring among others JULIA MIGENES and PLACIDO DOMINGO.  LORIN MAAZEL conducted the ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE FRANCE.  The poster was issued in 1984 for the film PREMIERE RELEASE by the Israeli distributers of the film . Kindly note : This is an ISRAELI MADE poster - Designed , Printed and distributed only in Israel.   Size around 27" x 19". The poster is in good condition . Signs of folds, creases and wear . ( Please watch the scan for a reliable AS IS scan )  . Poster will be sent rolled in a special protective rigid sealed tube.

AUTHENTICITY : This poster is an ORIGINAL 1984 theatre poster , NOT a reproduction or a reprint  , It holds life long GUARANTEE for its AUTHENTICITY and ORIGINALITY.

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal  & All credit cards.

SHIPPMENT : Shipp worldwide via registered airmail is $ 25 . Poster will be sent rolled in a special protective rigid sealed tube. Handling around 5-10 days after payment. 

 Carmen (1984) is a film directed by Francesco Rosi. It is a film version of Bizet's opera Carmen.[1] Julia Migenes stars in the title role, Plácido Domingo as Don José, Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo, and Faith Esham as Micaela. Lorin Maazel conducts the Orchestre National de France. The film premiered in France on March 14, 1984, and in the U.S. on September 20 of that year. In 1985, the film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Cast ·       2Production ·       3Critical reception ·       4Home media ·       5Awards and nominations ·       6References ·       7External links Cast[edit] ·       Julia Migenes-Johnson as Carmen ·       Plácido Domingo as Don José ·       Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo ·       Faith Esham as Micaëla ·       François le Roux as Moralès ·       John-Paul Bogart as Zuñiga ·       Susan Daniel as Mercédès ·       Lillian Watson as Frasquita ·       Jean-Philippe Lafont as Dancaïre ·       Gérard Garino as Remendado ·       Julien Guiomar as Lillas Pastia ·       Accursio Di Leo as Guide ·       Maria Campano as Manuelita ·       Cristina Hoyos as dancer ·       Juan Antonio Jiménez as dancer Production[edit] Rosi selected 1875 for the period and filmed entirely on locations in Andalusia, using Ronda and Carmona and Sevilleitself to simulate the Seville of that era.[2] He worked with his longtime collaborator, the cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis, and with Enrico Job supervising the sets and costumes. Rosi acknowledged Gustave Doré's illustrations for Baron Charles Davilliers Spain (which was published in serial form in 1873) as his principal source for the visual design.[citation needed] He believed that Bizet, who never visited Spain, was guided by these engravings, and shot scenes in some of the exact places that Doré drew.[citation needed] The bullring in Ronda, one of the filming locations for Carmen Critical reception[edit] Pauline Kael reviews the film favourably in her collection of movie reviews, State of the Art: Julia Migenes-Johnson's freckled, gamine Carmen is the chief glory of the production. Her strutting, her dark, messy, frizzy hair—her sexual availability—attract Don José and drive him crazy. Carmen, who's true to her instincts, represents everything he tries to repress. But after he has deserted the Army and lost the respectability that meant everything to him, he thinks she owes him lifelong devotion. Carmen's mistake was in thinking she could take him as a lover on her own terms.[3] Home media[edit] In late 2011 the film was released on both a regular, anamorphically enhanced Region 1 DVD, and on Blu-ray. Awards and nominations[edit] ·       1984 - Golden Globes ·       Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film (France) ·       1986 - BAFTA Awards ·       Nomination: Best Foreign Film (Italy) ·       Nomination: Best Sound for Dominique Hennequin, Hugues Darmois, Bernard Leroux, and Harald Maury ·       1985 - César Award ·       Best Sound for Dominique Hennequin, Guy Level, and Harald Maury ·       Nomination: Best Film for Francesco Rosi ·       Nomination: Best Director for Francesco Rosi ·       Nomination: Best Actress for Julia Migenes-Johnson ·       Nomination: Best Cinematography for Pasqualino De Santis ·       Nomination: Best Production Design for Enrico Job ·       Nomination: Best Costume Design for Enrico Job ·       1985 - David di Donatello ·       Best Film for Francesco Rosi ·       Best Director for Francesco Rosi ·       Best Cinematography for Pasqualino De Santis ·       Best Sets and Decorations for Enrico Job ·       Best Costumes for Enrico Job ·       Best Editing for Ruggero Mastroianni ·       Nomination: Best Actress for Julia Migenes-Johnson ·       Nomination: Best Supporting Actor for Ruggero Raimondi ·       1985 - Nastro d'argento ·       Best Scenography for Enrico Job ·       1985 - Grammy Award (soundtrack only) ·       Best Opera Recording for Michel Glotz (audio producer), Lorin Maazel(conductor), Julia Migenes-Johnson, Plácido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, and Faith Esham (soloists) Julia Migenes (born March 13, 1949) is an American mezzo-soprano working primarily in musical theatre repertoire. She was born on the Lower East Side of New York to a family of Greek and Irish-Puerto Rican descent. She is sometimes credited as Julia Migenes-Johnson. She graduated from The High School of Music & Art in New York City in 1960.[1] Julia Migenes played Tevye's second daughter Hodel, in the original Broadway production of the long-running musical Fiddler on the Roof. She played Ciboletta in the 1973 film Eine Nacht in Venedig (re-released 2008). She starred in the 1984 film ofCarmen. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Selected discography ·       2Television ·       3Film ·       4See also ·       5External links ·       6References Selected discography[edit] ·       Hollywood Divas (2009) ·       Alter Ego (2006) ·       Le Meilleur de Julia (2004) ·       La Argentina (2003) ·       Infamia, Tangos de Barcelona (2000) ·       Franz Lehár (1999) ·       Robert Stolz (1999) ·       Lulu (1998) ·       100 ans de Cinema (1995) ·       Smile (1995) ·       Vienna (1993) ·       Carmen (1991) [2] ·       Kismet (1991) (studio cast album) ·       Rags (1991) ·       La voix humaine (1991) ·       Man of La Mancha (studio cast album) (1990, re-released 1996) ·       Mack the Knife (movie soundtrack album) (1990) ·       Live at the Olympia (1989) ·       The Seven Deadly Sins (1989) ·       Berlin Blues (1988) ·       Show Boat (1988) ·       In Love (1985) ·       Carmen (1984) (movie soundtrack album) ·       Recital (1983) ·       A Christmas Concert (1983) ·       Welterfolge (1983) ·       Latin Lady (1982) ·       Julia Migenes sings (1981) ·       Operette (1981) ·       Fiddler on the Roof (1964)     Francesco Rosi (15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film The Mattei Affair won thePalme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to have political messages. While the topics for his later films became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature, he continued to direct until 1997, his last film being the Primo Levi book adaptation The Truce. At the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival 13 of his films were screened, in a section reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, accompanied by the screening of his 1962 film Salvatore Giuliano. In 2012 the Venice Biennale awarded Rosi the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Biography o   1.1Origins and early career o   1.21960s o   1.31970s o   1.41980s and 1990s o   1.5Recognition, later life and death o   1.6Impact and legacy ·       2Honours ·       3Filmography o   3.1Director o   3.2Writer o   3.3Director and screenwriter ·       4Theatre o   4.1Director ·       5Awards o   5.1BAFTA o   5.2Cannes Film Festival o   5.3Venice Biennale o   5.4David di Donatello Award o   5.5Moscow International Film Festival o   5.6Silver Ribbon o   5.7Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film o   5.8Berlin Film Festival o   5.9BIF (Bari International Film Festival) ·       6References ·       7Further reading ·       8External links Biography[edit] Origins and early career[edit] Rosi was born in Naples in 1922. His father worked in the shipping industry, but was also a cartoonist and had, at one time, been reprimanded for his satirical drawings of Benito Mussolini and King Vittorio Emmanuel III.[1] During the Second World War Rosi went to college alongside Giorgio Napolitano who was to become Italian President.[2] He studied law and then embarked on a career as an illustrator of children's books.[1] At the same time he began working as a reporter for Radio Napoli (it).[3] There he became friendly with Raffaele La Capria, Aldo Giuffrè and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, with each of whom he would later often collaborate.[4] His show business career began in 1946 as an assistant to Ettore Giannini for the stage production of a work by Salvatore Di Giacomo.[5] He then entered the film industry and worked as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra Trema ("The Earth Trembles", 1948) and Senso ("Sense", 1953). He wrote several screenplays, including Bellissima ("Beautiful", 1951) and The City Stands Trial ("Processo alla città", 1952), and shot a few scenes of the film Red Shirts ("Camicie rosse", 1952) byGoffredo Alessandrini. In 1956 he co-directed, with Vittorio Gassman, the film Kean – Genio e sregolatezza ("Kean – Genius and recklessness"), about the Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean.[6] His emergence as a director is considered to be his 1958 film La sfida (The Challenge), based on the story of Camorra boss Pasquale Simonetti, known as Pasquale 'e Nola, and Pupetta Maresca.[7] The realist nature of this film caused a stir in alluding to mafia control of the government. Of the film, Rosi himself said, "A director makes his first film with passion and without regard for what has gone before". But David Shipman comments "... but this is in fact a reworking of La Terra Trema, with the Visconti arias replaced by Zavattini's naturalism."[8] The following year he directed The Magliari ("I magliari"), in which the main character, an Italian immigrant in Germany, travels between Hamburg and Hanover and clashes with a Neapalitan mafioso boss over control the fabric market. Shipman writes: I magliari (1959) also concerns racketeers, and they are rival con-men (Alberto Sordi, Renato Salvatori) preying on their compatriots, immigrant workers in Germany. Sordi, like the protagonist in La sfida, manages to antagonise his colleagues more than his rivals – and this was to be a continuing theme in Rosi's films. For the moment it means that both films end dispiritedly, and they are further weakened by an uncertain grasp of narrative – though that is partly hidden in the vigorous handling of individual scenes and the photography of Gianni Di Venanzo.[8] 1960s[edit] Rosi was one of the central figures of the politicised post-neorealist 1960s and 1970s of Italian cinema, along with Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Taviani brothers, Ettore Scola and Valerio Zurlini. Dealing with a corrupt postwar Italy, Rosi's movies take on controversial issues, such as Salvatore Giuliano, a film that won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.[9] The film examined the life of the Sicilian gangster Giuliano, using the technique of a long series of flashbacks, one that became very popular thereafter. Shipman suggests that the film, with a "superb unity of the landscape and people of Sicily" ... "made Rosi's international reputation."[8] In 1963 he directed Rod Steiger in the film Hands over the City ("Le mani sulla città"), in which he courageously denounced the collusion between the various government departments and the crooked urban recontsruction programmes in Naples. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The film, together with Salvatore Giuliano,is generally considered the first of his films concerning political issues, later to be expressed in the flexible and spontaneous acting ofGian Maria Volontè. Rosi himself explained the film's purpose: "What interests me passionately is how a character behaves in the relation to the collectivity of society. I'm not making a study of character but of society. To understand what a man is like in his private drama you must begin to understand him in his public life".[8] In The Moment of Truth ("Il momento della verità", 1965), Rosi changed what was planned as a documentary about Spain in to a film about bullfighter Miguel Marco Miguelin. Shipman comments: "The wide screen and colour footage of the corrida were incomparably superior to those seen outside Spain hitherto."[8] After this Rosi moved into the unfamiliar world of the movie fable with More Than a Miracle (also titled Cinderella Italian Style and Happily Ever After, Italian: "C'era una volta" – "Once Upon a Time ..."). The film starred Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif, fresh from the success of the 1966 film Doctor Zhivago, although Rosi had initially asked for the part to be played by Marcello Mastroianni.[10] 1970s[edit] His 1970 film Many Wars Ago ("Uomini contro") dealt with the absurdity of war in the context of the Trentino Front of 1916–17 during World War One, where Italian army officers demanded far too much of their men. It was based on the novel Un anno sull'altopiano by Emilio Lussu.[5][11][12][13] The lead is played by Mark Frechetteand the cost of the film was such that Rosi needed to secure Yugoslavian collaboration. Shipman writes: "The Alpine battlefield has been imaginatively and bloodily re-created, and photographed in steely colours by Pasqualino De Santis, but Rosi's urge to say something important – doubtless intense after the last two films – resulted only in cliché: that military men are fanatics and war is hell."[8] The years 1972 to 1976 cemented Rosi's reputation internationally as a director who dealt with controversial subjects such as the mysterious death of oil magnateEnrico Mattei (The Mattei Affair, 1972, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival);[6] the political machinations around gangster Lucky Luciano (Lucky Luciano, 1974),[14] and corruption in the judiciary, Illustrious Corpses ("Cadaveri Eccellenti", 1976).[6] During the preparation of The Mattei Affair Rosi was in contact with Mauro De Mauro, the Sicilian journalist murdered in mysterious circumstances for reasons which, it is suspected, included an investigation on behalf of Rosi, into the death of the president of the Italian state-owned oil and gas conglomerate Eni.[6] Lucky Luciano (1973) starred Gian Maria Volontè with Steiger in a sub-plot about another dubious Italo-American. Edmond O'Brien featured a UN man. Norman Mailer described the film as "the most careful, the most thoughtful, the truest, and the most sensitive to the paradoxes to a society of crime".[8] In 1975 came the remarkable success Illustrious Corpses ("Cadaveri eccellenti"), based on the novel Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia, with Lino Ventura. The film is praised highly by Shipman, who describes it as: "a film so rich, so powerful and so absorbing that it leaves the spectator breathless. ... This is a film, rare in the history of cinema, in which location – as opposed to decor – is a character in its own right, commenting on the action." Writing in The Observer, Russell Davies said, "Few directors select their shots with such flamboyant intelligence as this".[8] In 1979 Rosi directed Christ Stopped at Eboli, based on the memoir of the same name by Carlo Levi, again with Volonté as the protagonist. It won the Golden Prize at the 11th Moscow International Film Festival[15] and was to win BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1983.[16] Rosi had been invited by the state-owned television service RAI to select a subject for filming, and the four-part television programme was cut into a 141-minute feature film which he described as "a journey through my own conscience". Shipman writes, "the film retains all the mystery of Rosi's best work – an enquiry where at least half the answers are withheld. In this enquiry there is a respect for the historical process, but the usual magisterial blend of art and dialectic is softened by a sympathy much deeper than that of Il Momento Della Verità. The occasional self-conscious shot that we associate with peasantry cannot mar it."[8] 1980s and 1990s[edit] After another successful film Three Brothers ("Tre fratelli", 1981), with Philippe Noiret, Michele Placido and Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Rosi wanted bring the novel The Truce by Primo Levi, to the big screen, but the suicide of the writer in April 1987 forced him to give the project up. The film was finally made only in 1997. He directed a film adaptation of Carmen (1984) with Plácido Domingo[17] and subsequently he worked on Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), adapted from the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, which brought together a great cast including Gian Maria Volontè, Ornella Muti, Rupert Everett, Anthony Delon and Lucia Bosè. The film was shot inVenezuela and Mompox, Colombia.[2] In 1990 he directed The Palermo Connection ("Dimenticare Palermo") with Jim Belushi, Mimi Rogers, Vittorio Gassman, Philippe Noiret and Giancarlo Giannini. He then returned to the theatre direction with the comedies of Eduardo De Filippo: Napoli milionaria!, Le voci di dentro and Filumena Marturano, all performed by Luca De Filippo.[18] His last film as director was 1997's The Truce, based on holocaust survivor Levi’s memoir, and starring John Turturro. Rosi described the film in a 2008 interview withVariety as being about "the return to life."[19] Recognition, later life and death[edit] In 2005, for the film Hands over the City, he was awarded an Honorary Degree in "Urban and Environmental Planning" by the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria. The 58th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 played tribute to Rosi by screening 13 films in its Homage section, a feature being reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on 14 February 2008, accompanied by the screening of Salvatore Giuliano. In 2009 he was awarded the Cavaliere della Legion d'Onore, in 2010 the "Golden Halberd" at the Trieste Film Festival and in May 2012 the Board of the Venice Biennale unanimously approved the proposal of its director Alberto Barber, to award Rosi the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at its 69th show. Barber praised Rosi for his "absolute rigor in historic reconstruction, never making any compromises on a political or ethical level, combined with engaging storytelling and splendid visuals."[19][20] On 27 October 2010 he became an honorary citizen of Matelica, the birthplace of Enrico Mattei, while in 2013, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Massimo Bra, he was given the honorary citizenship of Matera, where he had shot three of his films. In 2014 he took part in the film Born in the USE, co-produced by Renzo Rossellini and directed by Michele Dioma. In the last part of his life he lived on the Via Gregoriana in Rome near the Spanish Steps. In April 2010 his wife Giancarla Mandelli, died at the Hospital Sant Eugenio, as a result of burns caused by her dress catching fire from a cigarette. Rosi died, on 10 January 2015, at the age of 92,[6][21] whilst at home, as a result of complications from bronchitis.[19] A memorial service was held in Rome on 10 January, with a day-long viewing of the body at the Casa del Cinema. Fellow director Giuseppe Tornatore was among many acclaimed Italian film-makers who attended. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, Rosi's friend and former classmate, sent white roses. Italian director Giuseppe Piccioni said Rosi's work gave Italy "identity and dignity" continuing, "Rosi was one of those artists who lived his work like a mission."[22] Director Paolo Sorrentino dedicates his 2015 movie Youth with a simple end credit "For Francesco Rosi". Impact and legacy[edit] Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appear to have political messages. As he matured as a director his film topics became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature. Despite the more traditional slant of his later work, Rosi continued to direct until 1997. The Variety Movie Guide says of Rosi: "Most films by Francesco Rossi probe well under the surface of people and events to establish a constant link between the legal and the illegal exercise of power."[14] Writing Rosi's obituary in The Guardian, David Robinson and John Francis Lane said: In his best films, the director Francesco Rosi ... was essentially a crusading, investigative journalist concerned with the corruption and inequalities of the economically depressed Italian south. He believed that “the audience should not be just passive spectators”: he wanted to make people think and question.[6] The British Film Institute, recognising that Rosi had made historical films, war pictures and family dramas, in a directorial career that spanned almost four decades, said "he will be remembered above all as the master of the ‘cine-investigation’ and an influence on several generations of artists, including the likes of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Roberto Saviano and Paolo Sorrentino.[1] Interviewed by The New York Times after Rosi's death, actor John Turturro who played Primo Levi in Rosi's last film The Truce, called Rosi "something of a mentor". He said, "I would never have read all of Primo Levi’s work if not for him. There are a lot of films I never would have otherwise seen... He was a wonderful actor. He helped you physically as an actor. If he had trouble explaining something, he could act it out, and all the actors understood."[3] Honours[edit] ·        Italy * 1995: Cavaliere di gran croce dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana ·        Italy * 1987: Grande ufficiale dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana ·        France * 2009: Cavaliere della Legion d'Onore Filmography[edit] Director[edit] Rosi directed 20 films, starting with some scenes in Goffredo Alessandrini's Red Shirts. His last film was The Truce in 1997.[23] ·       1952 – Red Shirts (Camicie rosse) ·       1956 – Kean (Kean – Genio e sregolatezza), co-directed with Vittorio Gassman. ·       1958 – The Challenge (La sfida) ·       1959 – The Magliari (I magliari) ·       1962 – Salvatore Giuliano ·       1963 – Hands over the City (Le mani sulla città) ·       1965 – The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità) ·       1967 – More than a Miracle (C'era una volta...) ·       1970 – Many Wars Ago (Uomini contro) ·       1972 – The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei) ·       1974 – Lucky Luciano ·       1976 – Illustrious Corpses (Cadaveri eccellenti) ·       1979 – Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) ·       1981 – Three Brothers (Tre fratelli) ·       1984 – Carmen ·       1987 – Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Cronaca di una morte annunciata) ·       1989 – 12 registi per 12 città, a collaboration work with 11 other directors. ·       1989 – The Palermo Connection (Dimenticare Palermo) ·       1992 – Neapolitan Diary (Diario napoletano) ·       1997 – The Truce (La tregua) Writer[edit] ·       Bellissima (1951) ·       The City Stands Trial (1952) ·       Racconti romani (1955) ·       The Bigamist (1956) Director and screenwriter[edit] Original subjects ·       La sfida (1958) ·       The Magliari (1959) ·       Salvatore Giuliano (1962) ·       Hands over the City (1963) ·       The Moment of Truth (1964) ·       More Than a Miracle (1967) ·       The Mattei Affair (1971) ·       Lucky Luciano (1973) ·       Diario napoletano (1992) Non-original subjects ·       Kean – Genio e sregolatezza (1956, subject by Dumas and Sartre) ·       Many Wars Ago (1970, subject by Emilio Lussu) ·       Illustrious Corpses (1976, from the novel by Leonardo Sciascia) ·       Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979, taken from the eponymous novel by Carlo Levi) ·       Three Brothers (1981, based on the story The Third Son by Andrei Platonov") ·       Carmen (1984, taken from the opera by Bizet) ·       Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987, based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez) ·       The Palermo Connection (1990, taken from the eponymous novel ofEdmonde Charles-Roux) ·       The Truce (1997, taken from the eponymous novel by Primo Levi) Theatre[edit] Director[edit] ·       In Memory of a Lady Friend (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1963)[24] ·       Naples Millionaire (Eduardo De Filippo, 2003) ·       The Voices Within (Eduardo De Filippo, 2006) ·       Filumena Marturano (Eduardo De Filippo, 2008) Awards[edit] BAFTA[edit] Awarded by British Academy of Film and Television Arts: ·       1983 : BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film – Christ Stopped at Eboli[16] ·       1986 : nominated for Best Foreign Language Film – Carmen[17] Cannes Film Festival[edit] Awarded at the Cannes Film Festival: ·       1972 : Palme d'Or – The Mattei Affair[6] Venice Biennale[edit] ·       1963 : Golden Lion – Hands over the City[19] ·       2012 : Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement[19] David di Donatello Award[edit] ·       1965 : Best Director – The Moment of Truth ·       1976 : Best Director – Illustrious Corpses ·       1979 : Best Director – Christ Stopped at Eboli ·       1979 : Best Film – Christ Stopped at Eboli ·       1981 : Best Director – Three Brothers ·       1981 : Best Screenplay – Three Brothers ·       1985 : Best Director – Carmen ·       1985 : Best Cinematography – Carmen ·       1997 : Best Film – The Truce ·       1997 : Best Director – The Truce Moscow International Film Festival[edit] ·       1979 : Grand Prix – Christ Stopped at Eboli[15] Silver Ribbon[edit] The Nastro d'Argento, awarded by the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani: ·       1959 : Best Original Film – The Challenge ·       1963 : Best Director – Salvatore Giuliano ·       1981 : Best Director – Three Brothers Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film[edit] ·       1981 : nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film – Three Brothers Berlin Film Festival[edit] Awarded at the Berlin International Film Festival: ·       1962 : Silver Bear for Best Director – Salvatore Giuliano[9] ·       2008 : Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement[9] BIF (Bari International Film Festival)[edit] ·       2010 : "Premio Federico Fellini" for artistic excellence[25]       José Plácido Domingo Embil (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse ˈplaθiðo doˈmiŋɡo emˈbil]; born 21 January 1941),[1] known as Plácido Domingo, is a Spanish tenor, conductor and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José, and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation.[2][3][4] In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into almost exclusively baritone parts, most notably Simon Boccanegra. He has performed 147 different roles. Domingo has also achieved significant success as a crossover artist, especially in the genres of Latin and popular music. In addition to winning fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, several of his records have gone silver, gold, platinum and multi-platinum. His first pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), spread his fame beyond the opera world. Thetitle song, performed as a duet with country and folk singer John Denver, has sold almost four million copies[5] and helped lead to numerous television appearances for the tenor. He also starred in many cinematically released and televised opera movies, particularly under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli. In 1990, he began singing with fellow tenorsLuciano Pavarotti and José Carreras as part of The Three Tenors. The first Three Tenors recording became the best-selling classical album of all time.[6][7] Growing up working in his parents' zarzuela company in Mexico, Domingo has since regularly promoted this form of Spanish light opera. He also increasingly conducts operas and concerts and is currently the general director of the Los Angeles Opera in California. He was initially the artistic director and later general director of the Washington National Opera from 1996-2011. He has been involved in numerous humanitarian works, as well as efforts to help young opera singers, including starting and running the international singing competition, Operalia. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Biography and career o   1.1Early years o   1.21960s–1980s §  1.2.1Establishing a career in opera §  1.2.2Growing celebrity o   1.31990s–present §  1.3.1Changing repertoire §  1.3.2High profile appearances §  1.3.3As an opera company director §  1.3.4Taking on baritone roles ·       2Family and personal life ·       3Recordings o   3.1Complete operas and recital discs o   3.2Crossover albums ·       4Appearances on film and television o   4.1Christmas in Vienna ·       5Cultural references ·       6Repertoire ·       7Awards and honors ·       8Humanitarian works and initiatives o   8.1Operalia and young artists programs ·       9Writings ·       10See also ·       11References ·       12External links Biography and career[edit] Early years[edit] Seventeen-year-old Plácido Domingo as the tenor Rafael the bullfighter in El gato montés with Rosa Maria Montes (Mexico City, 1958) Plácido Domingo was born on 21 January 1941 in the Retiro district of Madrid, Spain.[8] His mother recalled that she and her husband knew he would be a musician from the age of five, due to his ability to hum complex music from a zarzuela after seeing a performance of it.[9] In 1949, just days before his eighth birthday, he moved to Mexico with his family. His parents, both singers, had decided to start a zarzuela company there after a successful tour of Latin America. Soon after arriving in Mexico, Domingo won a singing contest for boys, and his parents occasionally recruited him and his sister for children's roles in their zarzuela productions.[10]Domingo studied piano from a young age, at first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, which he entered when he was fourteen. At the conservatory, he also attended conducting classes taught by Igor Markevitch and studied voice under Carlo Morelli, the brother of Renato Zanelli. The two brothers were famous practitioners of both baritone and tenor roles.[11]Domingo's conservatory classes constituted the entirety of his formal vocal instruction; he never studied privately with a singing teacher.[12] In 1957, at age sixteen, Domingo made his first professional appearance, accompanying his mother on the piano at a concert atMérida, Yucatán. The same year he made his major zarzuela debut in Manuel Fernández Caballero's Gigantes y cabezudos (es), singing a baritone role.[13] At that time, he was working with his parents' zarzuela company, eventually taking several baritone roles and acting as an accompanist for other singers.[14] The following year, the tenor in another company's touring production of Luisa Fernanda fell ill. In his first performance as a tenor, Domingo replaced the ailing singer, although he feared the part's tessitura was too high for him.[14] Later that same year, he sang the tenor role of Rafael in the Spanish opera El gato montés, illustrating his willingness to assay the tenor range, even as he still considered himself a baritone. On 12 May 1959 at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, he appeared in the baritone role (sometimes sung by basses) of Pascual in Emilio Arrieta's Marina (es). Like El gato montés, Marina is an opera composed in the zarzuela musical style rather than a zarzuela proper, although both are usually performed by zarzuela companies. In addition to his work with zarzuelas, among his earliest performances was a minor role in the first Latin American production of the musical My Fair Lady, in which he was also the assistant conductor and assistant coach.[15] While he was a member, the company gave 185 performances of the musical in various cities in Mexico. In 1959, Domingo auditioned for the Mexico National Opera at the Palacio de Bellas Artes as a baritone, but was then asked to sight-read the tenor aria "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora. He was accepted at the National Opera as a tenor comprimario and as a tutor for other singers.[16] In what he considered his operatic debut, Domingo sang the minor role of Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto on 23 September at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Veteran American baritones Cornell MacNeil and Norman Treigle performed with him in the production. Soon after this, he appeared as the Padre Confessor in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Altoum and Pang in Turandot, and Normanno and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, among other small parts. While at the National Opera, he also appeared in a production of Lehár's operetta, The Merry Widow, in which he alternated as Camille and Danilo (both originally created as tenor roles, although the latter is often sung by baritones). The Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, where Domingo began his operatic career To supplement his income, the young Domingo played the piano for a ballet company, as well as for a program on Mexico's newly founded cultural television station. The program consisted of excerpts from zarzuelas, operettas, operas, and musical comedies. He acted in a few small parts while at the theater in plays by Federico García Lorca, Luigi Pirandello, and Anton Chekhov.[17] He also provided song arrangements and backup vocals for Los Camisas Negras in the late 1950s, a rock-and-roll band led by César Costa.[18] In his autobiography, Domingo reflected on the benefits of his busy and varied career as a teenager: "Today, when people ask me how I manage to hold up under my extremely heavy work load, I answer that I became accustomed to intense activity very early in my life and that I love it now as I loved it then."[19] 1960s–1980s[edit] Establishing a career in opera[edit] In 1961, Domingo made his operatic debut in a leading role as Alfredo in La traviata at the Teatro María Teresa Montoya in Monterrey. Later the same year, he made his debut in the United States with the Dallas Civic Opera, where he sang the role of Arturo in Lucia di Lammermooropposite Joan Sutherland in the title role and Ettore Bastianini as Enrico. In 1962, he returned to Texas to sing the role of Edgardo in the same opera with Lily Pons at the Fort Worth Opera.[20] It would be the coloratura soprano's final operatic performance. That November Domingo sang the second tenor role of Cassio to Mario del Monaco's celebrated Otello in Hartford, Connecticut. At the end of 1962, he signed a six-month contract with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv, but later extended the contract and stayed for two and a half years, singing 280 performances of 12 different roles. In June 1965, after finishing his contract in Tel Aviv, Domingo auditioned at the New York City Opera. He was hired to make his New York debut as Don José in Bizet'sCarmen with the company, but his debut came earlier than expected on 17 June 1965 when he filled in for an ailing tenor at the last minute in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In February 1966, he sang the title role in the U.S. premiere of Ginastera's Don Rodrigo at the New York City Opera, to much acclaim.[21] The New York Times review noted: "Mr. Domingo was as impressive as ever—a big, burly, large-voiced singer who looks exactly as one would visualize a hero from Gothic Spain."[22] The performance also marked the opening of the City Opera's new home at Lincoln Center.[23] His official debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York occurred on 28 September 1968, when he substituted with little notice for Franco Corelli in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Tebaldi. Two years before this Adriana Lecouvreur, he had already performed with the Metropolitan Opera at Lewisohn Stadium inMascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Since then, he has opened the season at the Metropolitan Opera 21 times, more than any other singer, surpassing the previous record of Enrico Caruso by four.[24] He has appeared with the company every season since 1968-1969. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1967; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1968; at both La Scala and San Francisco Opera in 1969; at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company in 1970; and at Covent Garden in 1971. In 1975, Domingo debuted at the prestigious Salzburg festival, singing the title role in Don Carlo in an all-star cast with Nicolai Ghiaurov, Piero Cappuccilli, Mirella Freni and Christa Ludwig with Herbert von Karajan conducting. Thereafter Domingo frequently returned to Salzburg for a number of operas, as well as for several concert performances. He has now sung at practically every important opera house and festival worldwide. Plácido Domingo in Argentina (1979) Domingo first sang Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in a 1961 performance in Mexico City.[25] A decade later, he made his Covent Garden debut in the role. He continued to sing the part for many years, especially at the Met and in Vienna, eventually performing it more than any other of his roles.[26] In September 1975, Domingo debuted in the title role of Verdi's Otello at the Hamburg State Opera. It soon became his signature role and one of operas he performed most frequently (over 200 times).[27] He recorded the part three times in the studio and appeared in four officially released filmed versions of the opera. Oscar-winning Shakespearean actor, Laurence Olivier, declared after seeing the tenor in the role: "Domingo plays Othello as well as I do and he has that voice."[28] Domingo has also conducted operas and occasionally symphony orchestras as well. On 7 October 1973 he conducted his first opera performance, La traviata starring Patricia Brooks at the New York City Opera. The same year he released his debut album as a conductor, Domingo Conducts Milnes/Milnes Conducts Domingo, with baritone Sherrill Milnes. Domingo increasingly began to appear as a conductor at major opera houses around the world. In late 1983, he led a performance of Johan Strauss's Die Fledermaus at Covent Garden, which was televised. Three years later, he made a studio recording of the operetta, in which he both conducted and sang the role of Alfred. Growing celebrity[edit] The 1980s were a time of growing success and fame for Domingo. In 1981 he gained considerable recognition outside of the opera world when he recorded the song "Perhaps Love" as a duet with the American country/folk music singer John Denver. He followed this success with many more albums of popular and Latin music. Domingo expressed the hope that his popular albums would expand his fan base in a way that would eventually lead more people to discover opera.[29] These forays outside of the opera world led to numerous television appearances for the tenor, who was no longer known only by classical music lovers. In 1987, he and Denver joined Julie Andrews for an Emmy Award-winning holiday television special,The Sound of Christmas, filmed in Salzburg, Austria. He was interviewed on many talk shows and news programs, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carsonand 60 minutes. Increasingly substantial numbers of his operatic performances were also shown on television during the 1980s. After gaining experience acting for the cameras in numerous televised operas, Domingo performed in his first cinematically released opera movie, La Traviata, in 1982. He had worked with the film's director, former Academy Award nominee Franco Zeffirelli, previously in staged opera productions. Even as filming continued in Rome, he commuted back and forth to perform live in Vienna, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid.[30] In 1984, Domingo filmed the role of Don José in Francesco Rosi's movie version of Carmen in his native Spain.[31] Zeffirelli reunited with the tenor two years later for another version of an opera, Otello, that ran in movie theaters worldwide. Domingo considered Carmen the best of the three, although he disagreed with the director's "low conception" of his character. He found La traviata to be "impressive", but expressed displeasure over cuts to the music in Zeffirelli's Otello.[32] Even while diversifying his career, he continued to appear with great frequency in largely well-received operatic performances. By 1982 Newsweek declared Domingo "King Of The Opera" on its cover. The magazine's featured article, which recounted and analyzed his career, praised the singer for his "heroic voice, superb musicianship, fine acting skills and dashing Latin good looks".[28] That same year, Domingo appeared at the Metropolitan Opera's opening night performance ofBellini's Norma. It was the first time onstage that the tenor sang the part of Pollione, one of his rare excursions into the bel canto repertory. He was also set to open the Met's 1983-1984 centennial season debuting as Enée in a well publicized new production of Berlioz' Les Troyens, but a couple months in advance expressed uncertainty whether he could successful sing the role's high tessitura without harming his voice.[33] He asked to be released from his contract, but eventually decided to sing four of the six performances in the run with his friend James Levine conducting,[33] including one performance that was telecast.[34] He never sang the part again.[35] During rehearsals for Les Troyens, Domingo rescued the opening night of the San Francisco Opera's season. The tenor scheduled to sing Otello, Carlo Cossutta, cancelled on the day of the performance. The company asked Domingo to replace him at 4 p.m. He quickly flew from New York to San Francisco, rushed to the opera house, and appeared in the role at 10:30 in the evening. A writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, among other journalists, reported extensively on the event. He observed the crowds gathering around the stage door for the tenor's arrival and remarked on how most of the waiting audience members "were breathless over the chance to see Placido Domingo, a star who draws the kind of rapt devotion that Mick Jagger inspires among rock fans."[36] Backstage at theWashington National Operaafter the opening night ofIdomeneo on 3 November 2002 For the opening night of the following Met season, Domingo returned to the role of Wagner's Lohengrin, which he had last sung in early 1968. He had originally dropped the role from his repertoire after he felt his voice had been temporarily damaged by learning the challenging opera. The New York Times noted that the now more mature artist "lacked the chrome-plated, penetrating quality that one associates with German tenors", but praised him for bringing "an unusual legato grace to a role that is seldom sung so beautifully".[37]He also performed the role at the Vienna State Opera in 1985 and 1990. A performance during his last run of the opera was televised on 28 January 1990 and later released on VHS and DVD. He had just recovered from the flu at the time.[38] On September 19, 1985, the biggest earthquake in Mexico's history devastated part of the Mexican capital. Domingo's aunt, uncle, nephew and his nephew's young son were killed in the collapse of the Nuevo León apartment block in the Tlatelolco housing complex. Cancelling several performances, Domingo himself labored to rescue survivors. During the next year, he performed benefit concerts for the victims and released an album of one of the events. Also in 1986 he appeared in a special gala concert for Queen Elizabeth II and in the world premiere of Goya, an opera that Gian Carlo Menotti composed specifically for him. Domingo had encouraged Menotti to make the opera about the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, whose life fascinated the singer. 1990s–present[edit] Changing repertoire[edit] Throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today, Domingo has continued adding new roles to his growing repertoire, while at the same time dropping earlier parts. The 1990s were the start of rapid change in the types of roles the tenor performed. During this decade he sang his last Cavaradossi, Don Carlo, Don José, Gustavo/Riccardo, Hoffmann, and Alvaro, among others, and he began instead to expand the breadth of his roles more substantially beyond the standard Italian and French repertory. In particular, he increased his involvement in Wagnerian operas. Although he had already sung Lohengrin and recorded a few operas by the composer, he did not perform any of Wagner's works frequently onstage until he debuted as Parsifal in 1991 and Siegmund in 1992. He continued to sing these roles for almost two decades, including at the Bayreuth Festival. Domingo sings "Empio, per farti guerra" from George Frideric Handel'sTamerlano at the Liceu in the 2010-2011 season For the first time in over three decades, Domingo debuted in a Mozart opera, Idomeneo, in 1994 at the Met. During the nineties, he also appeared in the early Verdi opera, Stiffelio, the Brazilian Il Guarany, and the French grand operas,Hérodiade and Le prophète, all of which are rarely performed. Toward the end of the decade, he added his first Russian-language opera, Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (although he had performed Eugene Onegin in translation while in Israel early in his career). In the 2000s, he sang his last performances of some of the most successful operas from early in his career: Andrea Chenier,Samson et Dalila, Otello, La Fanciulla del West, Fedora, Pagliacci, and Adriana Lecouvreur. In the twenty-first century, however, he has focused mostly on new roles. Early in the 2000s he sang the role of Arrigo in two concert performances of Verdi's rare La battaglia di Legnano and debuted in Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, an opera that his Three Tenors colleague José Carreras had recently revived from obscurity. Domingo himself worked to popularize Franco Alfano's infrequently performedCyrano de Bergerac a few years later. Shifting musical styles again, he appeared in the eighteenth-century operas Iphigénie en Tauride and Tamerlano late in the decade. Domingo singing at a concert at the Obeliscoin Buenos Aires in 2011 Additionally, Domingo created several new roles in modern operas, such as the title role in Tan Dun's 2006 operaThe First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera, which was broadcast worldwide into movie theaters as part of the Met Live in HD series. In September 2010, he created the role of the poet Pablo Neruda in the world première of Daniel Catán's opera based on the film Il Postino at the Los Angeles Opera.[39] During the 2011-2012 season, Domingo sang Neptune in the Metropolitan Opera's world premiere performance of Jeremy Sams' The Enchanted Island. Apastiche of Baroque opera with story and characters drawn from Shakespeare's The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, a performance of the production was telecast on PBS' Great Performances at the Met. High profile appearances[edit] Giving him greater international recognition outside of the world of opera, Domingo participated in The Three Tenorsconcert on the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final in Rome with José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. The event was originally conceived to raise money for the José Carreras International Leukemia Foundation and was later repeated a number of times, including at the three subsequent World Cup finals (1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama). The recording of their first appearance together, Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert, went multi-platinum with sales in excess of three million in the United States alone,[40] eventually outselling every previous classical album worldwide.[6][7] Domingo and his colleagues won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for the album. Four years after their first successful concert, around 1.3 billion viewers worldwide watched their televised second World Cup performance at Dodger Stadium.[41] The recording of that event, The Three Tenors in Concert 1994, went platinum and multi-platinum in many countries, even reaching the number one spot on the UK Albums Chart.[42] Without Pavarotti and Carreras, Domingo made an appearance at the final of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin, along with rising stars Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Before the 2014 World Cup final, he performed in Rio de Janeiro with pianist Lang Lang and soprano Ana María Martínez, a winner of his Operalia competition and a frequent singing partner of his.[43] In addition to these large-scale concerts, Domingo recorded the official song for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, "El Mundial". A lifelong soccer fan, Domingo has been a vocal supporter of Real Madrid C.F., his home-town team. In 2002, he performed the club's new commemorative anthem, "Himno del Centenario del Real Madrid". It was written by José María Cano, which whom he had previously collaborated on the opera, Luna. Domingo presented the song live at the Bernabeu Stadium during celebrations of the soccer club's 100 year anniversary. On 13 May 2012, Domingo performed during Real Madrid's season-ending celebrations, when the team won their 32nd Spanish league title. Plácido Domingo as the president of Europa Nostra at the organization's awards ceremony in 2014 On 24 August 2008, Domingo performed a duet with Song Zuying, singing Ài de Huǒyàn (The Flame of Love) at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing.[44][45][46] The Beijing Olympics was the second Olympics at which he performed; he also sang the Olympic Hymn at the closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.[47] In 2002, he made a guest appearance on the song "Novus", the closing track on Santana's album Shaman. Domingo sang beforeBenedict XVI, during the pope's visit to Nationals Park and the Italian embassy in Washington D.C. on 16 and 17 April 2008. On 15 March 2009, the Metropolitan Opera paid tribute to Domingo's 40th and the company's 125th anniversaries with a gala performance and onstage dinner.[48] On 29 August 2009, he sang "Panis Angelicus" at the funeral mass of Senator Ted Kennedy in the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts.[49] In March 2011, Domingo cancelled an engagement in Buenos Aires at theTeatro Colón in support of the theatre's musicians, who were on strike.[50] As an opera company director[edit] Domingo began an affiliation with the Washington National Opera in 1986, when he appeared in its world premiere production of Menotti's Goya. This was followed by performances in a production of Tosca in the 1988/89 season. Beginning in the 1996/97 season, he took on the role of Artistic Director, bringing new life to the company's productions through his many connections to singers throughout the world and his own annual appearances in one role each season.[51] One example of his ability to bring new singers to the stage were those by the then up-and-coming Anna Netrebko as Gilda in Rigoletto during the 1999/2000 season. In 2003 Domingo became General Director and his contract was extended through the 2010-2011 season. Parallel to Domingo's management of the Washington company, he had been Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Opera since 2000. He assumed the position of General Director of the company in 2003. On 20 September 2010, he announced that he would renew his contract as General Director through 2013.[52] A week later he announced that he would not renew his contract as General Director of the Washington National Opera beyond its June 2011 expiration date. Reaction to this included The Washington Post 's comments on his accomplishments: Domingo's goal was to make the WNO an internationally regarded company. At the beginning of his tenure, he lifted the opera to a new level, bringing in more international stars and big-name productions - including José Carreras in Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, Mirella Freni singing opposite Domingo in Fedora, and Renée Fleming in Lucrezia Borgia. And his commitment to American opera meant that the WNO presented the second or third productions of a number of important works: Maw'sSophie's Choice, Bolcom's A View From the Bridge, Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire.[53] Domingo (center right) as the baritone inIl trovatore at the 2014 Salzburg Festivalwith Francesco Meli (far left, with sword) Domingo attempted to quash criticism in East Coast newspapers that he was taking on too much when the singer gave an interview in the Los Angeles Times in which he restated his long-time motto, "When I rest, I rust".[54] Taking on baritone roles[edit] Plácido Domingo announced in 2007 that two years later he would take on one of Verdi's most demanding baritone roles, singing the title role in Simon Boccanegra. His debut performance in the part occurred at the Berlin State Opera on 24 October, followed by 29 other performances during the 2009-2010 season at major opera houses around the world, including the Met and the Royal Opera House in London.[55] After the success of Boccanegra, Domingo has performed other baritone roles including the character of Rigoletto inVerdi's Rigoletto in August 2010 at Reignwood Theatre in Beijing. In March 2012, for the first time he sang the baritone role of the Cenobite monk Athanaël in Massenet's Thaïs, his 139th role. Again, in 2011 he undertook the role of Rigoletto in a live television broadcast in Europe which was shot in real locations in Mantua. He appeared as Doge Francesco Foscari in Verdi's I due Foscari in a production directed by Thaddeus Strassberger for the Los Angeles Opera in September 2012, in Valencia in early 2013, and at Covent Garden in late 2014. In March 2013, at the Metropolitan Opera, he appeared for the first time as Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La Traviata.[56] The following year, he sang Giacomo in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco in Salzburg. Later in 2014, he debuted as the Conte di Luna in Il trovatorein Berlin. The following season, he sang di Luna again at the Salzburg Festival with Anna Netrebko as Leonora, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Azucena and Francesco Meli as Manrico. He first sang the title role of Verdi's Nabucco at Covent Garden in March–April 2013[57][58] and has since reprised it in St. Petersburg,[59] Beijing,Verona,[60] and Vienna. In 2015, he made his debut in the title role of Verdi's Macbeth in Berlin, as well as Don Carlo in Ernani in New York and the title role of Gianni Schicchi in Los Angeles.[61] Family and personal life[edit] Domingo’s father, Plácido Domingo Ferrer (right), with composer Federico Moreno Torroba in Madrid, 1946 He was born to Plácido Francisco Domingo Ferrer (8 March 1907 – 22 November 1987)[62] and Josefa "Pepita" Embil Echániz (28 February 1918 – 28 August 1994),[63] two Spanish zarzuela stars who nurtured his early musical abilities. Domingo's father was halfAragonese and half Catalan, while his mother was a Basque from Gipuzkoa. His father began as a violinist performing for opera andzarzuela orchestras. He soon also took on baritone roles in zarzuelas. Even though he damaged his voice by performing while suffering from a cold, he continued singing into the 1970s. Domingo's mother was an established soprano who made her stage debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She met her husband at age 21 while performing in Federico Moreno Torroba's Sor Navarra. Domingo later recalled that experts encouraged his father to sing Wagnerian heldentenor roles, while the Liceu offered his mother a contract to sing opera.[64] In 1946 Moreno Torroba and Domingo's parents formed a zarzuela company and toured in Latin America. His parents later stayed permanently in Mexico and established their own zarzuela troupe, the Domingo-Embil Company.[65]In addition to their son, they also had a daughter, Maria José "Mari Pepa" Domingo de Fernandez (1942–2015). On 29 August 1957 at age 16, Plácido Domingo married a fellow piano student, Ana María Guerra Cué (1938–2006). Their son, José Plácido Domingo Guerra (called "Pepe" as a boy and later "Joe"), now a photographer,[66] was born on 16 June 1958.[67] However, the marriage did not last long, with the couple separating shortly thereafter. On 1 August 1962, Domingo married Marta Ornelas (born 1935[citation needed]), a lyric soprano from Veracruz, Mexico, whom he met during his conservatory days.[68] In the same year, Marta had been voted "Mexican Singer of the Year". After their marriage, the couple performed together frequently at the Israel National Opera. However, after she became pregnant with her first child, she gave up her promising career to devote time to her family. They have two sons, Plácido Francisco (known as Plácido Domingo Jr.), born 21 October 1965, and Alvaro Maurizio, born 11 October 1968.[69] After a period of time living in Israel, Domingo and his growing family moved to Teaneck, New Jersey in the 1960s.[70][71][72] He later acquired residences in Manhattan and Barcelona. Keeping his apartment in New York, he currently also has a house in his native Madrid. During breaks in his work schedule, he usually spends time with family at his vacation home in Acapulco, Mexico.[73][74] In March 2010 he underwent surgery for colon cancer.[75] In July 2013, he was admitted to a hospital in Madrid after suffering a pulmonary embolism.[76] He was released on July 14, and was "expected to make a full recovery".[77] In October 2015, he was admitted to a hospital for a cholecystectomy and missed the first five performances of Tosca he was supposed to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.[78][79] Recordings[edit] See also: Plácido Domingo discography Complete operas and recital discs[edit] Domingo has made over 200 recordings, most of which are full-length operas, often recording the same role more than once. As a teenager, he first appeared in very small parts on the Spanish-language original cast versions of the musicals My Fair Lady (1959) and Redhead (1960). In 1968, he released his first solo album, Recital of Italian Operatic Arias (also known as Bel Canto Domingo). The album, conducted by Nello Santi, received the Grand Prix du Disque. The following year Domingo recorded his first full opera in the studio, Il trovatore, with Leontyne Price and Sherrill Milnes. He would record with Milnes several more times, in both full operas and recital discs. Domingo followed Il trovatore with a steady stream of complete recorded operas from the 1970s through the early years of the next century. Starting withIl tabarro in 1970 and ending with Edgar in 2006, Domingo has recorded all of Puccini's operatic roles for tenor. Among his albums is a box set of every tenor ariaVerdi composed, including several rarely performed versions in languages different from the original operas and written only for specific performances. He has also recorded the vocal parts in many symphonic works and has conducted on some of his albums. Domingo has recorded many compositions by his singer-songwriter son, Plácido Domingo Jr. (pictured here in a publicity photo) In August 2005, EMI Classics released a highly anticipated and publicized studio recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, in which Domingo and Operalia winner Nina Stemme sang the title roles. A review, headlined "Vocal perfections", in the 8 August 2005 issue of The Economist called the recording "monumental" and praised it for having "a musical lyricism and a sexual passion that make the cost and the effort entirely worthwhile". The review also characterized Domingo's July 2005 performance of Siegmund in Wagner's Die Walküre at Covent Garden as "unforgettable" and "luminous". More recently Domingo has appeared with Angela Gheorghiu on a recording of Fedora, an opera in which he often appeared onstage, and as the baritone in a live version of Giovanna d'Arco with Anna Netrebko. In September 2011, aged 70, he signed an exclusive record contract with Sony Classics.[80] His first operatic recording for the label was a collection of Verdi baritone arias, which won a Latin Grammy Award. Crossover albums[edit] In addition to his classical recordings, Domingo has released numerous crossover albums. His output of non-operatic recordings accelerated after his pop album, Perhaps Love (1981), went gold and eventually platinum.[81] His other recordings of popular music include My Life for a Song (1983), Save Your Nights for Me (1985), and the British gold record, Be My Love (1990).[82] His English-language version of "Besame mucho" from My Life for a Song received a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1984. The following year he won a Grammy in the same category for his collection of Ernesto Lecuona songs, Always in My Heart (Siempre en mi corazón). (He won a second Grammy the same year for Carmen under the baton of Lorin Maazel.) In 2012, he recorded Songs with Josh Groban, Susan Boyle, and jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr., among others. In 2015, he released a holiday album, My Christmas including duets with Idina Menzel, Jackie Evancho, Placido Domingo Jr., The Piano Guys and others.[83] Since the early 1980s, Domingo has released several Latin albums, including two featuring the music of Mexican songwriter, Agustín Lara. He devoted two more of his albums, Adoro (1982) and 100 años de Mariachi (1999), solely to Mexican music. 100 años de Mariachi, a rancheras collection, went platinum in the United States and gold in Mexico.[81][84] He later recalled that, as a fan of mariachi music since boyhood, the Grammy he won for 100 años de Mariachi was the award that meant the most to him of all he has received.[85] Other of his albums have incorporated music from across Latin America (including Brazil) and Spain. He has also recorded some sacred music, a collection of Argentine tangos, an album of Broadway show tunes, selections from Viennese operettas, and several zarzuelas, as well as zarzuela romanzas and duets. Domingo has appeared as a guest artist on albums by Michael Bolton, Yanni, Santana, Il Volo, Sissel, Jennifer Rush and Katherine Jenkins. Appearances on film and television[edit] See also: Plácido Domingo discography § Filmography Domingo has starred in several opera films. His three theatrical released opera movies from the 1980s received significant awards and recognitions, including Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. Zeffirelli's La Traviata and Otello both received Academy Award nominations, and the soundtracks ofLa Traviata and Rosi's Carmen won Grammy Awards for the Best Opera Recording of the year. Domingo has also made various opera films for television, includingJean-Pierre Ponnelle's Madama Butterfly with Mirella Freni, Gianfranco de Bosio's Tosca with Raina Kabaivanska, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's Tosca with Catherine Malfitano (Emmy Award),[86] Franco Zeffirelli's Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, and more recently, Marco Bellocchio's Rigoletto a Mantova (it). Domingo at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 Over the course of decades, he has sung in numerous Live from the Metropolitan Opera telecasts and Met radio broadcasts. He has also appeared often in televised performances from other opera houses. In 1978, he starred in the La Scala production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut that marked the house debut of Hungarian soprano Sylvia Sass. In addition, many of his concerts and zarzuela evenings have been televised. Beyond his filmed opera and concert performances, he has frequently made guest appearances on television. Domingo appeared on The Cosby Show Season 5 as Alberto Santiago, a colleague of Dr. Cliff Huxtable.[87] In 1989, the international television series Return Journey featured Domingo returning to his home city of Madrid reflecting on life there whilst recording an album of Zarzuela arias for EMI. On the 1993 Academy Awards telecast, he performed the song, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul," from the movie The Mambo Kings, which had received a nomination for Best Original Song. The tenor was the first Spaniard to perform at an Academy Awards ceremony. He had previously presented the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with Faye Dunaway at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985. Domingo was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed 1998 Mexican film The Other Conquest, produced by his son Alvaro and directed by Salvador Carrasco, in which Domingo also sang the original aria "Mater Aeterna", composed by Samuel Zyman with lyrics by Carrasco. He was also heard performing the song "In Pace", during the closing credits ofKenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996). In 2008, Domingo provided the voice of the long-haired Chihuahua named Montezuma inDisney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua. He also appeared as Manolo's great-grandfather in the animated film The Book of Life in 2014. Christmas in Vienna[edit] Further information: Christmas in Vienna (album), Christmas in Vienna II, Christmas in Vienna III and Christmas in Vienna VI In December 1992, Domingo collaborated with fellow operatic tenor and friend José Carreras and pop music legend Diana Ross in a televised Christmas-themed concert. Vienna was chosen to host the event due to its reputation as a capital of music and the particular charm of Austria during Christmas time. The Wiener Symphoniker under the direction of maestro Vjekoslav Šutej provided the orchestral music, and the Gumpoldskirchen Children's Choir provided choral vocals. On 23 December 1992, the first in what would turn out to be a series of Christmas in Vienna concerts was seen worldwide by several hundred million people. Plácido Domingo returned to Vienna for many more Christmas in Vienna concerts, performing with stars and friends of both pop and classical music, including Dionne Warwick, Charles Aznavour, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church, Natalie Cole, Riccardo Cocciante, Patricia Kaas, Luciano Pavarotti,Tony Bennett and others. Cultural references[edit] By the 1980s and 1990s, popular cultural forms, especially television programs, began to reference Domingo, often as a prototypical opera singer or as part of the influential Three Tenors.[88] In 1987 Sesame Street, a U.S. children's television show that has been on the air since 1969, introduced a puppet character named after Domingo. In the series, Placido Flamingo was a pink singing bird who appeared regularly on "Live from the Nest" (a play on "Live from the Met") telecasts from the Nestropolitan Opera. In the 1989 special "Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting", Domingo appeared with his namesake puppet, singing "Look through the Window" together.[89] The show never revived the character after the puppeteer, Richard Hunt, who provided the voice for Placido Flamingo, died in early 1992.[90]Similarly, in the 2009 Australian-Canadian cartoon comedy Pearlie, the father of a family of opera singing fleas is named Placido. Although not opera related, one of the Three Emperors (a take-off on the Three Tenors) in the original Japanese version of the anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (2008-2011), is also named after the singer. In 2007, Domingo had a cameo role on The Simpsons, the longest running American scripted prime time television series and winner of over thirty Emmy Awards. He provided the voice for an animated version of himself in the episode "Homer of Seville", which revolves around Homer Simpson becoming an opera singer. After an opera performance, Homer chats with Domingo, who tells him to call him "P. Dingo" (a play on "P. Diddy") and asks him for singing advice. Although not providing voice-overs, he was also an animated character in a 1995 episode ("Three Tenors and You're Out") of the Warner Brothers children's cartoon, Animaniacs, and a 1999 episode ("Censoring Problems: The Three Stooges vs. The Three Tenors") of MTV's violent comedy, Celebrity Deathmatch. At the Washington National Opera on 14 April 2007 after a performance ofDie Walküre, his most frequently performed German opera Domingo, along with Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras, loosely inspired the 2001 biting English-language film, Off Key, by Spanish director Manuel Gómez Pereira.[91][92] The movie's leading character, Ricardo Palacios (played by Joe Mantegna), is a Spanish tenor with vague ties to Mexico, who plays the piano, conducts, seeks celebrity outside of the opera world, and is proud of his Otello. Like Domingo, he discovers new operatic talents, sings duets with pop singers, and performs mariachi music and tangos. The farcical plot, however, has nothing in common with actual occurrences in the lives of Domingo or his colleagues.[92] The movie was the most expensive production in Spain's cinematic history to that point.[93] American author Elizabeth George references Domingo in one of her series of mystery novels about the fictional Inspector Lynley,This Body of Death (2010). In the book, Meredith's young daughter is an enthusiastic fan of Plácido Domingo and has the detective read to her from an unauthorized biography of the singer. The real-life Domingo was also mentioned as part of a running gag on the 1996 Seinfeld episode, "The Doll". Seinfeld was the second highest rated series on U.S. television at the time. He was also referenced several times throughout the sitcom series Everybody Loves Raymond as Raymond's mother, Marie's, favorite opera singer. In addition, the tenor has appeared on the cover of several opera-related books, as a key representative of the musical genre. Such mainstream allusions to Domingo illustrate his atypically widespread fame and cultural influence as an opera singer. His integration both as an actual performer and as an "image" into popular as well as high culture was so significant by 2011, Spanish author Rubén Amón wrote a book, Plácido Domingo: Un coloso en el teatro del mundo, specifically analyzing the singer as a cultural and sociological phenomenon.[88][94] Repertoire[edit] Main article: Repertoire of Plácido Domingo Domingo has sung 146 roles in Italian, French, German, English, Spanish and Russian.[95] His main repertoire however is Italian (Otello; Cavaradossi in Tosca; Don Carlo; Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut; Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West; Radames in Aida); French (Don José in Carmen; Samson in Samson and Delilah; Hoffmann in Les Contes d'Hoffmann); and German (Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Siegmund in Die Walküre). He has appeared in more operas by Giuseppe Verdi than any other composer. Domingo has created original roles in eight world premieres of operas, Vásquez's El último sueño, Moreno Torroba's El poeta, Menotti's Goya,García Abril's Divinas palabras, Cano's Luna, Drattell's Nicholas and Alexandra, Tan Dun's The First Emperor, and Catán's Il Postino, as well as one pasticcio, The Enchanted Island. He also performed in the U.S. premieres of Don Rodrigo and Cyrano de Bergerac. He continues to add more roles to his repertoire, most recently performing as Schicchi in Puccini's one-act opera Gianni Schicchi in September 2015. After taking on baritone roles, he sang Conte Di Luna in Il Trovatore, an opera in which he previously performed as Manrico, a tenor role. Awards and honors[edit] Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Plácido Domingo Plácido Domingo has received many awards and honors for his achievement in the field of music and in recognition of his many benefit concerts and contributions to various charities. In 1978, when Domingo was only 37, the city of Madrid dedicated a commemorative plaque at his birthplace at 34 Calle Ibiza near the Buen Retiro Park.[8] The singer won his first Grammy Award in 1971 and has gone on to win eight more, as well as five Latin Grammy awards including an award for Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.[96] A Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera and the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates, he has received other major awards that include being made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002. He has also received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (1992);[97] Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2007);[98] Commander of the French Légion d'honneur; Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle; Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Arts (1991); the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom; and in 2011, aMedal of Honour from Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman.[99] The first Birgit Nilsson Prize was awarded to him in 2009. In 2012, Domingo was voted into Gramophone's first Hall of Fame.[100] Humanitarian works and initiatives[edit] A statue of Domingo in Mexico City in recognition of his contributions to1985 Mexico City earthquakevictims and his artistic works Domingo at the 30 year commemoration of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Domingo has been heavily involved in humanitarian efforts and volunteerism. He has given many benefit concerts for disaster relief, charities, and musical organizations, as well as served in various voluntary positions in the artistic and sports worlds. In 1986, Domingo performed at several benefit concerts to raise funds for the victims of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. He also released an album of one of the events for charity. On 21 August 2007, in recognition of his support of the earthquake victims, as well as his artistic works, a statue in his honor was unveiled. It was made in Mexico City from keys donated by the people. The statue, the work of Alejandra Zúñiga, is two meters tall, weighs about 300 kg (660 lbs) and is part of the "Grandes valores" (Great values) program.[101][102] Since the earthquake, Domingo has continued to do charitable work in Mexico and other countries. After Hurricane Paulineravaged the Pacific coast of Southern Mexico in 1997, he gave two charity concerts in Acapulco to raise money to build 150 new houses for those made homeless by the storm.[103] In December 2003, he performed in Cancún to benefit the Ciudad de la Alegria Foundation, which provides assistance and lodging to people in need, including low-income individuals, orphans, expectant mothers, immigrants, rehabilitated legal offenders, and the terminally ill.[104] Outside of Mexico, Domingo andKatherine Jenkins performed in a charity concert in Athens on 27 June 2007 to raise funds to aid victims of the conflict in Darfur. The concert was organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). On 4 March 2006, Domingo sang at the New Orleans Opera Association's Gala Benefit Concert, "A Night For New Orleans", to help rebuild the city after it was partially destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Before the gala, he made the encouraging statement: "MUSIC IS THE VOICE OF HOPE!".[105] Operalia winner Elizabeth Futral and several other popular opera singers appeared with the tenor. The Gala collected $700,000 for the city recovery fund.[106] On 23 March 2008, the New Orleans City Council named the city theatre's stage in the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in Louis Armstrong Park the "Plácido Domingo stage", in honour of his contribution at the Gala Benefits Concert.[106] Early the following year, Domingo performed with the New Orleans Opera in a gala reopening the theatre. At the time he told the press, "The restoration of New Orleans' Mahalia Jackson Theater is a symbol of new life for the city following the devastation of 2005, but in these difficult economic times, it is also a symbol of hope and faith in the future on the part of a forward-looking artistic organization."[107] In June 2010 Domingo became President of Europa Nostra, the Voice of Cultural Heritage in Europe, which helps to promote European high culture. The following year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter invited Domingo to join a council intended to clean up the soccer governing body, which had been accused of taking bribes from countries that wanted to stage the World Cup.[108]Domingo has also supported environmental efforts. In 2007, he joined several other preeminent figures in entertainment, government, the environment and more, as one of the users of the BMW Hydrogen 7, designed to build support for hydrogen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels.[109] Domingo also supports the Hear the World initiative as an ambassador to raise awareness for the topic of hearing and hearing loss.[110] Operalia and young artists programs[edit] Domingo has especially tried to aid the development of young opera singers' careers. In 1993 he founded Operalia, The World Opera Competition, an international opera competition for talented young singers. The winners get the opportunity to be employed in opera ensembles around the world.[111] Several leading opera singers of recent years have won prizes in the competition, including Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Erwin Schrott, Giuseppe Filianoti, and José Cura. In particular, Domingo has performed frequently with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, who won three prizes at the 1999 Operalia competition. Beyond Operalia, Domingo has been instrumental in giving many young artists encouragement and special attention, as in 2001, when he invited the so-called "Singing Policeman", New York tenorDaniel Rodríguez, to attend the Vilar-Domingo Young Artists program to develop his operatic skills. In addition to the Vilar-Domingo Young Artists Program in Washington, D.C., Domingo has also started programs to train young opera singers at the Los Angeles Opera and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. Writings[edit] Date Title Publisher ISBN Pages Author(s) Sept 1983 My First Forty Years Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 0-394-52329-6 256 Plácido Domingo 1983 Jacqueline du Pré: Impressions Vanguard Press ISBN 0814908675 141 William Wordsworth (editor), Plácido Domingo (chapter "Musicality Comes First") Dec 1994 Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera Hyperion ISBN 0-7868-8025-2 494 Fred Plotkin, Plácido Domingo (intro) July 1997 Christmas With Plácido Domingo: Trumpets Sound And Angels Sing Alfred Publishing Company ISBN 0-89524-321-0 80 Plácido Domingo, Milton Okun (editor) July 1997 Bajo el cielo español (Under the Spanish Sky) Warner Brothers Publications ISBN 0-7692-0024-9 84 Plácido Domingo (Recorder), Carol Cuellar (Compiler) March 1999 Plácido Domingo — Por Amor Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 0-7119-7258-3 104 Plácido Domingo Jan 2003 The Zarzuela Companion Scarecrow Press ISBN 0810844478 352 Christopher Webber, Plácido Domingo (foreword) March 2003 Plácido Domingo (Great Voices Series): My Operatic Roles Baskerville Publishers, Incorporated ISBN 1-880909-61-8 319 Helena Matheopoulos, Plácido Domingo March 2007 Leoncavallo: Life and Works Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc ISBN 0-8108-5873-8 ISBN 0-8108-5880-0 349 351 Konrad Claude Dryden, Plácido Domingo (intro) Dec 2007 So When Does the Fat Lady Sing? Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN 1-57467-162-6 173 Michael Walsh, Plácido Domingo (intro) See also[edit]     Lorin Varencove Maazel (March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. Making his debut at the conducting podium at the age of eight, he embarked on his career in earnest in 1953, establishing a reputation in European concert halls by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. However, he would later be appointed music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic (NYP), among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age.[1] Contents   [hide]  ·       1Early life ·       2Career ·       3Honors ·       4Notable recordings ·       5References ·       6External links Early life[edit] Maazel was born to Jewish American parents of Russian origin in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in the city of Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.[2] His father, Lincoln Maazel (1903–2009),[3] was a singer, teacher of voice and piano, and an actor (he co-starred inGeorge A. Romero's 1977 horror movie Martin); and his mother, Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel (1894–1992),[4] founded the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.[5] His grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years. Both Lincoln and Marie gave interviews for the Oral History Collection at the University of Pittsburgh, Lincoln's in 1994, and Marie's in 1974. These can be heard online.[6] Maazel was a child prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at age seven with Vladimir Bakaleinikov and making his debut at age eight. At the age of eleven, he guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio. At twelve he toured the United States of America to conduct major orchestras. He made his violin debut at the age of fifteen. He attended the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School[7] at the University of Pittsburgh as a child, followed by Peabody High School and theUniversity of Pittsburgh.[8][9][10] Maazel studied briefly with Pierre Monteux in 1945.[11] Career[edit] In the early 1950s, Maazel toured as the conductor with the Gershwin Concert Orchestra. The orchestra consisted of 25 members and a noted array of soloists. The orchestra was organized in cooperation with Ira Gershwin, to give the public a comprehensive Gershwin program. The list of soloists included George Gershwin's friend, Jesús Maria Sanromá, Carolyn Long and Theodor Uppman.[12] In 1960, Maazel became the first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. He was chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1965 to 1971 and theRadio-Symphonie-Orchester (RSO) Berlin from 1964 to 1975. In 1972, Maazel began his tenure as music director at the Cleveland Orchestra, succeeding George Szell. Maazel's emotional, rich interpretation of music greatly differed from Szell's characteristic crisp, defined precision in performance.[citation needed] A notable achievement during this time was the first complete recording ofGeorge Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, using an all-African American cast (except for the chorus). Maazel held the post until 1982. He never returned to the Cleveland Orchestra after his departure, although a scheduled engagement in 2006 did not occur because of illness.[13] In 1977, he became music director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris, a position he held until 1991. From 1982 to 1984, Maazel served at the Vienna State Opera as general manager and principal conductor. In 1980, he succeeded Willi Boskovsky as conductor at the Vienna New Year's Concert and he led this televised annual event each year, until 1986. He returned to it four times: in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2005. From 1984 to 1988, Maazel was the music consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and its music director from 1988 to 1996. From 1993 until 2002, he was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. In 1989, expecting – but failing – to become successor to Herbert von Karajan as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Maazel suddenly and publicly severed all connections with the orchestra when it was announced that Claudio Abbado was to take over. He claimed that his decision was because he was concerned for the orchestra's well-being.[14] In 2000, Maazel made a guest-conducting appearance with the New York Philharmonic in two weeks of subscription concerts after an absence of over twenty years,[15] which met with positive reaction from the orchestra musicians.[16] This engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestra's next music director, starting in 2002, succeeding Kurt Masur.[17][18] Maazel conducted the New York Philharmonic on their landmark visit to Pyongyang, North Korea on February 26, 2008. He led the orchestra in renditions of the North Korean and United States national anthems, Dvořák's New World Symphony, George Gershwin's An American in Paris, and closed with the traditional Korean folk song "Arirang". Maazel stepped down from the New York Philharmonic after the 2008/09 season. In 2004, Maazel became the music director of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic. From September 2006 till March 2011, he was the musical director of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, the house orchestra of the opera house Palau de les Arts, Valencia, Spain. His last concert there as Music Director took place on his 81st birthday on March 6, 2011, conducting his only opera 1984. In March 2010, Maazel was named chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, effective with the 2012/13 season.[19] Early in 2014, Maazel cancelled concert engagements as a result of ill health. Subsequently, in June 2014, he announced his resignation as music director of the Munich Philharmonic with immediate effect.[20] Maazel conducted the music for three operatic films, Don Giovanni (1979), Carmen (1984) and Otello (1986). His own compositions included a poorly reviewed opera,1984, based on the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.[21] He was depicted conducting Vienna's New Year concert on an Austrian postage stamp issued in 2005.[22] Maazel and his wife, Dietlinde Turban together operated a summer music festival called Castleton Festival at their Castleton, Virginia 600-acre (2.4 km2) estate, Castleton Farms.[23] Maazel arranged Wagner's Ring Cycle into a 70-minute suite, The 'Ring' Without Words, which he recorded in 1987 with the Berlin Philharmonic. Maazel's catalogue contained over 300 recordings of works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Schubert, Richard Strauss and others. He earned 10 Grand Prix du Disque awards.[21] Maazel died on July 13, 2014, at his Castleton Farms estate in Virginia, from complications of pneumonia. He was survived by his daughters Anjali Maazel and Daria Maazel Steketee; son Ilann Maazel and daughter Fiona Maazel; his wife, Dietlinde Turban Maazel, their sons Orson and Leslie, and their daughter Tara, and four grandchildren, Kiran, Owen, Calypso, and Sahara. Honors[edit] Maazel was a Commander of the Légion d'honneur of the French Republic and of the Finnish Order of the Lion. He was decorated with the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany. On 27 May 2013, he received an honorary membership of the Vienna State Opera and the "Groszes Goldenes Verdienstkreuz" ofAustria. Maazel received the Italian Premio Abbiati and was an Honorary Life Member of the Israel Philharmonic. In addition, he was a Kentucky Colonel.[24] Notable recordings[edit] ·       George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus featuring soloists Leona Mitchell, Willard White, Florence Quivar, Barbara Hendricks, François Clemmons, McHenry Boatwright, Arthur Thompson, Barbara Conrad, et al. (Decca) ·       Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, with the Cleveland Orchestra (Decca) ·       Georges Bizet: Carmen, with the Orchestre National de France and the Radio France Chorus, featuring soloists Julia Migenes (soprano), Plácido Domingo(tenor), Faith Esham (soprano), Ruggero Raimondi (bass-baritone), Lillian Watson (soprano), Susan Daniel (mezzo-soprano), et al. (Erato New DVD CDR10530) ·       Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (1–9), with the Cleveland Orchestra (CBS); ·       Sergei Rachmaninoff: Complete symphonies (1–3), Isle of the Dead, and The Rock, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. (Deutsche Grammophon 419314) ·       Jean Sibelius: Complete symphonies (1–7), with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. (Decca 430778) ·       Gustav Mahler: Complete symphonies (1–9 plus the Adagio of Symphony No. 10), with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. (CBS/Sony) ·       Maurice Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges, with the French National Radio Orchestra and the Radio France Chorus, featuring soloists Françoise Ogéas (soprano), Jeannine Collard (alto), Jane Berbié (soprano), Sylvaine Gilma (soprano), Colette Herzog (soprano), Michel Sénéchal (tenor), Heinz Rehfuss (baritone), et al. (DG 423718) ·       Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, with the Cleveland Orchestra ·       Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome, with the Berliner Philharmoniker (DG 138 033) ·       Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Concert Choir, featuring soloists Birgit Nilsson (soprano),James McCracken (tenor), Kurt Böhme (bass), Tom Krause (baritone), Graziella Sciutti (soprano), Donald Grobe (tenor), et al. (Decca 448104) ·       Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) and Night on Bald Mountain (orch. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) with the Cleveland Orchestra (Telarc CD-80042) ·       Andrew Lloyd Webber: Variations with Julian Lloyd Webber (cello) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Philips 420 342) ·       Andrew Lloyd Webber: Requiem with Plácido Domingo, Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kington and the English Chamber Orchestra (EL 270242 1)     The Orchestre national de France (French National Orchestra) is a symphony orchestra based in Paris. Founded in 1934, it has become one of the most prestigious orchestras in France, and of the forerunners of the French orchestral tradition, along with the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris. It has been mostly led by renowned French conductors as permanent or invited conductors during its first decades of existence, among them Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Manuel Rosenthal, Roger Désormière, André Cluytens, Jean Martinon and Charles Munch. It has also been opened progressively to foreign well-known conductors, as Otto Klemperer and Carl Schuricht after the war and, later, Sergiu Celibidache, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, and current musical director Daniele Gatti. It has been recorded, mainly by EMI Records during the years 1960-1980, in the French repertoire, and more recently mainly by Radio France itself, associated with Naïve Records. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France since 1975), the orchestra performs mainly in the Théâtre des Champs-Élyséesfrom where all its concerts are broadcast, and during several tours every season, in France and abroad. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Name ·       2History ·       3The orchestra today ·       4Permanent conductors ·       5See also ·       6References ·       7External links Name[edit] ·       1934-1945 : Orchestre national (National Orchestra) ·       1945-1949 : Orchestre national de la Radiodiffusion française (French Radio National Orchestra) ·       1949-1964 : Orchestre national de la Radio-télévision française or Orchestre national de la RTF (French Radio and Television National Orchestra) ·       1964-1974 : Orchestre national de l'Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française or Orchestre national de l'ORTF (National Orchestra of the French Radio and Television Office) ·       Since 1975 : Orchestre national de France History[edit] The orchestra was founded as the Orchestre national by decree on 18 February 1934, by the French minister of Posts Jean Mistler, as an ensemble of 80 musicians, with Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht as musical director.[1] Most of its musicians are young, and all of them are under exclusive engagements, prohibiting them to play with other orchestras as the orchestra of the Opera. The first concert is played in the Conservatoire de Paris on 13 March 1934, with music by German and French composers.[2] Most of the concerts in the first years are conducted by Inghelbrecht, Roger Désormière and Eugène Bigot. Inghelrecht's assistant conductor at the time is the young Manuel Rosenthal, who also performs regularly. Among other conductors, Arturo Toscanini conducts two concerts in 1935 (19 and 26 November).[3] In 1939, half of the musicians are mobilized in the French army. The other half of the orchestra settles in Rennes between 26 October 1939 and 16 June 1940, when bombings on the city force the orchestra to be disbanded. The Vichy government then recreates the orchestra in March 1941. It is based in Marseilles, without jewish musicians, who are excluded (among them, Clara Haskil's sister, the violinist Jeanne Haskil).[1] The orchestra goes back to Paris from 1 March 1943. After the French Liberation, Inghelbrecht is replaced by Manuel Rosenthal, because of his role under the occupation, and the orchestra is reorganized and placed under the responsibility of the national radio, the Radiodiffusion Nationale, which becomes Radiodiffusion Française on 23 March 1945, Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) on 9 February 1949, then Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française on 27 June 1964, and finally Radio France on 1 January 1975. The name of the orchestra is progressively modified in accordance with these changes in organization. Rosenthal puts back contemporary and French music banned under the German occupation on the programs, and many prestigious conductors known for their ties with the USA and the UK are invited in the years following the war : Roger Désormière, Jean Martinon and André Girard in 1945, Otto Klemperer, Paul Paray, Charles Munch and Paul Kletzki in 1946, Carl Schuricht and Josef Krips in the next few years. The orchestra also starts to become an instrument of cultural prestige for France, with tours in Berlin and London as early as in 1946 and in North America in 1948 (with Charles Munch as conductor). The first official recordings of the orchestra are made with Paul Kletzki in 1947 (Tableaux d'une Exposition by Modest Mussorgsky, in the arrangement by Ravel, and the Boléro by the latter).[1] The orchestra also starts performing many contemporary pieces : Le Soleil des eaux (Pierre Boulez) is premiered by Désormière in 1950 (with the French premiere ofBéla Bartók Divertimento in the same concert), and a few days later Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie is played for the first time in Europe, in Aix-en-Provence.Henri Dutilleux's first symphony is also premiered in 1951. Other major pieces are played for the first time in France by the Orchestre national, and among themWozzeck by Alban Berg (under Jascha Horenstein), and several of Anton Bruckner's and Gustav Mahler's symphonies.[1] In 1952, the permanent conductor Roger Désormière suffers a stroke that left him paralyzed, and is forced to retire. He is not officially replaced during the next eight years, and the orchestra performs under numerous invited conductors. André Cluytens is the most frequent to conduct the orchestra, and,[4] he brings the orchestra to play more of the German repertoire, and leads it during tours in USSR (1959), at the Salzburg Festival (1959) and in the Middle East (1960).[1] The orchestra continues to create numerous contemporary works. The best known of these premieres is on 2 December 1954, for Déserts by Edgar Varèse, combining orchestral and tape parts, under direction of Hermann Scherchen, leading to a scandal among the audience in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées that recalls the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps in 1913. During the 1950s, the orchestra also recorded numerous compositions by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos under his direction, for EMI. Maurice Le Roux is appointed in 1960, and he is the first permanent conductor to hold the title of Musical director. Despite the opening of the Maison de la Radio, the orchestra continues to perform in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The orchestra suffers the competition of the newly founded Orchestre de Paris in 1967, and Charles Munch, frequently invited by the Orchestre national, is appointed as permanent conductor by the new orchestra. For this reason, another renowned French conductor, Jean Martinon, becomes musical director of the Orchestre national in 1968, and he brings back prestigious invited conductors, and records the complete orchestral works by Claude Debussy, and the symphonies by Camille Saint-Saëns. In 1973, Sergiu Celibidache is recruited as premier chef invité (principal invited conductor), but he decides to end his contract in 1975, as a result of a conflict with some of the musicians. In January 1975, the creation of Radio France sees the orchestra renamed Orchestre national de France. A new permanent orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, is also created in 1976, by merging several smaller ensembles. This allows the Orchestre national de France to concentrate on its mission for international prestige, without a permanent conductor but under renowned artists as Leonard Bernstein, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Seiji Ozawa. Only in 1977 is Lorin Maazel appointed as premier chef invité, and he officially becomes musical conductor in 1988. After his successful tenure at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit is appointed musical director in 1991, with a clear mission to strengthen the identity of the orchestra, mainly in the French repertoire. Unfortunately, the public and critics do not appreciate Dutoit's work and the orchestra is criticized for its programs, and for the level of its performances,[5] except under invited conductors as Riccardo Muti and Evgeny Svetlanov. After 10 years under Dutoit, Kurt Masurreplaces him, followed by Daniele Gatti in 2008. On 13 March 2014, the orchestra celebrates its 80th anniversary with a concert conducted by Riccardo Muti. The orchestra will switch its residence to the new Auditorium de la Maison de Radio France at the end of the year. However, it is more and more frequently criticized for its lack of identity, and for the lack of inspiration and the technical irregularities of its performances.[5][6][7] Radio France is currently considering a plan to merge the orchestra with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, in order to reduce costs and strengthen the quality of the orchestra. The orchestra today[edit] Since 1944, the orchestra has been based in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where it occasionally plays in the pit for opera productions. Some concerts are also held in the Olivier Messiaen Auditorium in the Maison de Radio France (formerly known as Maison de la Radio). Radio France records all its concerts. Since September 2008 the music director of the ONF has been Daniele Gatti.[8] Kurt Masur, the previous music director, holds the title of honorary music director. Permanent conductors[edit] ·       1934-1944 Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht (permanent conductor) ·       1944-1947 Manuel Rosenthal (permanent conductor) ·       1947-1952 Roger Désormière (permanent conductor) ·       1951-1960 no permanent conductor ·       1960-1967 Maurice Le Roux (musical director) ·       1968-1973 Jean Martinon (musical director) ·       1973-1975 Sergiu Celibidache (first invited conductor) ·       1975-1977 no permanent conductor ·       1977-1990 Lorin Maazel (first invited conductor, 1977-1988; musical director, 1988-1990) ·       1989-1998 Jeffrey Tate (first invited conductor) ·       1991-2001 Charles Dutoit (musical director) ·       2002-2008 Kurt Masur (musical director) ·       2008–present Daniele Gatti (musical director)     Carmen (French pronunciation: ​[kaʁmɛn]; Spanish: [ˈkarmen]) is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875 and was not well received, largely due to its breaking of convention and controversial main characters, which shocked and scandalized its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, and therefore was unaware of its outstanding success in Vienna later that year, or that it would win enduring international acclaim within the next ten years.[1] Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon;[1][2] the "Habanera" from act 1 and the "Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsyCarmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen's love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent. Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883; thereafter it rapidly acquired celebrity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The music of Carmen has since been widely acclaimed for brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere, and orchestration, and for the skill with which Bizet musically represented the emotions and suffering of his characters. After the composer's death, the score was subject to significant amendment, including the introduction of recitative in place of the original dialogue; there is no standard edition of the opera, and different views exist as to what versions best express Bizet's intentions. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, and the story has been the subject of many screen and stage adaptations. Contents   [hide]  ·       1Background ·       2Roles ·       3Synopsis ·       4Creation o   4.1Writing history o   4.2Characterisation ·       5Performance history o   5.1Assembling the cast o   5.2Premiere and initial run o   5.3Early revivals o   5.4Worldwide success ·       6Music ·       7Musical numbers ·       8Recordings and film treatment ·       9References ·       10External links Background[edit] Prosper Mérimée, whose novella Carmen of 1845 inspired the opera In the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capital's two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent.[3] Bizet's professional relationship with Léon Carvalho, manager of the independent Théâtre Lyrique company, enabled him to bring to the stage two full-scale operas, Les pêcheurs de perles (1863) and La jolie fille de Perth (1867), but neither enjoyed much public success.[4][5] When artistic life in Paris resumed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Bizet found wider opportunities for the performance of his works; his one-act opera Djamileh opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872. Although this failed and was withdrawn after 11 performances,[6] it led to a further commission from the theatre, this time for a full-length opera for which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy would provide the libretto.[7] Halévy, who had written the text for Bizet's student opera Le docteur Miracle (1856), was a cousin of Bizet's wife, Geneviève;[8] he and Meilhac had a solid reputation as the librettists of many of Jacques Offenbach's operettas.[9] Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in "the absolute certainty of having found my path".[7] The subject of the projected work was a matter of discussion between composer, librettists and the Opéra-Comique management; Adolphe de Leuven, on behalf of the theatre, made several suggestions that were politely rejected. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen.[10] Mérimée's story is a blend of travelogue and adventure yarn, possibly inspired by the writer's lengthy travels in Spain in 1830, and had originally been published in 1845 in the journal Revue des deux Mondes.[11] It may have been influenced in part by Alexander Pushkin's 1824 poem "The Gypsies",[12] a work Mérimée had translated into French;[n 1] it has also been suggested that the story was developed from an incident told to Mérimée by his friend the Countess Montijo.[11] Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years.[14] Roles[edit] Galli-Marié as Carmen Role Voice type Premiere cast, 3 March 1875 Conductor: Adolphe Deloffre[15] Carmen, A Gypsy Girl mezzo-soprano Célestine Galli-Marié Don José, Corporal of Dragoons tenor Paul Lhérie Escamillo, Toreador bass-baritone Jacques Bouhy Micaëla, A Village Maiden soprano Marguerite Chapuy Zuniga, Lieutenant of Dragoons bass Eugène Dufriche Moralès, Corporal of Dragoons baritone Edmond Duvernoy Frasquita, Companion of Carmen soprano Alice Ducasse Mercédès, Companion of Carmen mezzo-soprano Esther Chevalier Lillas Pastia, an innkeeper spoken M. Nathan Le Dancaïre, smuggler baritone Pierre-Armand Potel Le Remendado, smuggler tenor Barnolt A guide spoken M. Teste Chorus: Soldiers, young men, cigarette factory girls, Escamillo's supporters, Gypsies, merchants and orange sellers, police, bullfighters, people, urchins. ·       Cast details are as provided by Mina Curtiss (Bizet and his World 1959) from the original piano and vocal score. The stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard.[16] Synopsis[edit] Place: Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills Time: Around 1820 Act 1 A square, in Seville. On the right, a door to the tobacco factory. At the back, a bridge. On the left, a guardhouse. A group of soldiers relaxes in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on the passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears, seeking José. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later. José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante"). Lithograph of act 1 in the premiere performance, by Pierre-Auguste Lamy, 1875 As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence. As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). He reads that his mother wants him to return home and marry Micaëla, who retreats in shy embarrassment on learning this. Just as José declares that he is ready to heed his mother's wishes, the women stream from the factory in great agitation. Zuniga, the officer of the guard, learns that Carmen has attacked a woman with a knife. When challenged, Carmen answers with mocking defiance ("Tra la la... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi"); Zuniga orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with a seguidilla, in which she sings of a night of dancing and passion with her lover—whoever that may be—in Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. José is arrested for dereliction of duty. Act 2 Lillas Pastia's Inn A month has passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from a month's detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away. When only Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès remain, the smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and reveal their plans to dispose of some recently acquired contraband ("Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercédès are keen to help them, but Carmen refuses, since she wishes to wait for José. After the smugglers leave, José arrives. Carmen treats him to a private exotic dance ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... La la la"), but her song is joined by a distant bugle call from the barracks. When José says he must return to duty, she mocks him, and he answers by showing her the flower that she threw to him in the square ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Unconvinced, Carmen demands he shows his love by leaving with her. José refuses to desert, but as he prepares to depart, Zuniga enters looking for Carmen. He and José fight, and are separated by the returning smugglers, who restrain Zuniga. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne"). Act 3 Magdalena Kožená andJonas Kaufmann at theSalzburg Festival 2012 A wild spot in the mountains Carmen and José enter with the smugglers and their booty ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"); Carmen has now become bored with José and tells him scornfully that he should go back to his mother. Frasquita and Mercédès amuse themselves by reading their fortunes from the cards; Carmen joins them and finds that the cards are foretelling her death, and José's. The women depart to suborn the customs officers who are watching the locality. José is placed on guard duty. Micaëla enters with a guide, seeking José and determined to rescue him from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. José's pleasure at meeting the bullfighter turns to anger when Escamillo declares his infatuation with Carmen. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). As Escamillo leaves he invites everyone to his next bullfight in Seville. Micaëla is discovered; at first, José will not leave with her despite Carmen's mockery, but he agrees to go when told that his mother is dying. As he departs, vowing he will return, Escamillo is heard in the distance, singing the toreador's song. Act 4 Act 4: A square in Seville A square in Seville. At the back, the walls of an ancient amphitheatre Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd awaiting the arrival of the bullfighters ("Les voici ! Voici la quadrille!"). Escamillo enters with Carmen, and they express their mutual love ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen"). As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita warns Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. Alone, she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi ! C'est moi !"). While he pleads vainly for her to return to him, cheers are heard from the arena. As José makes his last entreaty, Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her and attempts to enter the arena. He then stabs her, and as Escamillo is acclaimed by the crowds, Carmen dies. José kneels and sings "Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"; as the crowd exits the arena, José confesses to killing the woman he loved. Creation[edit] Writing history[edit] Pencil sketch of Ludovic Halévy, who with Henri Meilhac wrote the libretto forCarmen Meilhac and Halévy were a long-standing duo with an established division of labour: Meilhac, who was completely unmusical, wrote the dialogue and Halévy the verses.[15] There is no clear indication of when work began on Carmen.[17] Bizet and the two librettists were all in Paris during 1873 and easily able to meet; thus there is little written record or correspondence relating to the beginning of the collaboration.[18] The libretto was prepared in accordance with the conventions of opéra comique, with dialogue separating musical numbers.[n 2] The libretto deviates from Mérimée's novella in a number of important respects. In the original, events are spread over a much longer period of time, and much of the main story is narrated by José from his prison cell, as he awaits execution for Carmen's murder. Micaëla does not feature in Mérimée's version, and the Escamillo character is peripheral—a picador named Lucas who is only briefly Carmen's grand passion. Carmen has a husband called Garcia, whom José kills during a quarrel.[20] In the novella, Carmen and José are presented much less sympathetically than they are in the opera; biographer Mina Curtiss comments that Mérimée's Carmen, on stage, would have seemed "an unmitigated and unconvincing monster, had her character not been simplified and deepened".[21] With rehearsals due to begin in October 1873, Bizet began composing in or around January of that year, and by the summer had completed the music for the first act and perhaps sketched more. At that point, according to Bizet's biographer Winton Dean, "some hitch at the Opéra-Comique intervened", and the project was suspended for a while.[22] One reason for the delay may have been the difficulties in finding a singer for the title role.[23] Another was a split that developed between the joint directors of the theatre, Camille du Locle and Adolphe de Leuven, over the advisability of staging the work. De Leuven had vociferously opposed the entire notion of presenting so risqué a story in what he considered a family theatre and was sure that audiences would be frightened away. He was assured by Halévy that the story would be toned down, that Carmen's character would be softened, and offset by Micaëla, described by Halévy as "a very innocent, very chaste young girl". Furthermore, the gypsies would be presented as comic characters, and Carmen's death would be overshadowed at the end by "triumphal processions, ballets and joyous fanfares". De Leuven reluctantly agreed, but his continuing hostility towards the project led to his resignation from the theatre early in 1874.[24] Georges Bizet, photograph by Étienne Carjat, 1875 After the various delays, Bizet appears to have resumed work on Carmen early in 1874. He completed the draft of the composition—1,200 pages of music—in the summer, which he spent at the artists' colony at Bougival, just outside Paris. He was pleased with the result, informing a friend: "I have written a work that is all clarity and vivacity, full of colour and melody".[25] During the period of rehearsals, which began in October, Bizet repeatedly altered the music—sometimes at the request of the orchestra who found some of it impossible to perform,[23] sometimes to meet the demands of individual singers, and otherwise in response to the demands of the theatre's management.[26] The vocal score that Bizet published in March 1875 shows significant changes from the version of the score that he sold to the publishers, Choudens, in January 1875; the conducting score used at the premiere differs from each of these documents. There is no definitive edition, and there are differences among musicologists about which version represents the composer's true intentions.[23][27] Bizet also changed the libretto, reordering sequences and imposing his own verses where he felt that the librettists had strayed too far from the character of Mérimée's original.[28] Among other changes, he provided new words for Carmen's "Habanera",[27] and rewrote the text of Carmen's solo in the act 3 card scene. He also provided a new opening line for the "Seguidilla" in act 1.[29] Characterisation[edit] Most of the characters in Carmen—the soldiers, the smugglers, the Gypsy women and the secondary leads Micaëla and Escamillo—are reasonably familiar types within the opéra comique tradition, although drawing them from proletarian life was unusual.[17] The two principals, José and Carmen, lie outside the genre. While each is presented quite differently from Mérimée's portrayals of a murderous brigand and a treacherous, amoral schemer,[21] even in their relatively sanitised forms neither corresponds to the norms of opéra comique. They are more akin to the verismo style that would find fuller expression in the works of Puccini.[30] Dean suggests that José is the central figure of the opera: "It is his fate rather than Carmen's that interests us".[31] The music characterizes his gradual decline, act by act, from honest soldier to deserter, vagabond and finally murderer.[23] In act 1 he is a simple countryman aligned musically with Micaëla; in act 2 he evinces a greater toughness, the result of his experiences as a prisoner, but it is clear that by the end of the act his infatuation with Carmen has driven his emotions beyond control. Dean describes him in act 3 as a trapped animal who refuses to leave his cage even when the door is opened for him, ravaged by a mix of conscience, jealousy and despair. In the final act his music assumes a grimness and purposefulness that reflects his new fatalism: "He will make one more appeal; if Carmen refuses, he knows what to do".[31] Carmen herself, says Dean, is a new type of operatic heroine representing a new kind of love, not the innocent kind associated with the "spotless soprano" school, but something altogether more vital and dangerous. Her capriciousness, fearlessness and love of freedom are all musically represented: "She is redeemed from any suspicion of vulgarity by her qualities of courage and fatalism so vividly realised in the music".[23][32] Curtiss suggests that Carmen's character, spiritually and musically, may be a realisation of the composer's own unconscious longing for a freedom denied to him by his stifling marriage.[33] Harold C. Schonberg likens Carmen to "a female Don Giovanni. She would rather die than be false to herself".[34] The dramatic personality of the character, and the range of moods she is required to express, call for exceptional acting and singing talents. This has deterred some of opera's most distinguished exponents; Maria Callas, though she recorded the part, never performed it on stage.[35] The musicologist Hugh Macdonald observes that "French opera never produced another femme as fatale as Carmen", though she may have influenced some of Massenet's heroines. Macdonald suggests that outside the French repertoire, Richard Strauss's Salome andAlban Berg's Lulu "may be seen as distant degenerate descendants of Bizet's temptress".[36] Bizet was reportedly contemptuous of the music that he wrote for Escamillo: "Well, they asked for ordure, and they've got it", he is said to have remarked about the toreador's song—but, as Dean comments, "the triteness lies in the character, not in the music".[31] Micaëla's music has been criticised for its "Gounodesque" elements, although Dean maintains that her music has greater vitality than that of any of Gounod's own heroines.[37] Performance history[edit] Assembling the cast[edit] The search for a singer-actress to play Carmen began in the summer of 1873. Press speculation favoured Zulma Bouffar, who was perhaps the librettists' preferred choice. She had sung leading roles in many of Offenbach's operas, but she was unacceptable to Bizet and was turned down by du Locle as unsuitable.[38] In September an approach was made to Marie Roze, well known for previous triumphs at the Opéra-Comique, the Opéra and in London. She refused the part when she learned that she would be required to die on stage.[39] The role was then offered to Célestine Galli-Marié, who agreed to terms with du Locle after several months' negotiation.[40] Galli-Marié, a demanding and at times tempestuous performer, would prove a staunch ally of Bizet, often supporting his resistance to demands from the management that the work should be toned down.[41] At the time it was generally believed that she and the composer were conducting a love affair during the months of rehearsal.[17] The leading tenor part of Don José was given to Paul Lhérie, a rising star of the Opéra-Comique who had recently appeared in works by Massenet and Delibes. He would later become a baritone, and in 1887 sang the role of Zurga in the Covent Garden premiere of Les pêcheurs de perles.[42] Jacques Bouhy, engaged to sing Escamillo, was a young Belgian-born baritone who had already appeared in demanding roles such as Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust and as Mozart's Figaro.[43]Marguerite Chapuy, who sang Micaëla, was at the beginning of a short career in which she was briefly a star at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; the impresario James H. Mapleson thought her "one of the most charming vocalists it has been my pleasure to know". However, she married and left the stage altogether in 1876, refusing Mapleson's considerable cash inducements to return.[44] Premiere and initial run[edit] Poster for the premiere performance, by an anonymous artist, 1875 Because rehearsals did not start until October 1874 and lasted longer than anticipated, the premiere was delayed.[45] The final rehearsals went well, and in a generally optimistic mood the first night was fixed for 3 March 1875, the day on which, coincidentally, Bizet's appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour was formally announced.[n 3] The premiere, which was conducted by Adolphe Deloffre, was attended by many of Paris's leading musical figures, including Massenet, Offenbach, Delibes and Gounod;[47] during the performance the last-named was overheard complaining bitterly that Bizet had stolen the music of Micaëla's act 3 aria from him: "That melody is mine!"[48] Halévy recorded his impressions of the premiere in a letter to a friend; the first act was evidently well-received, with applause for the main numbers and numerous curtain calls. The first part of act 2 also went well, but after the toreador's song there was, Halévy noted, "coldness". In act 3 only Micaëla's aria earned applause as the audience became increasingly disconcerted. The final act was "glacial from first to last", and Bizet was left only with the consolations of a few friends.[47] The critic Ernest Newman wrote later that the sentimentalist Opéra-Comique audience was "shocked by the drastic realism of the action" and by the low standing and defective morality of most of the characters.[49] According to the composer Benjamin Godard, Bizet retorted, in response to a compliment, "Don't you see that all these bourgeois have not understood a wretched word of the work I have written for them?"[50] More consolingly, shortly after the work had concluded, Massenet sent Bizet a congratulatory note: "How happy you must be at this time—it's a great success!".[51] The general tone of the next day's press reviews ranged from disappointment to outrage. The more conservative critics complained about "Wagnerism" and the subordination of the voice to the noise of the orchestra.[52] There was consternation that the heroine was an amoral seductress rather than a woman of virtue;[53] Galli-Marié's interpretation of the role was described by one critic as "the very incarnation of vice".[52] Others compared the work unfavourably with the traditional Opéra-Comique repertoire of Auber andBoieldieu. Léon Escudier in L'Art Musical called Carmen's music "dull and obscure ... the ear grows weary of waiting for the cadence that never comes".[54] It seemed that Bizet had generally failed to fulfill expectations, both of those who (given Halévy's and Meilhac's past associations) had expected something in the Offenbach mould, and of critics such as Adolphe Jullien who had anticipated a Wagnerian music drama. Among the few supportive critics was the poet Théodore de Banville; writing in Le National, he applauded Bizet for presenting a drama with real men and women instead of the usual Opéra-Comique "puppets".[55] In its initial run at the Opéra-Comique, Carmen provoked little public enthusiasm; it shared the theatre for a while with Verdi's much more popular Requiem.[56]Carmen was often performed to half-empty houses, even when the management gave away large numbers of tickets.[23] Early on 3 June, the day after the opera's 33rd performance, Bizet died suddenly of heart disease, at the age of 36. It was his wedding anniversary. That night's performance was cancelled; the tragic circumstances brought a temporary increase in public interest during the brief period before the season ended.[17] Du Locle brought Carmen back in November 1875, with the original cast, and it ran for a further 12 performances until 15 February 1876 to give a year's total for the original production of 48.[57] Among those who attended one of these later performances was Tchaikovsky, who wrote to his benefactor, Nadezhda von Meck: "Carmen is a masterpiece in every sense of the word ... one of those rare creations which expresses the efforts of a whole musical epoch".[58] After the final performance, Carmen was not seen in Paris again until 1883.[23] Early revivals[edit] Many distinguished artistes sang the role of Carmen in early productions of the opera. Shortly before his death Bizet signed a contract for a production of Carmen by the Vienna Court Opera. For this version, first staged on 23 October 1875, Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the original dialogue with recitatives, to create a "grand opera" format. Guiraud also reorchestrated music from Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite to provide a spectacular ballet for Carmen's second act.[59]However, just before the initial Vienna performance the Court Opera's director Franz von Jauner decided to use parts of the original dialogue along with some of Guiraud's recitatives; this hybrid and the full recitative version became the norms for productions of the opera outside France for most of the next century.[60] Despite its deviations from Bizet's original format, and some critical reservations, the 1875 Vienna production was a great success with the city's public, and won praise from both Wagner and Brahms. The latter reportedly saw the opera 20 times, and said that he would have "gone to the ends of the earth to embrace Bizet".[59] The Viennese triumph began the opera's rapid ascent towards worldwide fame. In February 1876 it began a run in Brussels at La Monnaie; it returned there the following year, with Galli-Marié in the title role, and thereafter became a permanent fixture in the Brussels repertory. On 17 June 1878 Carmen was produced in London, atHer Majesty's Theatre, where Minnie Hauk began her long association with the part of Carmen. A parallel London production at Covent Garden, with Adelina Patti, was cancelled when Patti withdrew. The successful Her Majesty's production, sung in Italian, had an equally enthusiastic reception in Dublin. On 23 October 1878 the opera received its American premiere, at the New York Academy of Music, and in the same year was introduced to Saint Petersburg.[57] In the following five years performances were given in numerous American and European cities, the opera finding particular favour in Germany, where the Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, apparently saw it on 27 different occasions and where Friedrich Nietzsche opined that he "became a better man when Bizet speaks to me".[61][62] Carmen was also acclaimed in numerous French provincial cities including Marseille, Lyon and, in 1881, Dieppe, where Galli-Marié returned to the role. In August 1881 the singer wrote to Bizet's widow to report that Carmen's Spanish premiere, in Barcelona, had been "another great success".[63]But Carvalho, who had assumed the management of the Opéra-Comique, thought the work immoral and refused to reinstate it. Meilhac and Hálevy were more prepared to countenance a revival, provided that Galli-Marié had no part in it; they blamed her interpretation for the relative failure of the opening run.[62] In April 1883 Carvalho finally revived Carmen at the Opéra-Comique, with Adèle Isaac featuring in an under-rehearsed production that removed some of the controversial aspects of the original. Carvalho was roundly condemned by the critics for offering a travesty of what had come to be regarded as a masterpiece of French opera; nevertheless, this version was acclaimed by the public and played to full houses. In October Carvalho yielded to pressure and revised the production; he brought back Galli-Marié, and restored the score and libretto to their 1875 forms.[64] Worldwide success[edit] Carmen at the New York Met in 1915; a publicity photograph that shows the three principal stars:Geraldine Farrar, Enrico Caruso andPasquale Amato On 9 January 1884 Carmen was given its first New York Metropolitan Opera performance, to a mixed critical reception. The New York Times welcomed Bizet's "pretty and effective work", but compared Zelia Trebelli's interpretation of the title role unfavourably with that of Minnie Hauk. Thereafter Carmen was quickly incorporated into the Met's regular repertory. In February 1906 Enrico Caruso sang José at the Met for the first time; he continued to perform in this role until 1919, two years before his death.[65] On 17 April 1906, on tour with the Met, he sang the role at the Grand Opera House in San Francisco. Afterwards he sat up until 3 am reading the reviews in the early editions of the following day's papers.[66] Two hours later he was awakened by the first violent shocks of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, after which he and his fellow performers made a hurried escape from the Palace Hotel.[67] The popularity of Carmen continued through succeeding generations of American opera-goers; by the beginning of 2011 the Met alone had performed it almost a thousand times.[65] It enjoyed similar success in other American cities and in all parts of the world, in many different languages.[68] The toreador's song "Votre toast" from act 2 has become one of the most popular and best-known of all operatic arias,[69] "a splendid piece of swagger" according to Newman, "against which the voices and the eyebrows of purists have long been raised in vain".[70] Most of the productions outside France followed the example created in Vienna and incorporated lavish ballet interludes and other spectacles, a practice which Mahler abandoned in Vienna when he revived the work there in 1900.[49] In 1919 Bizet's then-aged contemporary Camille Saint-Saëns was still complaining about the "strange idea" of adding a ballet, which he considered "a hideous blemish in that masterpiece", and he wondered why Bizet's widow, at that time still living, permitted it.[71] At the Opéra-Comique, after its 1883 revival, Carmen was always presented in the dialogue version with minimal musical embellishments.[72] By 1888, the year of the 50th anniversary of Bizet's birth, the opera had been performed there 330 times;[68] by 1938, his centenary year, the total of performances at the theatre had reached 2,271.[73] However, outside France the practice of using recitatives remained the norm for many years; the Carl Rosa Opera Company's 1947 London production, and Walter Felsenstein's 1949 staging at the Berlin Komische Oper, are among the first known instances in which the dialogue version was used other than in France.[72][74] Neither of these innovations led to much change in practice; a similar experiment was tried at Covent Garden in 1953 but hurriedly withdrawn, and the first American production with spoken dialogue, in Colorado in 1953, met with a similar fate.[72] Dean has commented on the dramatic distortions that arise from the suppression of the dialogue; the effect, he says, is that the action moves forward "in a series of jerks, rather instead of by smooth transition", and that most of the minor characters are substantially diminished.[72][75] Only late in the 20th century did dialogue versions become common in opera houses outside France, but there is still no universally recognised full score. Fritz Oeser's 1964 edition is an attempt to fill this gap, but in Dean's view is unsatisfactory. Oeser reintroduces material removed by Bizet during the first rehearsals, and ignores many of the late changes and improvements that the composer made immediately before the first performance;[23] he thus, according to Susan McClary, "inadvertently preserves as definitive an early draft of the opera".[27] In the early 21st century new editions were prepared by Robert Didion and Richard Langham-Smith, published by Schott and Peters respectively.[76] Each departs significantly from Bizet's vocal score of March 1875, published during his lifetime after he had personally corrected the proofs; Dean believes that this vocal score should be the basis of any standard edition.[23] Lesley Wright, a contemporary Bizet scholar, remarks that, unlike his compatriotsRameau and Debussy, Bizet has not been accorded a critical edition of his principal works;[77] should this transpire, she says, "we might expect yet another scholar to attempt to refine the details of this vibrant score which has so fascinated the public and performers for more than a century".[76] Meanwhile, Carmen's popularity endures; according to Macdonald: "The memorability of Bizet's tunes will keep the music of Carmen alive in perpetuity", and its status as a popular classic is unchallenged by any other French opera.[36] Music[edit] Carmen sings the "Habanera", act 1 Hervé Lacombe, in his survey of 19th-century French opera, contends that Carmen is one of the few works from that large repertory to have stood the test of time.[78] While he places the opera firmly within the long opéra comique tradition,[79]Macdonald considers that it transcends the genre and that its immortality is assured by "the combination in abundance of striking melody, deft harmony and perfectly judged orchestration".[17] Dean sees Bizet's principal achievement in the demonstration of the main actions of the opera in the music, rather than in the dialogue, writing that "Few artists have expressed so vividly the torments inflicted by sexual passions and jealousy". Dean places Bizet's realism in a different category from the verismo of Puccini and others; he likens the composer to Mozart and Verdi in his ability to engage his audiences with the emotions and sufferings of his characters.[23] Bizet, who had never visited Spain, sought out appropriate ethnic material to provide an authentic Spanish flavour to his music.[23] Carmen's "Habanera" is based on an idiomatic song, "El Arreglito", by the Spanish composer Sebastián Yradier(1809–65).[n 4] Bizet had taken this to be a genuine folk melody; when he learned its recent origin he added a note to the vocal score, crediting Yradier.[81] He used a genuine folksong as the source of Carmen's defiant "Coupe-moi, brûle-moi" while other parts of the score, notably the "Seguidilla", utilise the rhythms and instrumentation associated with flamenco music. However, Dean insists that "[t]his is a French, not a Spanish opera"; the "foreign bodies", while they undoubtedly contribute to the unique atmosphere of the opera, form only a small ingredient of the complete music.[80] Prelude to act 1 (2:05) MENU 0:00 "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ("Habanera") (4:11) MENU 0:00 Courtesy of Musopen Problems playing these files? See media help. The prelude to act 1 combines three recurrent themes: the entry of the bullfighters from act 4, the refrain from theToreador Song from act 2, and the motif that, in two slightly differing forms, represents both Carmen herself and the fate that she personifies.[n 5] This motif, played on clarinet, bassoon, cornet and cellos over tremolo strings, concludes the prelude with an abrupt crescendo.[80][82] When the curtain rises a light and sunny atmosphere is soon established, and pervades the opening scenes. The mock solemnities of the changing of the guard, and the flirtatious exchanges between the townsfolk and the factory girls, precede a mood change when a brief phrase from the fate motif announces Carmen's entrance. After her provocative "Habanera", with its persistent insidious rhythm and changes of key, the fate motif sounds in full when Carmen throws her flower to José before departing.[83] This action elicits from José a passionate A major solo that Dean suggests is the turning-point in his musical characterisation.[31] The softer vein returns briefly, as Micaëla reappears and joins with José in a duet to a warm clarinet and strings accompaniment. The tranquillity is shattered by the women's noisy quarrel, Carmen's dramatic re-entry and her defiant interaction with Zuniga. After her beguiling "Seguidilla" provokes José to an exasperated high A sharp shout, Carmen's escape is preceded by the brief but disconcerting reprise of a fragment from the "Habanera".[80][83] Bizet revised this finale several times to increase its dramatic effect.[27] Toreador Song (4:31) MENU 0:00 Courtesy of Musopen Problems playing this file? See media help. Act 2 begins with a short prelude, based on a melody that José will sing offstage before his next entry.[31] A festive scene in the inn precedes Escamillo's tumultuous entrance, in which brass and percussion provide prominent backing while the crowd sings along.[69] The quintet that follows is described by Newman as "of incomparable verve and musical wit".[84] José's appearance precipitates a long mutual wooing scene; Carmen sings, dances and plays the castanets; a distant cornet-call summoning José to duty is blended with Carmen's melody so as to be barely discernible.[85] A muted reference to the fate motif on an English horn leads to José's "Flower Song", a flowing continuous melody that endspianissimo on a sustained high B-flat.[86] José's insistence that, despite Carmen's blandishments, he must return to duty leads to a quarrel; the arrival of Zuniga, the consequent fight and José's unavoidable ensnarement into the lawless life culminates musically in the triumphant hymn to freedom that closes the act.[69] Entr'acte to act 3 (2:35) MENU 0:00 Courtesy of Musopen The prelude to act 3 was originally intended for Bizet's L'Arlésienne score. Newman describes it as "an exquisite miniature, with much dialoguing and intertwining between the woodwind instruments".[87] As the action unfolds, the tension between Carmen and José is evident in the music. In the card scene, the lively duet for Frasquita and Mercédès turns ominous when Carmen intervenes; the fate motif underlines her premonition of death. Micaëla's aria, after her entry in search of José, is a conventional piece, though of deep feeling, preceded and concluded by horn calls.[88] The middle part of the act is occupied by Escamillo and José, now acknowledged as rivals for Carmen's favour. The music reflects their contrasting attitudes: Escamillo remains, says Newman, "invincibly polite and ironic", while José is sullen and aggressive.[89] When Micaëla pleads with José to go with her to his mother, the harshness of Carmen's music reveals her most unsympathetic side. As José departs, vowing to return, the fate theme is heard briefly in the woodwind.[90] The confident, off-stage sound of the departing Escamillo singing the toreador's refrain provides a distinct contrast to José's increasing desperation.[88] Entr'acte to act 4 (2:06) MENU 0:00 Courtesy of Musopen The brief final act is prefaced with a lively orchestral piece derived from Manuel García's short operetta El Criado Fingido.[80] After the opening crowd scene, the bullfighters' march is led by the children's chorus; the crowd hails Escamillo before his short love scene with Carmen.[91] The long finale, in which José makes his last pleas to Carmen and is decisively rejected, is punctuated at critical moments by enthusiastic off-stage shouts from the bullfighting arena. As José kills Carmen, the chorus sing the refrain of the Toreador Song off-stage; the fate motif, which has been suggestively present at various points during the act, is heard fortissimo, together with a brief reference to Carmen's card scene music.[27] Jose's last words of love and despair are followed by a final long chord, on which the curtain falls without further musical or vocal comment.[92] In 1883 the Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908) wrote a Carmen Fantasy for violin, described as "ingenious and technically difficult".[93]Ferruccio Busoni's 1920 piece, Piano Sonatina No. 6 (Fantasia da camera super Carmen), is based on themes from Carmen.[94] In 1967 the Russian composerRodion Shchedrin adapted parts of the Carmen music into a ballet, the Carmen Suite, written specifically for his wife Maya Plisetskaya, then the Bolshoi Ballet's principal ballerina.[95][96] Musical numbers[edit] Numbers are from the vocal score (English version) printed by G. Schirmer Inc., New York, 1958 from Giraud's 1875 arrangement. Act 1 1.    Prelude (orchestra) 2.    Sur la place chacun passe (Chorus of soldiers, Moralès, Micaëla) 3.    Avec la garde montante (Chorus of urchins, Zuniga) 4.    La cloche a sonné (Chorus of citizens, soldiers, cigarette girls) 5.    Habanera: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle(Carmen, chorus as above) 6.    Carmen! Sur tes pas nous pressons! (Chorus of citizens and cigarette girls) 7.    Parle-moi de ma mère (José, Micaëla) 8.    Que se passe-t-il là-bas? Au secours! Au secours! (Chorus of cigarette girls, soldiers, Zuniga) 9.    Tra-la-la...Coupe-moi, brûle-moi (Carmen, Zuniga, cigarette girls, José) 10. Seguidilla: Près des remparts de Séville (Carmen, José) 11. Finale: Voici l'ordre; partez (Zuniga, Carmen) Entr'acte (orchestra) Act 2 12.  Les tringles des sistres tintaient (Carmen, Mercédès, Frasquita) 13.  Vivat! Vivat le torero! (Chorus of Escamillo's followers, Zuniga, Mercédès, Frasquita, Moralès, Lillas Pastia) 14.  Toreador Song: Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre (Escamillo, Frasquita, Mercédès, Carmen, Moralès, Zuniga, Lillas Pastia, chorus) 15.  Quintette: Nous avons en tête une affaire! (Le Dancaire, le Remendado, Carmen, Frasquita, Mercédès) 16.  Halte-là! Qui va là? (José, Carmen, Mercédès, Frasquita, le Dancaire, le Remendado) 17.  Je vais danser en votre honneur...La fleur que tu m'avais jetée...Non! Tu ne m'aimes pas! (Carmen, José) 18.  Finale: Holà! Carmen! Holà! (Zuniga, José, Carmen, le Dancaire, le Remendado, Mercédès, Frasquita, chorus) Entr'acte (orchestra) Act 3 19.  Écoute, compagnon, écoute (Chorus of smugglers, Mercédès, Frasquita, Carmen, José, le Dancaire, le Remendado) 20.  Mêlons! – Coupons! (Frasquita, Mercédès, Carmen) 21.  Quant au douanier, c'est notre affaire (Frasquita, Mercédès, Carmen, le Dancaire, le Remendado, chorus) 22.  C'est les contrabandiers le refuge ordinaire (Micaëla) 23.  Je suis Escamillo, torero de Grenade! (Escamillo, José) 24.  Finale: Holà holà José! (Carmen, Escamillo, Micaëla, Frasquita, Mercédès, le Dancaire, José, le Remendado, chorus) Entr'acte (orchestra) Act 4 25.  A deux cuartos! (Chorus of citizens, Zuniga, Moralès, Frasquita, Mercédès) 26.  Les voici, voici la quadrille ... Si tu m'aimes, Carmen (Chorus of citizens, children, Escamillo, Carmen, Frasquita, Mercédès) 27.  Finale: C'est toi! – C'est moi! (Carmen, José, chorus)     Bizet's "Carmen" is what movies are all about. It's one of the few modern movies that requires one of those legendary Hollywood advertising men who'd cook up copy like, for example:   WATCH NOW Cheer! As Bizet's towering masterpiece blazes across the screen! Cry bravo! To passion, romance, adventure! From the bullrings of Spain to the innermost recesses of her gypsy heart, Carmen drives men mad and immortalizes herself as a romantic legend! Thrill! To the golden voice of Placido Domingo, and the tempestuous screen debut of the smouldering Julia Migenes-Johnson! The temptation, of course, is to approach a film like this with hushed voice and bended knee, uttering reverent phrases about art and music. But to hell with it: This movie is the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" of opera films, and we might as well not beat around the bush. Carmen is a Latin soap opera if ever there was one, and the sheer passionate joy of Bizet's music is as vulgar as it is sublime, as popular as it is classical. Carmen is one of those operas ideally suited to the movies, and this version byFrancesco Rosi is exciting, involving, and entertaining. You are doubtless already familiar with the music. The sound track was recorded in Paris with Lorin Maazel conducting the National Orchestra of France. Placido Domingo is in great voice, and a relatively unknown American soprano named Julia Migenes-Johnson not only can sing the title role but, perhaps just as importantly, can look it and act it. There is chemistry here, and without the chemistry -- without the audience's belief that the scornful gypsy Carmen could enslave the soldier Don Jose -- there would only be an illustrated sound track. After the recording was completed, the movie was shot on locations in Spain by Francesco Rosi, the Italian director of "Three Brothers" and "Christ Stopped at Eboli". He has discovered lush, sun-drenched villages on hillsides, and a bullring of such stark Spanish simplicity that the ballet within the ring for once seems as elegant as the emotions it is reflecting. He also has found moonlight, rich firelight, deep reds and yellows; colors so glowing that the characters seem to warm themselves at his palette. Opera films are traditionally not successful. They play in festivals, they find a small audience of music lovers, maybe they make some money in Italy. Domingo broke that pattern with his "La Traviata" (1983), directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It had good long runs around the United States, and even broke through to audiences beyond the core of opera lovers. But we Americans are so wary of "culture." Opera for many of us still consists of the fat lady on "The Ed Sullivan Show." And for many of the rest, it is something that inhabits a cultural shrine and must be approached with reverence. Maybe it takes the movies, that most popular of art forms, to break that pattern. Rosi, Domingo, and Migenes-Johnson have filmed a labor of love.                 The tragic fate of the lovely Carmen, a cigar factory worker. She seduces Don José, a brigadier, and in turn lets herself be seduced by Escamillo, a toreador. A tale where love meets death in the afternoon; Georges Bizet's famous opera superbly filmed by Francesco Rosi. A masterpiece in the field of cinema, Francesco Rosi's Carmen is a film adaptation of Georges Bizet's world famous opera. The film encountered great success when it was released in 1984. It was nominated for many awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film in 1985. It is still is a best-seller. It stars Julia Migenes Johnson as Carmen, Plácido Domingo as Don José and Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo. A master of cinema, Francesco Rosi is renowned for the realism of his films. Carmen is no exception: "When I was offered to bring Bizet's masterpiece to the screen, I was terribly tempted and I finally accepted, but only on condition that I would make it as I made my previous films; that is, in intimate terms with the social and cultural reality that brought about and conditioned the story in the first place. Carmen's links with the Spanish reality of the period, if carefully studied, turn out to belong to a much more authentic vision of Spain that one would imagine from a staging of the opera. The streets and plazas, the interiors, the soldiers in the barracks, the girls in the cigar factory, the smugglers high in the mountains of Ronda, gypsies, flamenco dancers, bulls and bullfighters – all of these can find a more accurate expression in film language." Francesco Rosi Bizet composed this four acts comic opera after a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. An avant-gardist work, misunderstood by audiences when it was premiered in 1875, Carmen is without any doubt the most staged French opera across the world, and its Overture and "L'Amour est un oiseau rebelle" songs are timeless. Bizet's score alternates lyrical and tragic parts. In that way, both musical and theatrical performances can be highly expressive. The plot, after Prosper Mérimée's short story, takes place in Seville, Spain. Carmen is glamorous, a real "men hunter". A victim of justice, but also a heartbreaker, she is a free woman but her choices condemn her. The figure of Carmen shocked as much audiences when the opera was premiered as she fascinates nowadays. In Seville, going to jail after a fight with another cigar seller, Carmen, a Bohemian, seduces the young brigadier Don José, Micaëla's fiancé and promises him love if he gives her back her freedom... Awards     BIZET'S 'CARMEN' FROM FRANCESCO ROSI By VINCENT CANBY Published: September 20, 1984 ·       FACEBOOK ·       TWITTER ·       GOOGLE+ ·       EMAIL ·       SHARE ·       PRINT ·       REPRINTS THREE months after the frostily received world premiere of ''Carmen'' in Paris in 1875, Georges Bizet, its composer, died. Within 10 years ''Carmen'' had become one of the world's most popular operas - and it still is. The old Prosper Merimee story simply will not slip off into obscurity. It will not die, with or without its rousing Bizet score, most of which is so familiar that it can sound like self- parody even when played and sung straight. There have been silent movie adaptations, sound movie adaptations, with the Bizet score used as soundtrack music, and Oscar Hammerstein II's idiomatic, American interpretation, ''Carmen Jones,'' which was done initially on the stage and then as a film. More recently there have been Carlos Saura's flamenco ''Carmen,'' choreographed by and starring Antonio Gades, Peter Brook's severely condensed ''Tragedie de Carmen,'' and even a Jean-Luc Godard entry, ''First Name: Carmen,'' which, in Mr. Godard's way of doing things, contains far more Beethoven than Bizet. Now Francesco Rosi, the Italian director (''Eboli,'' ''Three Brothers,'' among others), has made what must be the definitive screen adaptation, which opens today at the Cinema Studio. It's titled ''Bizet's Carmen'' to distinguish it from all of the other ''Carmens'' designed, it seems, to put in, take out or clarify all those elements that Bizet had the poor taste to ignore before dying of a heart attack. Whether or not - like me - you find the joys of ''Carmen'' somewhat limited, Mr. Rosi's ''Carmen'' is special. Here is a full-scale, unembarrassed screen-opera, with its recitatives replaced by the bits of spoken dialogue that were heard in the first Paris production, filmed entirely in spectacular Andalusian settings that no opera house could ever hope to reproduce. The first-rate cast of singer-actors is headed by the American-born mezzo, Julia Migenes-Johnson, in the title role; Placido Domingo as Don Jose, the naive corporal from Navarre who abandons his career, his fiancee and even his terminally ill mother for the love of Carmen; Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo, the bullfighter whose celebrity and arrogance are more appealing to Carmen than Don Jose's solemn fidelity, and Faith Esham as Micaela, the simple country girl whom Don Jose jilts for the young, free-spirited, mocking, self-possessed, gypsy woman. The settings - bullrings, city squares and streets, taverns and mountain passes - are all real, but they have been photographed, by Pasqualino De Santis, with such attention to austere design that they never call attention to the essential contradiction between the reality of cinema and the artificiality of the operatic form. With the exception of several sequences, Mr. Rosi doesn't attempt to embellish the original opera by opening it up in obvious ways to take advantage of the camera's mobility. Yet, when he does do just that, he does it with purposeful effect. The film's opening sequence is a brutal, sorrowful intimation of things to come - close-ups, in slow-motion, of a great bull in the last moments of his unequal fight with the torero. As the bull, blood pulsating from the wounds in his body and then gushing from his mouth, struggles in ever smaller circles to renew his attack, we hear the cheers of the crowd, which become a kind of prelude to the familiar overture that, here, suddenly sounds less commonplace than ironic. In voice, Miss Migenes-Johnson may not be the world's greatest Carmen, but she has a lovely, deep mezzo-soprano that is far more than adequate. She's also a striking screen presense, not conventionally pretty but possessing a lean, angular beauty that perfectly defines the riveting and romantic nature of a woman who drives men wild. Hers is a passionate, unsentimental Carmen whose repeatedly announced commitment to her own freedom transforms the conventional femme fatale into a woman of commanding stature. Mr. Domingo is in splendid voice and form, and his physically robust Don Jose is as heroic as it's possible to make a character whose doom, like that of the bull, is less tragic than accidently unfortunate, if obligatory. Mr. Raimondi has come a long way since his very stiff, virtually hypnotized performance in the title role of Joseph Losey's peculiar ''Don Giovanni.'' He has the voice, the profile and the manner to make one believe that this Escamillo is a great toreador. Micaela is more a function of the plot than a character, but Miss Esham is very pretty and near the end, when she pours out her lament for the now-lost Don Jose, the music and her voice create a truly moving moment. Perhaps the best thing about this ''Carmen'' is its completeness. Only when one hears - and understands - all of the choruses, which Mr. Brook and other interpreters have cut away in attempts to get to the core of the drama, does one come to appreciate again the great, familair melodies, as well as other, less overdone moments, such as the second-act quintet, which is about as close as ''Carmen'' ever gets to wit. Even if you feel as if you've had ''Carmen'' for the next decade, in any shape or form, Mr. Rosi's ''Bizet's Carmen'' is worth attending to. ''Bizet's Carmen,'' which has been rated PG (''parental gudiance suggested''), contains some not terribly explicit sexual gestures and, perhaps more important, the initial bullfight sequence, which is brutality of an exceptionally graphic order. IOle! CARMEN, directed by Francesco Rosi, from the opera by Georges Bizet; libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, based on the novella by Prosper Merimee; screen adaptation by Mr. Rosi and Tonino Guerra; in French with English subtitles; director of photography, Pasqualino De Santis; editing by Ruggero Mastroianni and Colette Semprun; conducted by Lorin Maazel; with the Orchestre National de France and Chorus & Children's Chorus of Radio-France; choreography by Antonio Gades; produced by Patrice Ledoux for Gaumont/Marcel Dassault (Paris)/Opera Film Produzione (Rome); released by Triumph Films. At Cinema Studio, Broadway and 66th Street. Running time: 152 minutes. This film is rated PG. Carmen . . . . . Julia Migenes-Johnson Don Jose . . . . . Placido Domingo Escamillo . . . . . Ruggero Raimondi Micaela . . . . . Faith Isham Dancairo . . . . . Jean-Philippe Lafont Remendado . . . . . Gerard Garino Mercedes . . . . . Susan Daniel Frasquita . . . . . Lilian Watson Zuniga . . . . . John Paul Bogart Morales . . . . . Francois Le Roux Lillas Pastia . . . . . Julien Guiomar Guide . . . . . Accursio Di Leo Manuelita . . . . . Maria Campano Court Dancers . . . . . Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio Jimenez Old dancer . . . . . Enrique El Cojo Escamillo's double . . . . . Santiago Lopez Carmen's friends . . . . . Aurora Vargas, Carmen Vargas, Concha Vargas, Esperanza Fernandez, Lourdes Garcia, Maria Gomez, Pilar Becerra With: Antonio Gades Dance Company Photo: photo of Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson      ebay3515

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  • Country/Region of Manufacture: Israel
  • Religion: Judaism

PicClick Insights - 1984 Israel OPERA MOVIE POSTER Film CARMEN Hebrew PLACIDO DOMINGO Maazel BIZET PicClick Exclusive

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