Modernizing Carmen

The Russian producer Danchenko announced that he will " modernize " Carmen. That is, he will retain the present musical form as much as possible, but will change the libretto to make it more realistic and conform it as far as possible to the original novel, Carmen, by Prosper M'erim'ee.

The libretto of the opera, Carmen, has been regarded for a long time as one of the best. It is, indeed, coherent and dramatic, and far better than most operatic libretti, But it must be said that it cheapens in many places the magnificent story by Merimee.

Take the end, which is extremely effective operatically. Don Jose encounters Carmen outside of the bull ring in which her new lover Escamillo is fighting. He begs her to return to him. She refuses. Mingled with this sombre piece of action come the jubilant shouts from the bull ring and the torreador's music from the orchestra. With this background of colorful contrast, Don Jose kills Carmen.

In the original story Don Jose takes Carmen out in the country. In a secluded place he makes his final plea for her to love him again. She replies that she does not love him, that he may kill her if he pleases. She knows that he will kill her because she has read it in the cards. He leaves her sitting beside the road, goes to a nearby priest's house, instructs the priest to say a mass for a woman who is about to die, returns to Carmen, who awaits him with a tremendous fatalism, and kills her.