Transforming performances of 'Carmen' on the global stage

Research by Professor Clair Rowden’ of Cardiff University has generated new ways of thinking about one of the world’s most-performed operas, Carmen. Her work is inspiring new performances around the world and transforming the approaches of creative professionals.

Bizet’s Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875. It had a rocky reception in Paris before becoming one of the world’s most performed operas. The opera is set in Seville and tells the story of Carmen, a young, independent gypsy woman who falls in love with a volatile soldier, Don José

Professor Rowden says, “Carmen is the iconic French opera from that period, the one that is performed the most. Bizet wrote Carmen as an opéra-comique, which included both spoken and sung text, and, after his death, it was adapted into a fully sung version. While there have been many adaptions over the years, none of them have reproduced the score of the Parisian premiere.”

The performance urtext edition of the Carmen vocal score, co-edited by Professor Rowden and Professor Richard Langham Smith, used manuscripts, performance scores, libretti and staging manuals from the original Parisian productions. Their aim was to develop a working score based on those first Parisian performances that could be used by directors and creative professionals to inform new interpretations of the opera.

Published by Edition Peters, this score is distinctive from others in that it:

presents ‘opera as performance’ – it captures not only how the opera was first performed but also how it was first staged
provides musicians with a working score – other scholarly urtext editions, by including large amounts of material that is never performed, are too unwieldly for practitioners to use in preparing and rehearsing a production
provides detail from the original staging manuals, all original dialogues, and prioritises the original French sung text.

The vocal score has sold over 1,260 copies worldwide and was used for at least 67 performances in six countries (Wales, England, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and Singapore).