B iz e t’ s Carmen is one the wo rl d’ s most beloved o p e r a s . So w h y did Peter Br ook think he needed to c r eate a Reader’ s D igest version of this a lr eady s u ccessful wo r k? Br ook didn’t like the presentation al s t yle of o p e r a . H e knew that Bizet hadn’t intended f or Carmen to be the grand opér a it had be come. A wo rl d-r e n owned director o f theat r e , Br ook knew that ther e was m o r e dr a matic possi bi l i t y in the wo r k . H e r eturned to Biz e t’ s sour ce of inspi r ation: Merimée’ s novella , “Carmen”. Br oo k and his co llabor ators chose to f o c us on the ar c of the two ma i n char a c ters, as we find in Sh a ke s p e a r e’ s p l a ys . T h u s , we lose some of the “q u intet t e”-essential (!) music, choruses f or women , men, childr e n , and the overtur e. But the destin y of Carmen and Don José be comes c lear er and inesca p abl e. We ar e q u ickly throw n into a wo rld that is fr a ught wi t h danger, passion and fatal de cisions . My directorial cho ice ha s been to enh a n ce that ele ment o f danger , and to set the op e r a in the e a rly y ears of the Fra n c o régime in the Spain of the1930s . The ele ment of not kn owing who m t o t rust would have been extremely s t r e s sfu l , esp e cially f or those fearing opp r ession , hat r e d and ma ss murder; both the Roma (“Gypsies”) as well as the Ba sque p eoples wer e r eviled by the r e gime. This fear and mis t rust heightens ma n y of the inter a c tions o f those in our op e n ing scene, on the st r eets of Seville. L ikewise , Micaëla doesn’t kn ow whom to t rust , but a be g gar wo ma n s ee ms the s afest option when l ooking f or her brigadier, Don José. Ther e is one char a c ter that was not in Biz e t’ s Carmen — Gar c i a . We first see him in the st r eets of Seville disgu ised as a s o ldier, but r eally wo r king wi t h Carmen. I w anted to establish the r eali t y of the Roma being p art of a b a n d, wo r king to gether, o ften wi t h the help o f establis hments like that of Lilla s Pasti a ’ s — a front f o r s t o len goo ds and secret meeting s . The To r eador, Escamillo, is un changed, w i t h all his br a v ado — he takes over the sp ace like a H o l l ywoo d star entering a b ar looking f or at tention. Br ook knew t o kee p the “light” o f Micaëla in the op e ra, thoug h she is not in the novell a . She is needed to show us the anti thesis o f Carmen’ s wo rl d; a wonder ful f o il to sh ow us how far Don José will fal l. Don José’ s fl a ws be gin like small c r acks in the f oundation of a home; as the story evo lves he moves further and further aw a y from his t rue self. Then the c r acks be come horizontal shifts that m a ke his who le being unsoun d. The p ower o f passion s u p p r essed be comes passion unbridled and u l t i matel y, passion turns to vi o l e n c e -- against the very p erson he loves . As f or our t i t le char a c t e r, Carmen remains t rue throughout the story; her first words in both versions o f the op e r a a r e “Love is a bi rd that will not be tamed”. This is her t ru t h. She is wild, beyond laws be they civil or m o r a l. Fr ee she ha s lived and fr ee she will die. Tracy Dahl

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