“Carmen”, or how a fiasco has become the most famous of French operas

Carmen tells the story of a Gypsy from Seville (Spain) with multiple lovers, who laughs at laws and morality. A tragic opera in the middle of the 19th century which ended in blood. Its creator, Georges Bizet, is a young French composer who has never set foot in Spain. Born of a pianist mother and a father teacher singing, he entered the Conservatoire at nine and wrote his first symphony at 17 years old.

Carmen is supposed to be his masterpiece, but nothing goes as planned: musicians do not understand music, the actors threaten to strike, and the interpreter chosen for the role of Carmen lives a tumultuous story with the composer. For the main air, she asks him to review her copy no less than 13 times. Months of work that do not prevent the first from being a real shock for the Parisian public. The opera then flops, and will take several years to become the success that we know.

Find the entire report in the video above