Carmen in Full Score

The critics at the premiere loathed it. Audiences have always loved it. Members of the chorus don't like it any better than the original critics, but for very different reasons. Carmen is a long and difficult outing for the chorus, and critics have bashed it for its tabloid-trash elements, but audiences love the drama and the music. It's too bad that Georges Bizet died so soon after it premiered, because it would have been interesting to watch his musical development; he improved greatly from his first opera, La Jolie fille de Perth (The Fair Maid of Perth), to his second, Les Pecheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers), and again to Carmen. The arias, ensembles, and choruses here are almost all first-rate, with only occasional minor descents into the typically French and fluffy moments that so mar his earlier works; this full orchestral score from Dover shows Bizet's accomplishment in its entirety. The usual caveats apply: this is a reprint of an out-of-copyright score from another publisher, so it's not going to be up-to-date in terms of modern performance practice. As a full score, it won't be as handy for singers learning the music--a piano score is generally more useful for that purpose--but it's a tremendous bargain for those who want to get a handle on this very popular opera.