A Night at the Opera – Carmen

Sun 25 May 2014, 7 pm
Cinematheque

From the organizer:

Come to the screening of a classic version of Carmen by the composer Georges Bizet.

Carmen is considered by many to be the original verismo (realism) opera that deals with issues faced by regular people, rather than gods, kings, and aristocrats. In the Carmen story, a young soldier falls in love with a gypsy woman who does not reciprocate his feelings. Nevertheless, she manipulates him into freeing her from a jail sentence, then joining a band of smugglers who are operating on the edges of society.

Many consider Carmen to be the perfect opera, combining a universal story with timeless melodies. We will screen what many consider to be the finest film version of the opera. This version uses spoken dialogue between all the musical numbers rather than being sung all the way through. This is the way Bizet intended the opera to be performed; in most versions the dialogue was set to music after Bizet’s death in order to make the realism of the opera less shocking to a nineteenth century audience (based on the assumption that music made the realism less “painful”).

For those with membership at the Cinémathèque, make a reservation as usual by phoning the Cinémathèque, daily between 14:00 – 21:00 at 3936-2648. A limited number of tickets are also available through the Opera Guild, send an email to [email protected]. A donation of VND 60,000 is suggested.