Standard Version with sung recitatives-Although almost unanimously condemned by contemporary Parisian critics for its overt sexuality and graphic final scene Carmen ultimately reached the public in a way that perhaps no other opera has. Bizet's aim (with Meilhac andHalevy who wrote the libretto) had been to transform the flaccid moralistic bourgeois genre of opéra comique into a more sophisticated type of staged work and he seems to have suceeded in Carmen. Each character has a musicalsignificance and a unique expressive idiom the ultimate example being the dangerous exotic sensual Carmen herself depicted by an exotic and sinewy chromatic motive that also implies the insurmountable power of fate. In aclassic plot device she is contrasted with the 'good girl' of the opera Micaela whose main aria is set in the ternary form of the elevated bel canto French Grand Opera aria to imply her traditionally 'ladylike' retiring nature.Don José's musical styles reflect different levels in his descent from dutiful soldier to the underworld of obsession.This is the Schirmer edition of the Libretto in the original French with an English translation by Ruthand Thomas Martin.

A pair of men take an oath of eternal friendship but their vow is threatened by their attraction to the same woman. The object of their rivalry faces her own dilemma torn between worldly passion and her calling as a priestess.Their romantic triangle forms the heart of this 1863 opera Les Pêcheurs De Perles (The Pearl Fishers) in which the composer of Carmen the world's most popular opera made his first mark.Set in ancientCeylon this enchanting tale of friendship love and betrayal has been performed in Opera houses around the world. The famous Baritone/Tenor duet in the second act is among the most recorded of Opera highlights and a copy of thefull score is essential for conductors as well as for students of composition and orchestration. This large-format version of Bizet's three-act Opera offers musicians an affordable alternative to high-priced hard-to-findeditions.