3rd March: Carmen

On this date in 1875 Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen premièred in Paris. 10 things you might not know about Carmen.

1. The audience hated it and jeered Bizet as he fled the theatre. The critics panned it, too, one of them describing the title character as "the very incarnation of vice". One explanation might be that the Opera-Comique, where it was first performed, usually steered clear of controversial subject matter and tragic plots. That said, it wasn't a total flop - it did run for 45 performances after the premiere. Bizet died, three months later, at the age of 36 and never knew that Carmen would become his best loved opera.
2. Before his death, Bizet had signed a contract to have Carmen produced in Vienna. This went ahead and audiences there, which included Wagner and Brahms, loved it.
3. One of the theatre's directors had already resigned because he didn't like that the opera contained violence and featured loose women who smoked. The chorus were up in arms too, because they were expected to actually act, fight and smoke on stage instead of just standing there singing.
4. The opera is based on a novel by French writer Prosper Mérimée, also called Carmen. Mérimée in turn was inspired by a poem by Alexander Pushkin.
5. Bizet wrote the Music. The words were written by two librettists who often worked together, Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac.
6. The cigarette factory featured in the opening scene really exists, although today, they no longer make cigarettes there - the building now belongs to the University of Seville.
7. The first person to play Carmen was a mezzo-soprano called Célestine Galli-Marié. Two interesting facts about her are firstly, that it was rumoured that she and Bizet were having an affair, and secondly, that she used to bring her pet marmosets to rehearsals.
8. So what's the plot? (Spoiler alert). Don José is a soldier who has a sweetheart from home, Micaëla, who he intends to marry. He's not interested in Carmen, a brash woman who works in the cigarette factory - but she likes the look of him and when asked to choose a lover, she throws a flower at José before going back into the factory, where a few minutes later she attacks another woman with a knife and it is José who is asked to cuff her and guard her. He is mesmerised by her and frees her hands, which allows her to escape. José is arrested for failing to do his job. When he's released, Carmen is waiting for him, having refused to get involved with the disposal of contraband along with her friends. She tries to persuade him to leave his post. He refuses but a fight breaks out in which José attacks his senior officer, so he now has no choice but to join the band of smugglers.
9. Carmen, however, soon gets bored with José and is telling him he should go home to his mother, but her refuses, even when Micaëla arrives and pleads with him. However, she tells him his mother is dying, so he leaves with her. Meanwhile the bullfighter Escamillo has arrived on the scene declaring his love for Carmen. By the time José gets back, Carmen and Escamillo are having an affair. José tries to persuade her to come back to him, but she refuses and throws away the ring he gave her. He stabs her to death.
10. The plot has been adapted numerous times, often with modern day settings - for example, Otto Preminger's film Carmen Jones, which is set in Chicago in the 1940s and features an all black cast, Carmen on Ice in 1990, and in 2001, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, starring Beyoncé Knowles in the title role.

My Books 

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The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.