Identifier: favouriteoperasf00hadd (find matches)
Title: Favourite operas from Mozart to Mascagni : their plots, history and music
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Hadden, J. Cuthbert (James Cuthbert), 1861-1914
Subjects: Operas
Publisher: New York : Thomas Nelson
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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nwhile tragicissues are rapidly developing in the front of the stage.Jose, in a scene of great pathos, implores Carmen notto withdraw her love from him, who has become anoutcast and a criminal for her sake; and at last,maddened by jealousy and the gipsys saucy in-difference, he plunges a dagger into her heart. Here,as before, the characters of the pair are admirablyindicated by the music. When at length thespectators emerge from the circus to find Carmendead, killed by her lover, the surprise in store forthem is realised with marvellous ingenuity by thesudden introduction of a D natural into the keyof F sharp major, in which the chorus is written.Thus did Bizet mingle terror with joy. The finalexclamation of Don Jos^: Carmen, my adoredCarmen ! marks a noble dramatic climax. It ispreceded by the Carmen leading theme, twicerepeated fortissimo, thus revealing the full meaningof the phrase. Tschaikowsky thus wrote of this Act: I cannot play the last scene without tears in my eyes: the 144
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■J will dance for tby pleasure Act II. Sc. THE MUSIC gross rejoicings of the crowd who look on at thebull-fight, and, side by side with this, the poignanttragedy and death of the principal character, possessedby an evil fate. Tschaikowskys brother tells thathe never saw the composer so excited as when hewitnessed Bizets opera for the first time. Glancing at the work as a whole, one cannotfail to be struck by its dramatic force, by the varietyof its melody, by its orchestral colouring, by thestrength and skill of its characterisation. Pigotremarks on the infinite nuances of the samepicturesque scale, making for one end—for astriking whole of truth and life. But what im-presses one most is the musical presentation of thecharacters. Each person lives, acts, moves; pre-serving his distinct physiognomy, his very clearand very decided personality, without any fallingaway ; without the truth of the type being, for asingle instant, sacrificed to the exigencies of thewhole, of a musically

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