A New Source for "Carmen"

Author(s): Lesley A. Wright

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jul., 1978), pp. 61-71
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746191
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New

Source

for

Carmen

LESLEY A. WRIGHT

The Censors' series (F18)at the Archives nationales of Paris preserves a largely unknown
collection of documents related to musical
works. The texts of operas, other forms of
musical theater, and even songs were subjected to the scrutiny of the Censors just as
were the books and plays of the same period.
Recorded on the libretti in this series are both
the date of deposition at the Censors' Bureau
and the date on which the work was approved.
With the exception of letters, these documents are often the only dated materials to
stem from the rehearsal periods of the operas
and, as such, may supply an invaluable tool
for sorting out layers of revision in a musical
autograph or for recovering versions lost from

all other sources. The Censors' libretti and the

related Censors' reports have received some
attention from scholars working on Verdi and
Berlioz, but their potential value for the study
of French lyric theater in general has not been
fully appreciated.
Carmen differs from all Bizet's other works
in that most of the materials preparedfor the
original performances have been preserved.
Both the manuscript score used by Deloffre,
the conductor in 1875, and most of the manuscript orchestral parts were spared in a serious
fire at the Opera-Comique in 1887 and were
rediscovered there in the 1960s.1 To these
sources may be addedBizet's autographmanuscript (Bibliotheque nationale MSS. 436-439)

0148-2076/78/0700-0061
$0.25 O 1978 by The Regents
of the University of California.

1The conductor's copy and manuscript orchestral parts

bear signs of having been used until at least 1890. After
that they were replaced by engraved copies and stored in a

61

19TH

CENTURY
MUSIC

and two printed sources: the first-edition

piano-vocal score and the first-edition libretto.
At the Archives nationales in Paris there is
one more source related to the premiere, a
previously unknown manuscript libretto.
This Carmen libretto (Arch. Nat. F18699)
is stored with other libretti submitted to the
Censors in the same period. Several copyists
wrote in black ink on sixty folios (h. 272mm
x b. 203mm) of low-grade paper enclosed in a
blue wrapper. No marks were added by the
censorship staff to the body of the libretto, but
the stamp of the copisterie (COPIESDRAMA/37 RUE ST.

TIQUES LITTERAIRES / A. DEPORTE

appearson both the wrapperand on the

second folio of the copy itself. The title page
of the copy, however, has a number of annotations: in the upper left-hand corner, a stamp
MARC)

(DIRECTION

DES

BEAUX-ARTS I/THEATRES)

and

within this, handwritten in black ink, "89. /

12 fiv / 1875"; in the upperright-handcorner,in
the same hand and ink, "2139112 f6vrier1875";
in the upperleft quadrantof the page in a second
hand, again in black ink, "Pouretre represent /I
sur le Thiatre National / de l'Op6ra Comique /
12 f6vrier 1875 / Camille du Locle"; and in a
third hand, scrawled over Du Locle's statement,
a large "oui" and the date "2 mars 75," both
in heavy blue crayon.
Since the libretto is dated 12 February
1875, it was presumably copied only a month

cupboard at the Opera-Comique until Fritz Oeser unearthed them. On the basis of this find Oeser preparedhis
supposedly critical edition of Carmen (2 vols., Kassel,
1964). His commentary volume contains much valuable
information and systematically describes the music of earlier versions. However, every line of his reasoningmust be
examined with care. Oeser almost invariably depends too
much on readings in the material he discovered and undervalues the first-edition piano-vocal score (which Bizet
himself transcribed).In this way Oeser has distorted the
text of the opera, placing in the body of the edition many
passagesthat Bizet rejectedand relegatingfinal versions for
the correspondingpassages to the appendices or critical
notes. On this edition see Winton Dean's justly critical
review, "The True Carmen?," Musical Times 106 (1965),

846-55.
The conductor's score is now divided between the
Bibliothequede l'Opera,whichhas two volumes (Act I and
Acts III and IV) under the call number Res. 2222 (vols.
1-2), and the Opera-Comique,which still has Act II. The
surviving manuscript orchestral parts are also housed at
the Opera-Comique.
62

or less before the Carmen premiere on 3

March 1875. We might expect to find relatively few discrepancies between this source
and the printed libretto issued about the time
of the first performance. On the contrary,
examination of the Censors' libretto reveals
that portions of the text are quite different
from that which Meilhac and Halevy published a few weeks later. These sections correspond instead to the first layer still visible in
Bizet's heavily corrected autograph manuscript and/orthe manuscript performingmaterials. Most of these textual variants are concentrated in the poetic sections of the libretto,
that is, in the texts for musical numbers. The
prose dialogue sections were for the most part
taken over unchanged from the Censors' libretto to the first edition.2
Some of the variant readings in the Censors' libretto involve only a few lines of text or
a stage direction. In the "Marche et Choeur
des gamins" (Act I), for example, the stage direction refers to the orchestral interlude that
once accompanied the conversation between
Don Jos6 and Morales before the reprise of the
chorus. According to the reading in this
source, too, Carmen was not yet using castanets in the Act II duo ("Je vais danser en
votre honneur") during the Februaryrehearsals but danced about clanking the two halves
of a piece of earthenware she had broken to

2After the Censors' copy was submitted, Bizet's librettists

made changes to keep their texts abreastof developments
in the musical settings, as was true also with Bizet's other
operas. Still, at some point the librettists seem to have
regardedtheir work as finished and made no further attempts to bring the text into line with what was actually
being performedon stage. This is the most likely explanation for discrepanciesbetween the first-edition vocal score
and the first-edition libretto, discrepancies that can often
be associated with revised sections in the autograph
manuscript. While these could conceivably point to very
late rehearsalcuts, it seems significant that when early in
this century Carmen was reengravedby Calmann-Levyfor
inclusion in the Theitre of Meilhac and Halevy, the authors made some small changes, mostly in stage directions, but did not alter largervariant readings to conform
with the by then well-known operatic text. In fact, in
cases where the censor's libretto and the first-edition libretto preservea lengthier text than that actually sung, it
is quite possible that Bizet cut the music for these texts
even before mid-Februarywhen the censor's libretto was
submitted.

replace her lost castanets. Later in the same

duet, just before Jos6's Flower Song, Carmen
mockingly repeated her admirer's protestation
of love ("I1souffre de partir car jamais femme, /
Jamais femme avant moi / Aussi profondement
n'avait troubl6 son ame"). There are other
small variants of this sort, but three readings
in the Censors' libretto imply much larger revisions late in the rehearsals. These are discussed separately below and printed in the
Appendix to this article.
1. Act I, no. 5, "Habanera"
According to
his friend Guiraud, Bizet revised Carmen's entrance aria thirteen times during rehearsals in
an effort to satisfy his prima donna, GalliMari6. Only three versions of the text survive,
but each of these would have necessitated a
different musical structure since each varies
considerably in length and/orpoetic structure.
Guiraud may have exaggerated in mentioning
thirteen musical versions-but there must
have been a minimum of three.
The earliest preserved text for the Habanera was written by Bizet himself and sent to
his librettist Ludovic Halevy in the summer of
1874.3 The Habanera must have been one of
the last pieces completed before rehearsals began, since much of Bizet's time that summer
would have been taken up by scoring and revision and by the physical process of writing out
the 1200-page orchestral score. The second
part of this text preserves the actual poetry
that Bizet wished to use. The first section,
however, looks more like what Bizet calls in
his letters a "monstre"4-a sort of poetic
dummy in which he indicates only syllable
count, the number of poetic lines needed, and
3Fora facsimile of this document see Mina Curtiss, Bizet
and His World (1958; rpt., 1974), facs. 17.
4See Louis Gallet, Notes d'un librettiste (Paris, 1891), pp.
6-7, 76, 78-79, 81. Gallet (p. 6) defines the "monstre"as a

"sorte de maquette reproduisant au moyen de mots sans

suite la forme musicale du morceau." This was sent to

the poet after the music was written to facilitate composition of the verse. Evidently Bizet preferredto have more
control over his collaborator, for each monstre he sent
Gallet for Don Rodrigue is related to the plot and appears
in the autographmanuscript of this work only slightly revised by the librettist.

the general sense of the quatrains which he

wished written for music that was already
composed.5
The rhyme scheme remains constant:
an alternation of masculine and feminine
rhymes, called rimes croisees, which change
for each quatrain (a b a b, c d c d, etc.). The
poetic structure of this version implies that
Bizet's setting was a large piece in two sections, probably contrasted in meter, tempo, or
key. The first section is made up of alternating
six- and eight-syllable lines; the second, of
eight-syllable lines only. The refrain text that
opens and closes the second section doubtless
reflects a return of the music that began the
section. Perhapsthis was the piece that he and
Galli-Mari6 read through when they first met
on 2 October 1874. At any rate, no trace of the
musical setting remains.
It is possible that music composed for the
brief second text, the three quatrains in the
Censors' libretto, may not survive either.
However, the simplicity and brevity of the
text are not so surprising when paired with
the trivial twelve-measure refrain that probably served as the melody for two-thirds of the
piece (ex. 1). This tune is preserved only in
the conductor's score on pages which were
sewn together during revision of the scene.6
In this piece, which immediately follows the
Habanera, Carmen herself does not sing the

SHalkvy, too, regarded Bizet's opening quatrain as a

suggestion only. He sent back the following lines scribbled in the right-handmargin of the page:
Hasard et fantaisie,
Ainsi commencent les amours,
Et voila pour la vie,
Ou pour six mois ou pour huit jours
Un matin sur la route
On trouve l'amour--I1 est la.
Il vient sans qu'on s'en doute
Et sans qu'on s'en doute il s'en va
Il vous prend, vous enleve,
Il fait de vous tout ce qu'il veut.
C'est un d1lire, un rave
Et ca dure ce que ca peut.
The prosody is not inspired, but it does meet all the requirements Bizet set down and keeps fairly close to the
meaning of the lines he proposed.Whetheror not this text
was ever set is unknown.
6See Oeser, Appendix V, for the full score of this passage
and pp. 719 and 743 for his commentary.

63

LESLEYA.
WRIGHT
A New Source
for Carmen

19TH

CENTURY
MUSIC

finement et Zlgerement

A I

L'a - mour est enfant de Bo - h

- me,

tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'ai - me!

A

Sf

il

n'a jamais connu de

loi!

Si

Si tu m'aimes, tant pis pour toil

ft
tant pis pour toi!

tant pis pour

toil -

Example1
1964
by
Bairenreiter-Verlag
?
Habanera refrain, but her co-workers repeat it
as they go back to the cigarette factory.
Charles Pigot, Bizet's first major biographer, also refers to a 6/8 version of the Habanera. Without giving a source, he states that
the number was learned and rehearsed by the
cast but that the prima donna did not find it to
her taste because it did not produce "un grand
effet" for her entrance. After hesitating for a
while, she finally decided during the stage rehearsals to ask Bizet to write another piece.7
Both Pigot's study and the presence of the
simple twelve-line text in a document from
mid-February 1875 tend to disprove Oeser's
hypothesis that the 6/8 version was rejected
after Galli-Marie's very first rehearsal with
Bizet. Oeser maintains that the handwriting in
the autograph manuscript of the final version
is too careful to date from later than 2
October-12 November 1874, but gives no
other reasons for his assertion.8
2. Act I, no. 11, "Voici 1'ordre, partez"
The Censors' libretto also reveals that the
7Charles Pigot, Georges Bizet et son oeuvre (Paris, 1886),
pp. 243-44.
8Oeser presents his ideas on chronology in a chapter of his
commentary volume entitled Zur Werkentstehung (pp.
715-30). There are three sections: Bis zum Probenbeginn,
Bis zur Urauffiihrung, and Bis zur Drucklegung. He places
the first version of the Act IV finale in the very first category because it was not copied into performance materials.
Revision of the Habanera and of the first act finale are
assigned to the second category (early in the period:
October-November 1874). Oeser assumes that all the performing materials were prepared in the fall and early
winter of 1874.

64

second half of the final scene in Act I was

rewritten during the last month of rehearsals.
The first known version of the scene is fully
preserved only in the Censors' libretto and in
the orchestral parts. This new libretto also
adds stage directions which the copyist did
not enter into the parts and which are therefore lacking in Appendix VII of the Oeser
score.
The first version (161 measures) of the
scene consists of a lengthy fugato section leading into a reprise of the "Au secours" chorus.
The second version (119 measures) cuts out
the chorus entirely and adds Carmen's reprise
of the Habanerarefrain (in its final form) after
she has escaped her captors. Since Oeser
thinks the 6/8 Habanera was cut as early as
October 1874, he also dates the revision of
this finale very early, because this would have
spared the chorus needless study of the original version (p. 720). Presence of the final form
of the Habanera refrain in the second version
of the Act I finale and of the early form of the
scene in the Censors' libretto both argue for
revision at a much later date. There are two
further revisions of the scene (108 and 133
measures) which, as they involve the reworking of orchestral music only, could also have
been made at a late date.9

9The passage rejected in the first revision of this scene

contains some pencilled accidentals in one of the violin
parts, accidentals that must have been added during a rehearsal. Since the first orchestral rehearsals occurred at
the end of January 1875, this too points to a late date for
the revision.

3. Act IV, no. 27, Duo et Choeur final

The
Censors' libretto preserves still another major
variant in the text for the final scene of Carmen. It completes stage directions and verse
for the corresponding music in Oeser's score
(AppendixXVII).The text for Carmen's "Death
Song" (sung to music from the card trio of
Act III) appears in this libretto, strikingly
enough, even though there is no evidence that
these lines were ever copied into either the
conductor's score or the orchestral parts.10
Oeser (p. 772) interprets this fact to mean that
the Death Song was cut very early, perhaps
even before the beginning of rehearsals and
certainly before the end of 1874. Again, the
new evidence shows that this happened much
later.
In the course of his revisions Bizet reduced
the music following Jos6's fatal blow from 54
to 24 measures. He first cut out Carmen's
Death Song; later he altered Jose's lines, compressed the orchestral interludes between each
event, and substituted the earlier text for the
final choral reprise of the Toreador Song. It
would not have been difficult for the tenor or
the orchestra to learn the new music late in
rehearsals. In fact, the autograph manuscript
at this point shows signs of Bizet's great haste.
The only problem-the presence of the Death
Song in the libretto of February1875-causes
difficulties only if we assume, as Oeser does,
that the performance materials were copied
much earlier in the rehearsal period. But it is
perfectly possible that some of them, at least
for Acts III and IV, might have been prepared
as late as the first week of February,about the
same time that the Censors' libretto was being
copied. If a decision on the final form of the
piece had not been made at that time, presumably the longer, earlier text would have
been submitted to the Censors. Any cuts or
omissions for the stage would not have caused

trouble with the authorities; only text added

later on for publication might have done so.
The conductor's score and manuscript
parts have never been securely dated. Though
vocal and choral partbooks would have been
copied out much earlier, materials for the orchestra and conductor were probablycopied as
late as possible in order to save the expense of
copying revisions made during rehearsals. (Unfortunately the documents dating official
payment to the copying establishment have
disappeared.)On 30 January1875 the Livre de
bord at the Opera-Comique notes that the
first rehearsal with orchestra that afternoon
included "Le ier acte avec les choeurs-Puis
des morceaux des autres actes (sans les
choeurs)." The record does not specify which
pieces from Acts II, III and/or IV were rehearsed, but it implies that some were not
rehearsed; perhaps they were not yet copied.
In any event, the copying for at least the first
version of Act II must have been complete before the soloists' rehearsal with orchestra of 6
February; and for Acts III and IV, before a
similar rehearsal with the entire cast on 15
February.
Not all changes in the text took place after
the Censors' libretto was copied. Quite a few
details had already been altered. For example,
the character "Lizzara"had become "Zuniga";
Don Jose was already a brigadier instead of a
sergent, and he uses tu with Micaela instead
of vous. The Seguedille text reads "Pres de la
porte de Seville" (as in the first-edition libretto) instead of the banal earlier version

10Another reference to fate, in the finale of Act III

("C'6tait ecrit! cela doit tre: i Moi d'abord et puis lui . .
Le destin est le maitre") was never cut from the libretto,
though the music for these lines was not copied into the
performing materials and must have been cut at approximately the same time as the "Death Song." This may indicate that the librettists opposed removing textual reiteration of the theme of fate even though it was redundant,
particularly so in view of Bizet's musical "fate" motive.

preserve both the earlier and later readings.

Thus the Censors' libretto must have been
copied later than the performance materials
for at least the first act of Carmen. It appears
to date from the stage rehearsal period of the
work, that is, no earlier than late January
1875.

"J'irai dimanche

en voiture ...

manger une

friture." In addition, Bizet had alreadydropped

the idea of placing a version of Morales's couplets in the Introduction just before Micadla's
entrance.
These and other such alterations-most of
them in the first act-appear in the Censors'
libretto. Yet in these same spots the autograph
manuscript and the conductor's score usually

65

LESLEY A.
WRIGHT
A New Source
for Carmen

19TH

CENTURY
MUSIC

II
But to be absolutely sure, two objections
that might be raised against the mid-February
dating of the Censors' libretto should perhaps
be considered. First, though it is a natural assumption that a new libretto was copied out
shortly before it was deposited at the Censors'
bureau, it is at least possible that an older libretto was submitted to save time or expense.
Second, if extensive revisions were actually
made late in the rehearsal period, in early to
mid-February, one might ask whether they
could have been incorporated by the printer
before he issued the score in mid-March.
A brief survey of censorship laws governing theaters in 1875 goes far to answer the
first objection. Several books summarize the
various reforms and suspensions of censorship
in nineteenth-century France"; furthermore, a
carton at the Archives nationales (F21 1330)
preserves a selection of the documents themselves. A lengthy, detailed, stringent circulaire
of 31 July 1874 had arrived at Camille du
Locle's office in the Opera-Comique only a few
months before the Carmen rehearsals began.12
The minister's express purpose was to remind
the directors of the Parisian theaters of the
principal regulations that would be in force
from then on and to remind them that his

staff's surveillance would be unremitting.~3

He begins by itemizing the types of works
under his jurisdiction and outlines the basic
bureaucratic procedure:

"For complete histories of theatrical censorship see Victor Hallays-Dabot, Histoire de la censure thdatrale en
France (Paris, 1862) and La Censure dramatique et le
theatre: histoire des vingt dernieres annies (1850-1870)
(Paris, 1871); also Alberic Cahuet, La Liberte du thdatre en
France et a l' tranger (Paris, 1902). Hallays-Dabot, who
was for many years an inspector for the censorship
bureau, prints the texts of many documents and comments objectively on the regulations of the period. Since
he was the "Inspecteur principal" at the time Carmen was
performed, he may well have played a role in its authorization. Cahuet, a lawyer at the Cour d'Appel in Paris with
experience from a later period of censorship, tends to
summarize the contents of the decrees and to inject his
own opinion into the discussion.
12Camille du Locle was the nephew of Perrin, director of
the Op6ra, and learned much about the lyric theater from
his uncle. Though he knew little about music, Du Locle
sponsored a large number of new works by Massenet,
Saint-Saens and others. He did not confine his work to
directing, however, but tried his hand as a librettist and
designer of scenery and costuming as well. He wrote Don
Carlos for Verdi with MWry, and was later involved in
working out the plot and planning the production of Aida,
both in Cairo and in Paris.

13For a few months in the winter of 1870-71 (during the

siege of Paris) censorship regulations were lifted. In the
spring of 1871 censorship was brought back under the military government and functioned with provisional status
until 1874. Only then was the "commission d'examen des
ouvrages dramatiques" formally reestablished. Finally,
after the necessary funds were approved on June 24, the
minister sent out the circulaire cited in the text.
14Toute oeuvre dramatique, avant d'etre representee, doit
etre autorisee par l'administration et cette autorisation
peut toujours tre retiree pour un motif d'ordre public.
Pour obtenir l'autorisation de faire representer un
ouvrage dramatique ancien et nouveau, vous devrez, a
l'avenir, deposer au Bureau des TheAtres, 1, rue de Valois
(Palais-Royal), trois semaines avant la representation projetee, deux exemplaires manuscrits, parfaitement lisibles,
ou deux imprimes de l'ouvrage quel qu'il soit, piece, scene
detachee, cantate, romance, chanson, ou chansonette.
15Aprrs l'examen de l'ouvrage, si la representation en est
autorisee, et apres une repetition generale devant les Inspecteurs, un des exemplaires deposes, revetu de l'autorisation ministerielle, est rendu au directeur qui peut, des
lors, faire jouer la pi..ce....
L'exemplaire revetu de l'autorisation doit tre, a
toute requisition, presente au commissaire de police
charge de la surveillance de votre theatre.

66

Every dramatic work, before being performed,

must be authorized by the administration and this
authorization may always be withdrawn on the
grounds of public order.
To obtain authorization to have an old or new
dramatic work performed, you must, hereafter,
deposit two perfectly legible manuscript copies or
two printed copies of the work, whatever it may
be-play, separate scene, cantata, romance, song or
comic song-at the Office of Theaters, 1, rue de
Valois (Palais-Royal)three weeks before the planned
performance.14
In accordance with these rules Du Locle submitted the Carmen libretto slightly less than
three weeks before the premiere of 3 March
1875, on 12 February. The procedural regulations continue:
After examination of the work (if its performance is authorized) and after a dress rehearsal in
front of the Inspectors, one of the deposited copies,
bearing ministerial authorization, will be returned
to the director who may put on the play from then
on....
The copy bearing authorization must be presented upon demand to the chief of police charged
with surveillance of your theater.15

Though the copy returned to the theater after

authorization was evidently lost or thrown
away after the original run of performances,
the duplicate was retained in the Censors' archives and has become part of series F18.
And finally, the Minister of Public Education and the Fine Arts concludes with a few
more regulations and a warning to the directors:
The new or revived work must be advertised
only after delivery of the authorized copy and without addition of any kind to the approved title.
As for works that, by their very nature, require
numerous rehearsalsand great costs for staging, you
must not, in your own interest, put them into rehearsal until after you have obtained authorization
to have them performed.It has frequently occurred
that in orderto obtain the go-aheaddespite a necessary interdiction, theatrical administrations have
emphasized the amount of time already devoted to
preparationof a work and their substantial preliminary expenses, thus offering theatrical undertakings
a sure means of escaping such a risk. Considerations of this sort will not, therefore, be able to exert
any influence on administrative decisions.
I remind you, too, M. le Directeur, that the rehearsal to which you summon the Inspectorate of
Theaters must take place with scenery, costumes,
properties, and complete lighting of the stage. In a
word, it must be presented in a way that does not
conceal any of the effects of the performance. No
person who does not belong to the theater's staff
may be admitted to the rehearsal specially devoted
to the Inspectors.
In the event that a new work has had to
undergo some important modifications, a second
partial or full dress rehearsal may take place at the
demand of the Administration.16
Thus directors faced the possibility of financial loss through postponement or closure if
the final form of the work were not approved.

16L'ouvragenouveau ou repris ne doit tre affiche qu'apres

la remise qui vous aura 6t6 faite de l'exemplaire
autoris6,
et sans addition d'aucune espece au titre approuve.
Quant aux ouvrages qui, par leur nature, exigent de
nombreuses repetitions et de grands frais de mise en
scene, vous ne devez, dans votre interet, les mettre 'a
l'6tude qu'apres avoir obtenu l'autorisation de les faire
repr6senter. Il est arrive frequemment que pour obtenir
main lev6e d'une interdiction necessaire, les administrations th6atralesfaisaient valoir le temps deji consacrea
l'6tude d'un ouvrage et les depenses considerables prealables offrant aux entreprises theatrales un moyen stir
d'echappera un tel risque, les considerations de ce genre

Furthermore, clauses in the cahiers des

charges presented to each director make it
clear that the director of a state-supported
theater would be guilty of breach of contract if
his dealings with the censorship bureau were
not scrupulously accurate.17 The Censors of
the 1860s and 1870s certainly had the power
to ban any work that in their opinion might
endanger public morality, order, or political
propriety, and all these regulations would
have meant nothing if they were not vigorously enforced. The Second Empire was
notorious for its stringent-if
contradicof the censorship laws;'8
tory-application
this was the period that saw the trial of
Flaubert and his publishers for Madame Bovary, and at the other end of the scale, authorization without difficulty of Offenbach's La
Belle H6lTne. Some of the Censors even meddled in works by requiring that their own
ideas on drama be incorporated before authorization was issued. In a slightly later period
Bizet's L'Arlksienne opened without much advance publicity because Madame Frainex, by
Robert Halt, which was to begin Carvalho's
1872 season at the Vaudeville, was banned

ne pourront done exercer aucune influence sur les decisions administratives.

Je vous rappelle aussi, Monsieur le Directeur, que la
r6petition a laquelle vous convoquez l'Inspection des
theatres, doit avoir lieu avec les decors, les costumes, les
accessoires, l'eclairagecomplet de la scene, et de fagon, en
un mot, a ne dissimuler aucun des effets de la representation. Nulle personne etrangere au service du theatre ne
doit tre admise a cette repetition specialement consacr6e
a Messieurs les Inspecteurs.
Dans le cas ou l'ouvrage nouveau devait subir quelques modifications importantes, il peut y avoir lieu, sur la
demande de l'Administration, a une seconde repetition
partielle ou gen6rale.
17Thecahiers des charges presented to Carvalho in November 1862 (Arch. Nat. F21 1121) and to Adolphe de
Leuven in April 1872 (Arch. Nat. AJx'11135) summarize

the conditions under which each director was permitted

to operate a state-supported theater. Though Carvalho
directed the Theitre-Lyrique and de Leuven the OperaComique, large sections of their cahiers are identical.
Du Locle was doubtless subject to similar regulations
both while he was de Leuven's partner and after he
bought out interest in 1874.
'aCahuet (La Liberte du thdatre, p. 242) also reports that

"the theater under this regime had to make considerable

concessions to diplomatic proprieties; it is to be noted
that these proprietieschanged accordingto the variations
of imperial politics and gave rise to the most contradictory decisions."

67

LESLEYA.
WRIGHT
A New Source
for Carmen

19TH

CENTURY
MUSIC

only a few days before the anticipated premiere. Alberic Cahuet notes that "from 1870
to 1891 repressive censorship functioned at
least as much as preventive censorship."'19
Though all of Bizet's theatre works were
examined and approved by the Censors, none
of the reports on his operas have survived;
consequently, any specific influence of that
office on the libretti cannot be determined.
The evidence of the censorship regulations,
nonetheless, makes it vastly unlikely that Du
Locle would have taken the unnecessary risk
of submitting a Carmen libretto substantially
different from the work as it existed about 12
February 1875.
The second piece of evidence that might
appear to argue against assigning so many revisions to the last month of rehearsals is the
Choudens piano-vocal score of Carmen. The
score was advertised as "vient de paraftre" in
Le Menestrel on 14 March 1875, only a week
and a half after the premiere and a month after
the Censors received their copy of the libretto.
Four days later a copy of the score was actually deposited at the Bibliotheque nationale.
But in fact documents associated with this
edition argue not against but for the existence
of late revisions. The firm of Choudens has
only one document that precedes the published piano-vocal score transcribed by Bizet,
the contract signed by Bizet on 15 January
1875. Here only financial matters are dealt
with, not publication procedures or deadlines
for proofs. There exist, however, twenty page
proofs for Carmen (Bibl. Nat. Res. 2694), all
bearing minor corrections by the composer.
One page is from the opening chorus of Act I,
another from the Smugglers' Chorus in Act III,
and all the rest from Act II.20 These pages are
identical in format with those of the firstedition score. Yet although the Act I proof
sheet is paginated "18" as in the first edition,
the next surviving page, from the "Chanson
boheme" in Act II, is paginated "122," four

19Cahuet, La Liberte du theatre, p. 246.

20With the exception of one number, "Vivat le Torero,"
the proof sheets do not refer to heavily revised numbers,
so they cannot be a partial set connected with last-minute
changes. They are probably just a randomly preserved
selection of a general run of proofs.

68

higher than the number anticipated.21 The

other proof sheets continue to exceed by four
the pagination of the first-edition piano-vocal
score, but they extend only through the first
number of Act III, and not through the sections of Acts IIIand IV where further late revision might be expected-namely the finales.
More than half the pieces in Act I were
cut or revised at some point, early or late, during rehearsal. The evidence of pagination
alone cannot specify which of them was altered at the last minute, though the finale
would be a likely candidate. It does establish,
however, that at least one cut was accommodated quite late in the publication procedure.22
III
To reconstruct what must have actually
happened in the last month or so of rehearsals,
it is also necessary to consider the types of revision that took place during the period. The
numbers that Bizet revised repeatedly during
rehearsals were the finales, which, with the
exception of that in Act II, were reworked several times. In addition, Galli-Mari&apparently
learned the final version of the Habanera during the last three weeks of rehearsals. Two
other solo numbers, Don Jose's "Dragon d'Alcala" couplets in Act II and Moralks'scouplets
in Act I, were totally rewritten after the performance parts were copied. These were the
major revisions, and the burden of learning
this new material fell largely upon those most
capable of learning it quickly, the soloists.
The chorus, on the other hand, was given
less and less to sing as the opera reached its
final form. In the last weeks of rehearsal the
chorus was completely cut out of the finale of

21For a facsimile of p. 18 of these proof sheets, see Mina

Curtiss, Bizet, facs. 22.
22The practice of changing musical numbers in a large
work up to the last minute was certainly not unique to
Bizet, nor to Carmen. There is another example of a very
late addition in his work. Although Act I of Les Pecheurs
de perles (Choudens, pl. no. A.C. 992, 1863) contains 88
pages, Act II does not begin with p. 89 but with 85 bis.
These "bis" numbers continue through p. 88, after which
normal pagination reappears. Evidently the engraver did
not want to alter pagination on all the first-act plates
first
when-as
is known from other evidence-the
number of Act II was extended.

Act I. In the finale of Act IV its triplet

rhythms were simplified to eighth and sixteenth notes. The men's section of the
"Choeur des cigarieres" in Act I and their
counterpoint to the return of the women's
theme in the same piece were cut after rehearsal with orchestra, as was the men's part in
the Act I chorus "Au secours." In Act II
"Vivat le Torero" was cut to less than half its
original length, and the chorus was entirely
removed from the exit music for Escamillo
after his famous couplets.
These cuts and others greatly reduced
both the bulk and difficulty of the material
the chorus had to sing. And the changes probably occurred in January or February, since
these pieces were all copied into the manuscript performing materials. Both Bizet's concern for dramatic momentum and his frustration with the singers' limitations must have
played a role in this revision process.23 It may
be a coincidence that on 13 February 1875
Bizet wrote to Du Locle requesting more
female choristers to ensure an adequate performance of the "Chocur des cigarieres" and
the "Au secours" chorus. Halevy also reported
that at one point the chorus threatened to
strike, and that after two months of rehearsal
they still maintained that the two first-act
choruses mentioned above were impossible to
sing.24 Apparently even with reinforcements
and with less material to manage, the chorus
barely mastered their notes and staging. On
opening night they still showed "le manque
de discipline et l'insuffisance d'etudes,"25 but
they did manage to get through the work,
thanks to Bizet's late revisions and the intensive rehearsals.

"The True Carmen?"Winton Dean suggests very reasonably that another explanation for the late rehearsal
cuts in Carmen might be the sheer length of the opera.
Even in its shortened form it lasted past midnight on
opening night, in defiance of Parisian tradition. Presumably cuts for reasons of length would also have been late,
perhaps in February, after the cast (including chorus)
could smoothly rehearse an entire number or scene without major interruption and it could be timed.
24Ludovic Hal6vy, "La Millieme Repr6sentation de Carmen," Le Thgatre, no. 145 (January1905), p. 8.
25Charles Pigot, Georges Bizet et son oeuvre (Paris, 1886),

This new source for Carmen suggests a

very different revision chronology than that
proposed by Fritz Oeser in the critical notes of
his much-discussed edition. While he would
favor a more leisurely and methodical process,
our view of Carmen's genesis should now incorporate hectic revisions, chaotic rehearsals,
and an enormous flexibility on the part of
both cast and composer in the last six weeks
of rehearsal. Late in January 1875 Bizet wrote
apologetically to Ambroise Thomas:
Carmen ne me laisse plus un instant de repos. J'accompagne moi-meme-je reduis moi-meme ...
Voulez-vous encore m'excuser et me pardonner
mon inexactitude involontaire?
Carmen no longer leaves me an instant of rest. I do
the accompanying myself; I am reducing the score
myself. Will you please excuse me and pardon me
once again for my involuntary unpunctuality?26
In the first two months of 1875 Bizet's
days were filled with rehearsals and his evenings with reducing his orchestral score and
rewriting large sections of his opera. That his
revisions under such pressure almost invariably resulted in musical and dramatic improvement of his work can only increase our
respect for the sureness of his judgment. It
may be overly romantic to suggest (as some
biographers have done) that the composer's
disappointment and depression over Carmen's
semi-failure contributed directly to his final
illness. Still, stress and overwork in those last
weeks of frantic preparations, coupled with a
weak constitution and mounting personal
problems, may well have been factors in
Bizet's untimely death so soon after
his craft had reached its zenith.27
%.

231n

p. 275.

26Autographletter at the Stiftelse Musikkulturens Frimjande in Stockholm.

27I wish to thank Mme. Labat-Poussinand Elizabeth C.
Bartlet for their help in locating materials referredto in
this article.
69

LESLEYA.
WRIGHT
A New Source
for Carmen

19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC

APPENDIX
1. Act I, no. 5, "Habanera"
PAGE SENT BY BIZET TO HALEVY,

FIRST-EDITION

CENSORS' LIBRETTO, f.[10r-v]

SUMMER1874

LIBRETTO,

1875,

pp. 10-11

(Elle voit Don Jose et le regarde.)

L'amour est un rebelle

Et nul ne peut l'apprivoiser.
C'est en vain qu'on l'appelle
Il lui convient de refuser

L'amour est enfant de Boheme

Il n'a jamais connu de loi
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime
Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi.

L'amour est un oiseau rebelle

Que nul ne peut apprivoiser,
Et c'est bien en vain qu'on
l'appelle
S'il lui convient de refuser

(Repondant aux regards et aux

gestes suppliants de ses
adorateurs.)
Rien n'y fait menace ou priere

8 vers pareils
aux quatre
premiers, le
second, 4me,
6me,8me, 10me
et 12me commen-

L'un parle bien, l'autre se tait

Et c'est I'autre que je pr6ffre
Il n'a rien dit mais il me plait!

?ant par une

voyelle!!!

L'amour est enfant de BohAme...

Il ne connfit jamais de loi.
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime! ..
Si tu m'aimes. . . tant pis pour toi! ..

. . .

L'amour est enfant de BohAme

Il n'a jamais connu de loi

Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime
Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi.

2 0d L'oiseau

Rien n'y fait; menace ou priere

L'un parle bien, l'autre se tait;
Et c'est l'autre que je prefere,
Il n'a rien dit, mais il me plait.
L'amour est enfant de Boheme,
Il n'a jamais connu de loi;
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime;
Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi! ..

que tu croyais surprendre

de l'aile et s'envola.L'amour est loin-tu peux
l'attendreTu ne l'attends plus-il est Ia.Tout autour de toi vite, vite
s'en va-puis revient
Il vient-il
Tu crois le tenir-il t'evite
Tu crois l'eviter-il te tient!

L'oiseau que tu croyais surprendre

Battit de l'aile et s'envola...
L'amour est loin, tu peux
l'attendre;
Tu ne l'attends plus... il est li...
Tout autour de toi, vite, vite,
Il vient, s'en va, puis il revient...
Tu crois le tenir, il t'evite,
Tu veux l'eviter, il te tient.

L'amour est enfant de Boheme

I1 ne conni^it jamais de loi.
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime!
Si tu m'aimes,-tant
pis pour toi!

L'amour est enfant de Boheme,

Il n'a jamais connu de loi;
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime;
Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi!

0t
(D'Battit
OCD

p
w(D
rA.
(D
(D
C

2. Act I, no. 11, "Voici l'ordre, partez"

CENSORS' LIBRETTO,

f.[21r]

Les m~mes, le Lieutenant, puis les Ouvrihres,

les Soldats, les bourgeois.
Le Lieutenant.
Voici l'ordre, partez et faites bonne garde.
Carmen (bas a' Jose.)
Sur le pont je te pousserai
Aussi fort que je le pourrai...
Laisse-toi renverser. . . le reste me regarde.

70

FIRST-EDITION
1875, p. 23
LIBRETTO,
(The opening section of the scene is exactly the same.)

(Elle se place entre les deux dragons. Jose derriere

elle, les femmes et les bourgeois envahissent la
salle et se remettent a chanter aux oreilles de
l'officier.)
La Manuelita disait
Et repetait a voix haute
etc. etc.
(Au milieu du vacarme Carmen arrive au pont. Elle
donne un coup de poing a Don Jose, celui-ci se
laisse tomber a' la renverse, Carmen ecarte alors
les deux soldats et se sauve, le vacarme redouble.)
Choeur general.
Ah! Ah! Ah! Monsieur I'Officier
Vous gardez mal votre gibier.
FIN.

'
Elle se place entre les deux dragons. Jose
c6te
d'elle. Les femmes et les bourgeois pendant ce
temps sont rentrds en scene toujours maintenus
a distance par les dragons... Carmen traverse la
scene de gauche a droite allant vers le pont...
L'amour est enfant de Boheme,

II n'a jamais connu de loi;

Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime,
Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi.
En arrivant d l'entrde du pont a droite, Carmen
pousse Jose qui se laisse renverser. Confusion,
desordre, Carmen s'enfuit. Arrivee au milieu du
pont, elle s'arrote un instant, jette sa corde a la
volee par-dessus le parapet dul pont, et se sauve
pendant que sur la scene, avec de grands eclats de
rire, les cigarikresentourent le lieutenant.

3. Act IV, no. 27, Duo et Choeur final

CENSORS' LIBRETTO,

FIRST-EDITION
1875, p. 68
LIBRETTO,

f.[59v]

Don Jose, la frappant.

Eh bien, damnee...

(Carmen tombe.

. .

elle est mourante.

. .

appuyde

sur son bras gauche... Du bras droit elle fait

le geste d'etaler ses cartes par terre, comme
au second acte et chante d'une voix qui s'eteint.)
Carmen.
Mais si tu dois mourir, si le mot redoutable

Est &critpar le sort

La carte le dira, la carte impitoyable
Repetera la mort.
(Elle meurt.)
Don Jose, se jetant sur elle.
Carmen, ma Carmen adoree!..
(Les fanfares sonnent dans le cirque, eclatantes
et joyeuses. Le velum s'ouvre. Parait Escamillo
entoure de la foule qui l'acclame.)
Reprise du choeur.
Victoire! Victoire!
etc.
Don Jose.
Vous pouvez m'arreter... c'est moi qui l'ai

Jose, le poignard la main, s'avanqant sur

Carmen.
Eh bien, damnde...
Carmen recule... Josd la poursuit... Pendant ce
temps fanfares et choeur dans le cirque.
Choeur.
Toreador, en garde,
Et songe en combattant
Qu'un oeil noir te regarde
Et que l'amour t'attend.
Josd a frappe Carmen... Elle tombe morte... Le
velum s'ouvre. La foule sort du cirque.
Jose.
Vous pouvez m'arreter... c'est moi qui l'ai
tu. e...

Escamillo paraft sur les marches du cirque...

Jose se jette sur le corps de Carmen.
O ma Carmen! ma Carmen ador6e!
FIN.

tuee! ...

(On arrete Don Jose. Le rideau tombe. Mercedes et

Frasquita sont a genoux pres de Carmen.)

71

LESLEYA.
WRIGHT
A New Source

for Carmen