Carmen
This artwork was completed 7th February 1999
Music by George Bizet
Libretto by H. Meilhea & L Halevy
The first performance was at the Opera Comique Paris on the 3rd March 1875
Opera by Georges Bizet
Act II from Act I
Spanish wine labels
"Près des remparts de Séville"
Carmen is the best loved of Georges Bizet’s operas, and the last that he was to write. Bizet spent two years writing his masterpiece; he may have considered his efforts to have been in vain, as the first performance of the opera in March 1875 was met with an unenthusiastic reception at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. His greatest work condemned as shameful and immoral, Bizet succumbed to a heart attack just three months later.
It was only after the composer’s death that Carmen came to be appreciated fully. The opera boasts some of Bizet’s most complex and tuneful music, its rich orchestral palette superbly complementing Prosper Mérimée’s captivating plot. This story is now familiar: Carmen, a gypsy, seduces the hitherto virtuous Don José, dragging him ever deeper into degeneracy before abandoning him for the dashing bullfighter Escamillo. Desperate, Don José murders Carmen, before giving himself up to the authorities.
This stunning work of art is produced, in accordance with the artist’s customary technique, using only the labels taken from bottles of fine wine. All the wines used here emanate from Andalusia, so as to add to the Spanish atmosphere of the scene. The picture depicts the start of the second act, at the tavern of Lillas Pastia. A group of soldiers is drinking, while gypsies play guitars and dance, with Carmen joining the revelry along with her two friends. The scene is given added import by the arrival of Escamillo, fresh from a bullfighting success in Granada.