Word: bizet
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...esoteric either." His program is a shrewd sampling of nine works from his recent recitals, including the noble pathos of Chopin's Polonaise in F-Sharp Minor, the lapidary classicism of two Scarlatti sonatas, and the flashy fireworks of his own Variations on a Gypsy Song from Bizet's "Carmen...
...that there's much any conductor can do with Carmen, Bizet. for some perverse reason presumably connected with his nationality, insisted on writing French opera at a time when Wagner and Verdi had conclusively proved that the promise of great opera lay elsewhere. Blind to their examples, Bizet wrote six or seven good numbers which have since become standards and filled out the rest of Carmen with tedium and theft. The Second Act quintet is bad imitation Mozart, the Third Act trio bad imitation Rossini, and Micaela's Air good imitation Meverbeer, which is just as bad. Carmen proves Bizet...
Nearly overcome by the combined talents of Messrs, Lewis and Bizet, the production staggered punch-drunk through Oliver Smith's scenery, obviously stolen from the backgrounds of one or two Walter Lantz cartoons, and Peter Hunt's lighting, so determinedly atmospheric that is declined to illuminate such non-visual set components as actors. Bruce Yarnell, of Annie Get Your Gun fame, sang Escamillo with an ample baritone, but sounded ready to launch into "The Girl That I Marry" at the smallest provocation. Carole Bogard's Micaela had lots of potential but her lively soprano couldn't compensate for the inherent...
Even so, no company can long endure without a Carmen on its list, and last week, after six years' absence, Bizet's supple shocker returned to the Met in a new production. The Carmen was Grace Bumbry, a Negro mezzo-soprano from St. Louis; her Don Jose was Nicolai Gedda, a Swedish-Russian; the Escamillo was Justino Diaz, a Puerto Rican. The conductor was Zubin Mehta, an Indian from Bombay who now conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic-and who last week touched off a furor by denying that he was the least bit interested in conducting...
...Brahms, Bizet and Bhumibol-two compositions by the Massachusetts-born King entitled Falling Rain and Magic Beams...