“Carmen” from silent films and music from our days

Surely many of those of some age will remember that great success in Spain from the 1980s, which we were also later able to see on television (today it is still on some platforms), which was “To be or not to be” (1942) A funny comedy film Lubitsch In its American phase. This means that it has managed to cross the swampy waters, for many artists, necessitated by the transition from silent cinema to spoken cinema: without going any further, the hero of the film, Pola Negri.

Although the script starts from Merimeefollows the music closely Bizetproviding moments that could be lengthened, either by interjections of entirely new parts or by extensions starting from the original music, which added measures, extending recognizable themes with others that seemed to come out of the sticks and became sonic balls of unrecognizable sounds, which sometimes culminated in identifying cells that took center stage, above a sea of ​​fragmented sounds. We can notice this already at the beginning, where different, shocking sounds break in an explosion until the introduction, which in turn breaks down again into different staccato rhythms, and is eventually swallowed up by the Carmen motif, that elastic cell of five notes that is identified with Carmen or Fatum.

It is As if he wanted to create a chronological order. The film begins in a town and Don José passionately kisses a woman. Meanwhile, another elderly woman is cooking in a large pot over hot coals; But the first is not Carmen, but Micaela – here called Dolores – and the second is not a witch in the middle of a spell, but Micaela’s mother in the city, which will lead to the beautiful duet in which that city and that life are evoked.

Since there are no sounds, there are melodies Children’s choir They go to trumpets and trombones. the habanera It is left to the wood, but there is guitar present, not only in the melody, but also in the strum that provides that Andalusian color. Carmen’s arrest and subsequent escape are completely coherent, almost always a failed scene in opera.

with Preparation for the second work In Bizet, the concert is prepared, and fragments of the melody of the gypsy song are introduced, followed by new echoes of the love duet… a very different atmosphere from the previous one, with the notes of the melody very elongated and in the high region, as if above earthly and lustful love. The dance is also more believable than many non-Andalusian carmine, as is the scene of seduction in order to raise Don José’s invitation to become a smuggler, as is the moment of retreat, which was not well understood in Bizet (he has just arrived from the barracks and already has to leave; here lies the urgency because he must stand guard in a hole through which the smugglers are passing). Here he loses points, because many smugglers appear and Don José has to confront them all.

he Flower song It is one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the tenor repertoire, and here it is shared mainly between clarinet and oboe (the oboe has a redemptive role in Bizet), highlighting the various additions to the already beautiful melody, although the finale ends with trumpets and trombones.

Escamillo He eventually appears and Carmen falls madly in love with him. It’s as if Lubitsch suddenly realizes that it has to end and that he hasn’t developed his character yet. The final decoration was splendid, the horse-drawn carriage, the signs mostly in Spanish; And Carmen’s death is very close, just a short shot and that way.

In any case, the film was recorded only 45 years after Bizet’s film, and it helps us to get closer to the sets of that time, the costumes, and above all the expression on the faces, with those very wide eyes, very limited and exaggerated gestures… a complete form of… Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the premiere of the movie “Carmen”.