("And long live music that falls to us from heaven" [or "the sky"])
-- Carmen, in Act II (not to worry, we'll hear a fuller version later)
(Do I have to tell you who the singer is? Again, we'll be hearing more.)
Now, let's just meet Micaëla
(We hear her first appearance, near the start of Carmen,
via the three recordings of the role that Mirella Freni made)
"Don José? We all know him." Micaëla (France Bellemare), Moralès (Alexandre Sylvestre), and the rest of the soldiers at Opéra de Montréal, 2019. (Say, ya think it's easy finding pictures of Moralès?) (photo by Yves Renaud)
A square in Seville. At right the entrance to the tobacco factory. At left the guardhouse. MORALÈS and the soldiers are grouped in front of the guardhouse.
[In the scene so far, we've seen the on-duty company of guardsmen with their sergeant frankly killing time -- smoking, chatting, and watching the many passersby ("Funny people those people are") pass by.]
MICAËLA appears. Hesitant, embarrassed, she looks at the soldiers, advances, retreats, etc.
MORALÈS: Now look at this little lady
who seems to want to speak to us.
See, see! She turns, she hesitates . . .
SOLDIERS: To her aid we must go!
MORALÈS [chivalrous]: What are you looking for, lovely lady?
MICAËLA: Me, I'm looking for a sergeant.
MORALÈS [with emphasis]: That's me . . . here I am!
MICAËLA: My sergeant is named Don José . . .
[lightly] do you know him?
MORALÈS [light]: Don José? We all know him.
MICAËLA [with joy]: Really? Is he with you, please?
MORALÈS [with elegance]: He's not a sergeant in our company.
MICAËLA [disconsolate]: Then he's not here.
MORALÈS: No, my charmer, no, my charmer, he's not here,
but in just a bit he will be here, yes, in just a bit he'll be here.
[light but strongly rhythmic] He'll be here when the incoming guard comes to replace the outgoing guard.
SOLDIERS: He'll be here when the incoming guard
comes to replace the outgoing guard.
MORALÈS [very chivalrous]: But while waiting for him to come,
would you, beautiful child, would you be so kind
as to enter our place for a moment?
MICAËLA [frightened]: Your place?
MORALÈS and SOLDIERS: Our place.
MICAËLA [frightened]: Your place?
MORALÈS and SOLDIERS: Our place.
MICAËLA [delicately]: Oh no, oh no, many thanks, kind soldiers.
MORALÈS: Enter without fear, darling.
I promise you that we'll show for your dear self
all the consideration that's required.
MICAËLA: I don't doubt it. However,
I will return. I will return, it's more prudent!
I will return when the incoming guard
replaces the outgoing guard.
[delicately] I will return when the incoming guard
replaces the outgoing guard.
MORALÈS and SOLDIERS [overlapping]: You have to stay, for the incoming guard is going to replace the outgoing guard.
MORALÈS: You will stay.
MICAËLA: No, no!
MORALÈS and SOLDIERS [overlapping, surrounding her]: You will stay.
MICAËLA: Goodbye, kind soldiers!
with Bernard Demigny (b), Moralès; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. RCA, recorded November 1963
with Claude Meloni (b), Moralès; Chorus and Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra (Paris), Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded mostly in July 1969
with Nicolas Rivenq (b), Moralès; Chorus of Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded July 13-22, 1988
by Ken
And that's the extent of our first encounter with Micaëla. I think, though, that even this much is enough to suggest why Mirella Freni could make such an impact in the role, lousy French and all. There's the sheer beauty of the singing, of course, but just as important is that sense of "persondom" she brought to her roles, by whatever combination of natural charm and performing craft. If it's important that we care about Micaëla, and I think it's pretty important (my goal this week was a remembrance that could have run under the title "How much do we (should we?) care about Micaëla, and why?"), these are invaluable tools.
Okay, okay, once again I thought this post was going to be an easy one, or at least a relatively manageable one. The goal this week was a remembrance that would have run under the title "How much do we (should we?) care about Micaëla, and why?," and since l left off last week I was under the honest impression that the follow-up was almost ready to roll: to finish rolling out a theory of how Bizet's Micaëla, like Verdi's Nannetta, provided Freni with such a strong springboard to stardom, even though these aren't roles expect to lend themselves to this.
Alas, so often things that are supposed to be easy, or relatively manageable, turn out not to be. When his post is finally done (see the note on timing below), we're barely going to get through our investigation of Micaëla. Along the way we keep running into issues, issues of all sizes and shapes, and while I've ruthlessly turned a deaf ear to many of those diversionary lures, there are some issues I didn't think we could reasonably and we're going to touch on some issues I think it would be a shame to sidestep as we're passing through.
A QUICK, OR AT LEAST QUICK-AS-POSSIBLE,
NOTE ON DON JOSÉ'S (AND MORALÈS'S) RANK
You remember this exchange we just heard:
MORALÈS: What are you looking for, lovely lady?
MICAËLA: Me, I'm looking for a sergeant.
MORALÈS: That's me . . . here I am!
MICAËLA: My sergeant is named Don José . . .
Claude Meloni (b), Moralès; Mirella Freni (s), Micaëla;
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, cond. EMI, recorded 1969
[Wait, is Mlle Freni pronouncing the (silent) final "r" in "brigadier"? As if it's maybe something like "brigadière"? Kinda confusing, but she sure sings it swell.]
I've always thought of José as a sergeant -- and by extension Moralès as well, since after all when the terrified Micaëla answers the latter's question as to what she's looking for, and she declares that she's looking for "un brigadier," he quickly responds, in an incredibly simple four words: "Je suis là .nbsp;. . Voilà!" (such a simple response, which I've rendered not-too-happily as "That's me . . . Here I am!"). Suddenly I see that "brigadier," while indeed sometimes translated as "sergeant," is perhaps more often rendered as "corporal."
I've investigated this as far as I can, or at least as far as I propose to. When it comes to French-military usage, nobody has any problem with "brigadier" as applied to a general -- of the brigadier sort, of course. But as applied to a non-officer rank, well, the French have perfectly good nearly identical terms for both sergeants and corporals. "Brigadier seems to belong more to police than to military usage, where it does seem to refer to a sergeant; with regard to military usage, I've found both answers.
At this point I leave it to French-military historians. Partly because, as I said, I've always thought of José as a sergeant, and partly because the higher rank sets him off more -- gives him more responsibility and a higher starting point from which to crash and burn -- I've stuck with my old understanding.
THE REST OF THE POST IS COMING -- REALLY
Really and truly. Most of the elements are sort of in place, and I'm shooting for Monday morning -- or maybe an additional batch in the morning and the rest by evening.
For one thing, we're going to rehear the little Moralès-Micaëla scene again, with some other performances of it as well, but most importantly in context, starting with the familiar but still pulse-raising Prélude and continuing just past where we left off, as Moralès and his guard company refocus their attention after Micaëla's abrupt departure -- less than 10 minutes of music altogether, but pretty stunning in terms of what Bizet packs into it, which may be one way of measuring Bizet's extraordinary achievement with Carmen.
After that we'll hear what happens when Micaëla makes good on her announced intention to return after José's guard company has relieved Moralès's. We've already heard most of the crucial José-Micaëla duet. Now we're going to hear it again, in proper context -- just after José has been scorched by his first encounter with that force of nature "La Carmencita." And again we're going to go beyond our Freni focus to hear some other performances that I hope will fill out our picture in various interesting ways.
Finally we're going to return to Micaëla's Act III aria, which we heard on its own in an earlier installment -- as she screws up her courage to track José down again, this time into the wilds of the mountains where the smugglers are known to hide out, on a mission that's a lot less happy than the one we'll just have revisited.
REMEMBERING MIRELLA FRENI: The series so far
Mirella Freni (1935-2020). "O mio babbino caro" (Gianni Schicchi), "Senza mamma" (Suor Angelica), a Fenton-and-Nannetta moment from Falstaff. [2/16/2020]
"On the breath of a fragrant breeze": More from Mirella Freni. Nannetta as the Queen of the Fairies in Falstaff. [2/23/2020]
"When the thaw comes, the first sunshine is mine": Still more Freni. Micaëla's aria (Carmen), Adina reads about Tristan and Isolde (L'Elisir d'amore), "Mi chiamano Mimì" (La Bohème). [3/8/2020]
"Sweet memories of our land fill him with strength and courage": Freni as Micaëla. The Act I Don José-Micaëla duo from Act I of Bizet's Carmen. [3/15/2010]
"Et vive la musique qui nous tombe du ciel!": Still remembering Freni, we have to get in a Carmen frame of mind for our meetup with Micaëla. She comes searching for Don José, plus assorted other Carmen-iana. [3/22/2020]
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