Recommended Reading
Compiled by Andrew Eggert
McClary, Susan. Georges Bizet: Carmen (Cambridge Opera Handbooks) . Cambridge University Press, 1992.
ISBN 0521398975.
Part of the Cambridge Opera Handbooks series, this volume dedicated to Carmen is an ideal introduction to the opera ? with a synopsis, source information, historical and biographical background, musical examples and analysis, as well as photographs and a detailed production history and discography.
Merimee, Prosper. Carmen and Other Stories (Oxford World Classics) . Translated by Nicholas Jotcham. Oxford Press, 1999.
ISBN 0192837222.
This volume contains many novellas by the early master of the genre, Prosper Mérimée, whose tale ?Carmen? would be transformed into one of the world's most popular operas.
Lavielle, Gail. Carmen: The Seduction of the Century . Caldwell Publishing, 1999.
ISBN 1877761915.
Written by a Texas native Yale-educated French scholar and international journalist, this study examines the changing reception of the opera Carmen since its premiere in 1875. Lavielle considers why the famed Spanish gypsy has remained so popular for more than 125 years, and analyzes what she has represented to different times and different cultures.
Gould, Evlyn. The Fate of Carmen . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
ISBN 0801853672.
This book considers Bizet's opera alongside several other versions of the Carmen character ? from Mérimée's original 1845 novella to contemporary theater, music and dance works based on the same text. Gould explores the power of literature and the performing arts to transform the same story into powerfully original statements.
Cooper, Martin. Georges Bizet . Greenwood Publishing Group, 1971.
ISBN 0837155711.
Curtiss, Mina Stein Kirstein. Bizet and His World . Greenwood Publishing Group, 1977.
ISBN 083719427X.
Dean, Winton. Bizet . Hyperion Press Incorporated, 1979.
ISBN 0883557355.
These biographies all provide a good introduction to the life and work of composer Georges Bizet ? unfortunately they can be hard to find new, but many used book stores and libraries will carry at least one of these three classics.
