Carmen and the Staging of Spain

Reviews / Votes

In the introduction to the book, Christoforidis and Kertesz write of their desire to explore 'the processes of Hispanicization' of Carmen. They have delivered in spades. This multi-faceted and potentially tangled web of the cultural and social history of Carmen is told with elegance and ease, supported by over 70 well-chosen illustrations. * Paul Watt, Musicology Australia * Carmen and the Staging of Spain demonstrates how Carmen's social and cultural reach extended far beyond the opera house: mutating, leaving behind parts of its operatic identity and accruing new layers to become a cultural force. The volume [...] is full of interest for musicologists, dance and drama scholars, and academics in French and Hispanic studies who already have some familiarity with the work and the Belle Epoque. The seventy-five photographs and sketches of performers, publicity posters, sets, costume designs and more that accompany the text help to bring Carmen and the changing images of Spain she at once reflected and helped to generate to life in a highly compelling way. * Charlotte Bentley, Revue de Musicologie * All in all, this book offers a thoroughly worthwhile, meticulously researched and beautifully integrated account of what it terms the staging of Spanishness in the Belle Epoque, focused on the opera and the figure of Carmen, but revealing a great deal about perceptions of literary, musical and theatrical Spanishness both in Spain itself and further afield. * Jean Andrews, Bulletin of Spanish Studies * So much has been written about Carmen that, really, what more can be said about it? Apparently, a lot. In this excellent study, Michael Christoforidis and Elizabeth Kertesz 'explore the processes of Hispanicization that transformed Carmen in the aftermath of its premiere and demonstrate how the staging of the opera intersected with the evolution of staged Spanishness in this cosmopolitan age of spectacle' ... [T]his work is a tour de force of scholarship about music and identity, especially in the Spanish and French contexts... Beautifully and bountifully illustrated, elegantly written and rigorously argued, this book should be required reading for anybody interested in Spanish and French cultural studies or European musicology. * Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies * All in all, this book offers a thoroughly worthwhile, meticulously researched and beautifully integrated account of what it terms the staging of Spanishness in the Belle Epoque, focused on the opera and the figure of Carmen, but revealing a great deal about perceptions of literary, musical and theatrical Spanishness both in Spain itself and further afield. The authors handle a full range of theatrical and filmic disciplines with aplomb and demonstrate sensitivity to and sympathy for the Spanish writers, composers, artists and performers coming to terms with the whirlwind from the north that was and would continue to be Carmen. * Bulletin of Spanish Studies * "[It will] appeal to enthusiasts and connoisseurs of Carmen, opera, and 19th-century French and Spanish music history. * Limelight * Christoforidis and Kertesz's prose never fails to appeal, with many apt quotes, vivid descriptions, and lovely illustrations that bring forgotten spectacles before the reader's eyes. ...In short, this important book is a must-have for every 'Carmenite'. * Context * this work is an important stepping stone for academics, students and music lovers interested in exploring the global dissemination of one of the most widely staged operas of all time...Theirs is an important contribution to a new understanding of the opera which manages to be relevant across the fields of musicology, dance, French and Spanish studies, and cultural transnational history. * Lola San Martin Arbide, Transposition: Musique et Sciences Sociales * The authors themselves are appropriately detailed and inclusive of their scholarship, exploring Carmen's background in the context of different types of literary, theatrical, and musical representations of Spain * George Hall, Opera * A comparison of the exotica of Carmen as a foreign ideal of Spain with the privileged view of Spaniards could be distilled down to ideas of cultural appropriation, but the authors go beyond that and offer much more. Summing up: Recommended * CHOICE * Rigorously researched and illustriously illustrated, this volume turns up all kinds of interesting details about Carmen's immediate afterlife-as an opera and also in transformations into burlesque, ballet and parody, not least in its re-importation into Spain herself." * Richard Langham Smith, Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres FRCM FRSA, Research Professor, Royal College of Music * An impressively researched exploration of the multilayered early performance history of Carmen, including its iterations in parodies, the music hall, sheet music, and recordings. The authors pay tribute to the intelligence with which successive performers molded the Carmen role to suit local tastes. * Jo Labanyi, Professor of Spanish, New York University * Carmen and the Staging of Spain is the product of exhaustive and careful research. Its documentation is presented in often lengthy footnotes rather than the usual endnotes. ... There are detailed descriptions of performances of the opera and adaptations it inspired and the book is richly illustrated. Carmen and the Staging of Spain is a fascinating read for opera fans and students of cultural history. * John M. Clum, New York Journal of Books *