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1984 Migenes (Carmen); Esham (Micaëla); Domingo (José);
Raimondi (Escamillo);
Chorus of Radio France;
National Orchestra of France;
Maazel (Conductor)
A Film by Francesco Rosi
1989 Baltsa (Carmen); Mitchell (Micaëla); Carreras (José);
Ramey (Escamillo);
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra;
Levine (Conductor)
Large (Video Director)
1990 Carmen (Ewing); Vaduva (Micaëla);
Lima (José); Quilici (Escamillo);
Covent Garden Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra;
Mehta (Conductor)
Gavin (Video Director)
1999 Ewing (Carmen); McLaughlin (Micaëla); McCauley (José);
Holloway (Escamillo);
Glyndebourne Festival Choir;
London Philharmonic Orchestra;
Haitink (Conductor)
Hall (Video Director)
CARMEN Page 105
DICTIONARY OF OPERA AND MUSICAL TERMS
Accelerando - Play the music faster, but gradually.
Adagio - At slow or gliding tempo, not as slow as Largo, but not as fast as Andante.
Agitato - Restless or agitated.
Allegro - At a brisk or lively tempo, faster than Andante but not as fast as Presto.
Andante - A moderately slow, easy-going tempo.
Appoggiatura - An extra or embellishing note preceding a main melodic note or tone.
Usually written as a note of smaller size, it shares the time value of the main note.
Arabesque - Flourishes or fancy patterns usually applying to vocal virtuosity.
Aria - A solo song usually structured in a formal pattern. Arias generally convey reflective
and introspective thoughts rather than descriptive action.
Arietta - A shortened form of aria.
Arioso - A musical passage or composition having a mixture of free recitative and metrical
song.
Arpeggio - Producing the tones of a chord in succession but not simultaneously.
Atonal - Music that is not anchored in traditional musical tonality; it uses the chromatic
scale impartially, does not use the diatonic scale and has no keynote or tonal center.
Ballad Opera - 18th century English opera consisting of spoken dialogue and music derived
from popular ballad and folksong sources. The most famous is The Beggar s Opera which
was a satire of the Italian opera seria.
Bar - A vertical line across the stave that divides the music into units.
Baritone - A male singing voice ranging between the bass and tenor.
Baroque - A style of artistic expression prevalent in the 17th century that is marked generally
by the use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and florid decoration. The Baroque
period extends from approximately 1600 to 1750 and includes the works of the original
creators of modern opera, the Camerata, as well as the later works by Bach and Handel.
Bass - The lowest male voices, usually divided into categories such as:
Basso buffo - A bass voice that specializes in comic roles like Dr. Bartolo in
Rossini s The Barber of Seville.
OPERA CLASSICS LIBRARY Page 106
Basso cantante - A bass voice that demonstrates melodic singing quality rather
than comic or tragic: King Philip in Verdi s Don Carlos.
Basso profundo - the deepest, most profound, or most dramatic of bass voices:
Sarastro in Mozart s The Magic Flute.
.
Bel canto - Literally beautiful singing. It originated in Italian opera of the 17th and 18th
centuries and stressed beautiful tones produced with ease, clarity, purity, evenness, together
with an agile vocal technique and virtuosity. Bel canto flourished in the first half of the
19th century in the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.
Cabaletta - Typically a lively bravura extension of an aria or duet that creates a climax.
The term is derived from the Italian word cavallo, or horse: it metaphorically describes
a horse galloping to the finish line.
Cadenza - A flourish or brilliant part of an aria commonly inserted just before a finale.
Camerata - A gathering of Florentine writers and musicians between 1590 and 1600 who
attempted to recreate what they believed was the ancient Greek theatrical synthesis of
drama, music, and stage spectacle; their experimentation led to the creation of the early
structural forms of modern opera.
Cantabile - An expression indication urging the singer to sing sweetly.
Cantata - A choral piece generally containing Scriptural narrative texts: Bach Cantatas.
Cantilena - A lyrical melodic line meant to be played or sung cantabile, or with sweetness
and expression.
Canzone - A short, lyrical operatic song usually containing no narrative association with
the drama but rather simply reflecting the character s state of mind: Cherubino s Voi che
sapete in Mozart s The Marriage of Figaro. Shorter versions are called canzonettas.
Castrato - A young male singer who was surgically castrated to retain his treble voice.
Cavatina - A short aria popular in the 18th century without the da capo repeat section.
Classical Period - The period between the Baroque and Romantic periods. The Classical
period is generally considered to have begun with the birth of Mozart (1756) and ended
with Beethoven s death (1830). Stylistically, the music of the period stressed clarity,
precision, and rigid structural forms.
Coda - A trailer or tailpiece added on by the composer after the music s natural conclusion.
Coloratura - Literally colored: it refers to a soprano singing in the bel canto tradition
with great agility, virtuosity, embellishments and ornamentation: Joan Sutherland singing
in Donizetti s Lucia di Lammermoor.
CARMEN Page 107
Commedia dell arte - A popular form of dramatic presentation originating in Renaissance
Italy in which highly stylized characters were involved in comic plots involving mistaken
identities and misunderstandings. The standard characters were Harlequin and Colombine:
The play within a play in Leoncavallo s I Pagliacci.
Comprimario - A singer portraying secondary character roles such as confidantes, servants,
and messengers.
Continuo - A bass part (as for a keyboard or stringed instrument) that was used especially
in baroque ensemble music; it consists of a succession of bass notes with figures that
indicate the required chords. Also called figured bass, thoroughbass.
Contralto - The lowest female voice derived from contra against, and alto voice, a
voice between the tenor and mezzo-soprano.
Countertenor, or male alto vocal range - A high male voice generally singing within the
female high soprano ranges.
Counterpoint - The combination of one or more independent melodies added into a
single harmonic texture in which each retains its linear character: polyphony. The most
sophisticated form of counterpoint is the fugue form in which up to 6 to 8 voices are
combined, each providing a variation on the basic theme but each retaining its relation to
the whole.
Crescendo - A gradual increase in the volume of a musical passage.
Da capo - Literally from the top : repeat. Early 17th century da capo arias were in the
form of A B A, the last A section repeating the first A section.
Deus ex machina - Literally god out of a machine. A dramatic technique in which a
person or thing appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly; it provides a contrived
solution to an apparently insoluble dramatic difficulty.
Diatonic - Relating to a major or minor musical scale that comprises intervals of five
whole steps and two half steps.
Diminuendo - Gradually getting softer, the opposite of crescendo.
Dissonance - A mingling of discordant sounds that do not harmonize within the diatonic
scale.
Diva - Literally a goddess ; generally refers to a female opera star who either possesses,
or pretends to possess, great rank.
Dominant - The fifth tone of the diatonic scale: in the key of C, the dominant is G.
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