Carmen
Characters of the Opera With the Original Cast, as Presented at the First Performance
| Don José, Corporal of Dragoons | M. Lhérie |
| Escamillo, Toreador | M. Bouhy |
| Zuniga, Captain of Dragoons | M. Dufriche |
| Morales, Officer | M. Duvernoy |
| Lillas Pastia, Innkeeper | M. Nathan |
| Carmen, Gipsy-girl | Mme. Galli-Marié |
| Michaela, a Village Maiden | Mlle. Chapuy |
| Frasquita | Mlle. Ducasse |
| Mercedes | Mlle. Chevalier |
| El Dancairo | } | Smugglers. | |
| El Remendado |
A guide.
Dragoons, gypsies, smugglers, cigarette-girls, street-boys, etc.
The time of the story is 1820, and it takes place in and near Seville.
Composer: Georges Bizet.
Book: H. Meilhac and L. Halévy.
First sung at the Opéra Comique, Paris, March 3, 1875.
I knew a boy who once said: “That soldier thing in ‘Carmen’ is the most awful bully thing to whistle a fellow ever heard; but if you don’t get it just right, it doesn’t sound like anything,” which was a mistake, because if you don’t get it “just right” it sounds something awful. That boy’s whistle was twenty per cent. better than his syntax, but his judgment about music was pretty good, and we shall have the soldier song in the very beginning, even before learning how it happens, because it is the thing we are likely to recall, in a shadowy sort of way, throughout the first act:
With the guard on duty going
Marching onward, here we are!
Sound, trumpets merrily blowing!
Ta ra ta ta ta ra ta ta.
On we tramp, alert and ready,
Like young soldiers ev’ry one;—
Heads up and footfall steady,
Left! right! we’re marching on!
See how straight our shoulders are,
Ev’ry breast is swell’d with pride,
Our arms all regular
Hanging down on either side.
With the guard on duty going,
Marching onward, here we are!
Sound, trumpets merrily blowing,
Ta ra ta ta ta ra ta ta!
That is the way it goes, and this is the way it happens: