Carmen Jones

#1

Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/10/06 at 11:06pm

I happen to think Carmen Jones is a very under-rated movie musical. I absolutely love it, I know it's not perfect or terribly P.C., but I'm sad that a lot of people don't mention it or know it. Dorothy Dandridge is perfection in the role, IMO, even if she din't do her own singing. I know it was a stage musical first, but I've never seen it performed. Has anyone else?
Assuming the play isn't that different from the movie, I think with some fine tuning, it could make a dazzling revival. Or maybe just an Encores! production or something. I'd be way more excited for that than The Wiz.
Anyway, thoughts?

Updated On: 7/12/06 at 11:06 PM

#2

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/11/06 at 1:05am

The OCR is wonderful. It was one of the first full recordings of a Broadway show (and after I say that, some expert will come on here and point out how wrong I am).

And you'd have to have an opera company do the show because the chorus would have to be ENORMOUS. But the big problem is, where is there an african-american opera company (I'm sure you don't want blackface) that could mount it?

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Updated On: 7/11/06 at 01:05 AM

#3

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/11/06 at 1:38am

Well, it was one of the first cast recordings, though far from a complete recording ot the score. I agree, it's a terrific recording.

Carmen Jones has been performed a bit in recent years. There was a successful London production in 1991. Musicals in Mufti did it five or six years ago. And it was done in concert in D.C. a few years ago with Vanessa Williams (and with the score altered for her).

#4

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/11/06 at 2:04am

Isn't it being redone in London soon?

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#5

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 12:33am

Really no other thoughts on this? I'm surprised. It was a pretty important (and popular) piece for many reasons, and besides Porgy and Bess, probably the only all-black musical from "back in the day" with an actual plot. The only one I can think of anyway.

#6

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:34am

Wow, I posted in this thread earlier today... along with several others... and our posts are gone!

Musta been the technical issues.

Or I'm losing my mind.

*waits for ridicule*

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"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

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#7

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:41am

Yeah, same thing happened to me on a number of other posts. Rather maddening, I must say.

#8

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:45am

There were server issues throughout the day; all the posts between 9:00am and late-afternoon disappeared.

#9

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:46am

Around the same time, give or take a year or two, there was also Cabin in the Sky and St. Louis Woman.

If we want to count it, there had also been 4 Saints in 3 Acts.

In his book Sing for Your Supper, Ethan Mordden discusses a couple of forgotten shows, Africana and Hummin' Sam.

#10

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:50am

*tries to recreate his post*

I mentioned how much I liked the original Carmen Jones (on Broadway), Muriel Smith.

She can be seen in the 1952 film "Moulin Rouge" as Aycha the dancer/foil for La Goulue. They have great cat fights together in the can-can scenes. She also is the singing voice for Zsa-Zsa Gabor (as Jane Avrill) in that same movie, singing the popular hit song "Theme from Moulin Rouge."

AND... she was the singing voice for Juanita Hall in the movie "South Pacific." Although why they dubbed Juanita in her Tony-winning role is beyond me! I guess they wanted a prettier sounding "Bali H'ai."

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"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

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blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#11

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 1:51am

I stand corrected, then. Thanks, nobody :)

#12

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:00am

One thing that made the original special was that black singers couldn't perform in most American opera houses at the time. Of course, since relatively few had trained for it (because there was no hope of work), it did make casting a bit difficult.

But the show created great excitement because of the novelty (and the talent that a lot of people hadn't realized was out there). There wouldn't be similar excitement now (though it's true that black men still seem to have trouble getting work in opera).

#13

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:07am

Hmm, I think it's a strong enough piece on it's own to work without novelty. Or at least has the potential to be.

#14

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:17am

I agree that it's a strong piece. But a major production might bring cries that the piece has racist undertones.

I'd love to see a full-scale production. FWIW, the cast at Mufti was thrilled to be doing it.

But it really should be done with a large cast and orchestra, and I think a full revival is unlikely.

#15

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/11/13 at 11:59pm

I've always wondered how much of the CARMEN score is used? Is it for the most part just what is included on the OBC and in the film, or were parts of the recitatives from the opera translated as well? I've never had the oppertunity to see a live production and was curious.

#16

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 9:32am

I've never seen the whole score or stage show, but the opera as Bizet wrote it has (almost) no recitatives. It's an "opera-comique," which meant opera with spoken dialogue between numbers. Some productions and recordings do it in that form, some use the recitatives composed after Bizet's death by Ernest Guiraud (a transplanted son of New Orleans).

In any case the fact that Carmen was conceived as opera-comique (as Hammerstein knew) is one of the reasons it converted fairly convincingly into a musical: the arias and choruses were designed to emerge from the surroundings of regular speech.

#17

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 10:51am

CARMEN JONES is being released on blu-ray disc on December 3rd!

One of my all time favorite films with an uninhibited and legendary performance by Dorothy Dandridge.
CARMEN JONES blu-ray

#18

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 11:06am

Thanks for the Blu-Ray news, Carlos! I saw the London production in the early 90s and loved it. I wish Encores would tackle this one.

#19

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 11:36am

You are very welcome StageStruckLad. I second an ENCORES production. I would love to see a stage production! I am only familiar with the film.

#20

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 1:31pm

Wow, I had no idea there were almost no recitatives! I had just assumed there were as most operas have them.

Thanks for clearing that up!

#21

re: Carmen Jones

Posted: 11/12/13 at 5:40pm

Does anyone happen to have a good quality image of either the original 78 set or Lp cover? I love to have the original covers on my digital copies but there are no images on the internet with decent quality, even on CastAlbums.org.