Theater: In Search of the Essence

LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN Directed by Peter Brook

A conversation between Prosper Mérimée and Georges Bizet, overheard in the smoking room of the Parnassus Club:

Mérimée: And so, my friend, what do you think of the job this fellow Peter Brook has done with your Carmen"!

Bizet: Excuse me, but I do not regard it as my Carmen.

Mérimée: Oh, come. I admit there have been a few changes—

Bizet: A four-act work that takes nearly as many hours to perform is chopped to a single act of 82 minutes, the entire cast is reduced to four singers and two speaking parts, the plot and music...

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