Habanera

There's a lot more that happens in this episode.

Jocasta is standing at her grave where her, listening to Bizet's Carmen Habanera, which is such a fun kind of musical note to have at the beginning of this episode because it's a song about a woman making her entrance in the first act of an opera and kind of comparing love to a bird.

to an uncaged bird, which is just so interesting for how there's all this avian thematic motif that's happening with Jocasta.

And in this, yeah, in this mausoleum or this cemetery, this church cemetery, that's where the nest device is.

Religion is a cloak of ambition, injustice, and violence.

Listen for some of Bizet's music today, including Torero, Habanera, and Dance Boheme from the opera Carmen.

Many Christian supporters have talked about how Trump is a, quote, imperfect tool to make America a Christian nation.

Now Trump is openly trumpeting that line himself.

Mm-hmm.

It was the Carmen, Habanera.

Yeah.

And it's just, like, you singing a really jazzy-

... scatty version-

Mm

... of Habanera, and then out of nowhere, 'cause I didn't know who you were at the time, you whip out a trombone-

Mm-hmm

On today's episode, LA Opera chorus director Jeremy Frank is back at the piano, exploring the themes that make Carmen universal, from love triangles to liberation.

He'll share musical excerpts from Carmen that you know and love, such as the famous Habanera, and trace the motifs that run through the opera, with a special ear to how the musical score complements the story.

It's an aria-filled episode today on Behind the Curtain.

Tickets to Carmen are selling fast.

When will you tell us if you're gonna love us or not?" She says, "When will I love you? I don't know.

Maybe never, maybe tomorrow, but not today, that's for sure." This is her commitment to freedom, and it sets up one of the most famous arias of all time, which really is a manifesto.

It's Carmen's manifesto about love, the Habanera.

We're gonna talk about three aspects of the Habanera.

And this just kind of builds and builds and ends in tragic circumstances, you could say.

We're going to play the Habanera from it, which is very identifiable.

Is it a difficult one to sing?

Yes, because it's Carmen's first entrance and it's the area that everyone knows.

So you have to kind of really trust yourself and just... go for it and hope that you live to the expectations of the audience.

Okay, let's have a listen to that.

This is the legendary Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, recorded by Deutsche Grammophon in 1977, doing the Habanera from Carmen.

Habanera ... ... ...