Carmen Abroad

From the 'old world' to the 'new' and back again, this transnational history of the performance and reception of Bizet's Carmen – whose subject has become a modern myth and its heroine a symbol – provides new understanding of the opera's enduring yet ever-evolving and resituated presence and popularity. This book examines three stages of cultural transfer: the opera's establishment in the repertoire; its performance, translation, adaptation and appropriation in Europe, the Americas and Australia; its cultural 'work' in Soviet Russia, in Japan in the era of Westernisation, in southern, regionalist France and in Carmen's 'homeland', Spain. As the volume reveals the ways in which Bizet's opera swiftly travelled the globe from its Parisian premiere, readers will understand how the story, the music, the staging and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse geographical, artistic and political contexts.

• Explores how Bizet's Carmen swiftly travelled the globe, and how the story, the music, the staging and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse contexts
• Reveals how opera travels, is translated, adapted and appropriated for different artistic, political and social ends
• The global map and interactive timeline on www.carmenabroad.org provides an engaging supplement to this voyage of discovery