This is part of my series of opera and cocktail pairings to share the experience of fantastic music enjoyed with a cocktail. Please read the introduction and premise of the project here!
Opera Selection
Aria: Seguidilla ("Près des remparts de Séville")
Opera: Carmen by Georges Bizet
Carmen presents an exciting and ultimately tragic story. Set in Seville, Spain, the opera's heart lies in the ill-fated entanglement of the eponymous ‘femme fatale’ and the earnest, inexperienced Don José, who gives everything to pursue her to a disastrous end. In the smolderingly beautiful Seguidilla aria, Carmen employs her skills to convince the young corporal to let her escape and thus evade jail time for having slashed the face of another woman in a fight at the cigarette factory.
The music moves with a mysterious and magnetically pulsing rhythm: the seguidilla is a dance form thought to have originated in Andalusia or La Mancha, and Bizet’s Seguidilla draws from its flamenco variant to great effect. It begins almost hushed, and builds up into a frenzy as Carmen breaks down her target’s defenses and goes in triumphantly for the kill.
This Seguidilla is deliciously heady stuff! Enjoy it with a cocktail that will fill your senses with its smoky yet fresh character.
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Seguidilla Cocktail
1.5 oz Reposado Tequila
½ oz Triple Sec
¼ oz Dry Vermouth
½ oz Lemon Juice (about half a medium lemon, freshly squeezed)
3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters (or citrus bitters)
Lemon Peel for garnish
Add liquid ingredients into a mixing glass filled with ice and stir.
Strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube or sphere and garnish with a lemon peel.
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A few thoughts about Seguidilla and the cocktail
When this aria is delivered by a superlative artist, Carmen’s words in song wind their way into your senses, steadily drawing you into her world of seduction. A touch of smokiness, sweetness, tartness, and bitterness sketch out her character and the opera’s story itself. The smokiness reflects not only Carmen’s work in the cigarette factory; her magnetic earthiness is in direct contrast to the pure innocence of Micaëla, the sweetheart Don José has left behind in his home village. When Don José is near Carmen he cannot think straight; his judgement is clouded, the shrouds of intoxicating smoke filling his senses.
He is no match for Carmen and is doomed from the start. Even before the midpoint of the Seguidilla, Don José is already obsessed with her and he gives in all too quickly. Desperately he pleads with Carmen that she will keep her promise to meet him and to love him if he does what she asks.
Although Carmen has a certain kind of honey that draws men like flies, she is not a ‘sweet’ person in her behavior or demeanor. She makes it abundantly clear to all who might court her that she cannot be captured; she is free like a bird: To love her is to risk flirting with heartbreak, hence a sharp, tart edge of lemon juice in our cocktail. Bitterness is what our hapless young deserter comes to know as he throws in his lot with Carmen. All she has said is true; he can never have her for his own. Despite his descent into jealousy and frustration as Carmen publicly takes up with a handsome matador, Don José still loves her deeply and craves for her to continue to intoxicate his senses with her attention.
Carmen is a woman who knows the power she holds over men and uses it to make her way in the world. She may be seen as brazenly wanton, petty, and violent: the scene in which she and a rival’s traded insults culminate in a full-blown fight with knives in the cigarette factory is enough to demonstrate her ferocity. However, Carmen can also be seen as admirable in that she uses her abilities to harness whatever power she can, in a context where men largely determine the fates of women. Unfortunately, Carmen pays the price for entangling with a man who cannot let her go.
The cocktail brings contrasting flavors and textures into harmony and finishes surprisingly delicately, a touch of smoky citrus florality lingering on the palate. Perhaps this is a whisper of the effect Carmen has on those around her: she lingers like a vivid, beautiful dream in the minds and souls of those who have fallen under her singular charms.
Cocktail in hand? Have a listen!
Every artist has her own special interpretation of Carmen within the parameters of the artistic director’s vision. I’ve selected videos of some of my favorite artists singing this aria. Enjoy!
Anna Caterina Antonacci - Royal Opera with Jonas Kaufmann, dir. Antonio Pappano - (Note: this version is rather PG-rated in case you are concerned with young audiences, but perhaps I'm being overly cautious!) Antonacci’s Carmen knows intuitively that the young soldier tasked with delivering her to the prison is inexperienced. Unabashedly she sings and dances with a lust for life that is palpable through the screen. Her voice in the mezzo range is rich and just a little dangerously raw. Jonas Kaufmann is wonderfully vulnerable as her Don José; watching him succumb to Carmen is almost too delightful. (I am also very impressed by how Antonacci can sing and move with such aplomb while corseted!)
Elina Garanca - Metropolitan Opera with Roberto Alagna, dir. Yannick Nézet-Séguin - This version is more slow burn compared with the full-on physicality of Pappano’s Royal Opera interpretation. Garanca possesses a beautifully velvety voice that she uses to smoldering effect. The musical direction by Nézet-Séguin uses much more rubato (a slowing of the pace and drawing out of certain phrases or notes) to bring a more intimate, lyrical experience.
Jessye Norman - Studio recording, Orchestre National de France with Neil Shicoff, dir. Seiji Ozawa - Jessye Norman, may she rest in peace, is my all-time favorite Carmen. The colors and textures she produces range from coquettish and sweet to earthy and almost shockingly powerful, yet she is always poised. I would describe her voice as I would certain fine wines: a velvet glove over a steel fist. My heart always skips a beat when Norman fills her voice with a deep richness that ripples as she draws out the notes (phrase starting at 3:45 in the video). With the impeccable and sensitive direction of Seiji Ozawa, hers is a Carmen that makes you feel every frisson, every bit of danger and delight her character promises ... if you do as she says.
There are many other incredible examples of superlative artists bringing Georges Bizet’s timeless opera to life. Explore them and find your own favorites as you savor your cocktail.