This is the first time that the complete text of the verses that Bizet set to music and the
full dialogue (much of it especially translated for this Opera Guide), have ever been
published.

"Bizet describes himself as ‘pagan’, and Carmen has a savage Mediterranean beauty
quite unique in music. The essays included in this guide suggest some reasons for its
legendary theatrical appeal. Martin Cooper describes the traditional mixture of spoken
words and song that stimulated Bizet to exclaim, ‘I want to revolutionize opéracomique!’:
the translators show the ingenious and inspired ways in which he set about
it. Lesley Wright analyses the score and Michael Rabaud shows the uncanny
appropriateness of Nietzche’s support for Bizet in his famous attacks on the decadence
of Wagner. This is the first time that the complete text of the verses that Bizet set to
music and the full dialogue (much of