Blood and Roses, a thirty five minute version for young people of the opera Carmen by Bizet, was commissioned by Interopera to accompany its professional production of Carmen, performed in the Durham Dales in Northern England in late September 2006. It was devised from scenarios developed through improvisation by the cast around scenes from the story of Carmen, and is very much the young peoples’ take on the Carmen story.

Blood and Roses retains the dramatic and musical devices Bizet used in the original.    

• motifs for Carmen and Escamillio
• recitatives that contain short melodies
• dances and arias in Spanish rhythms and styles.

The harmonic language of the piece is generally simple but contains allusions to the chromaticism of the original. Recitatives, tempo-changes and extended forms provide challenges for inexperienced singers, therefore we adopted the practice writing themes into the accompaniment before being sung. In order not to exclude weaker singers, recitatives for some characters primarily use tonic and dominant in the singing parts with the melodic interest in the accompaniment

Three parts, Carmen, Micaela and Don Jose demand some singing ability, but the rest of the parts are designed for young people with little or no singing experience.

Cast