2014 Term 1 Week 7: The March of the Toreadors by Georges Bizet

 This week's music is The March of the Toreadors from the Opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. He was born in Paris, France, in 1838 and died in 1875.

Both his parents were musicians and they wanted him to be a composer.  Young Georges loved music, but he also  loved reading and his parents even hid his books so that he would spend more time on his music.
 

He went to a special music school and won awards for composing and playing the piano.  He wrote one symphony but he is most well known for composing operas.

 His most famous opera is Carmen, but when it first opened in Paris  it received terrible reviews, saying there were no good tunes in it at all.  People believed the reviews and audiences stayed away.  Before the  season had finished, Georges died, aged only 36.

Four months later, the opera opened in Vienna, in Austria, and the audiences loved it. It became very popular and it is now one of the most well known and popular of all operas.

An image of the Opera Carmen by George Bizet

Map of Spain and France

Carmen is set in Seville, in the south of Spain.

Carmen is a gypsy girl  who works in a cigarette factory. She falls in love with a soldier called Don José, who loves her. However, he has already promised to marry somebody else. Later, he leaves the girl he was engaged to and the army for Carmen. Running away together, they are happy for a while until Carmen decides she loves a bullfighter called Escamillo. She leaves Don José. One day when Carmen is watching a bullfight, Don José waits for her and then tries to make her come back. She refuses, so he stabs her to death. Horrified at what he has done, he goes to jail. (From Simple English Wikipedia)

This video has excellent sound quality of The Toreadors conducted by Zubin Mehta who we also have a video conducting the Tritsch Tratsch polka last week. 

Air guitar version of The Procession of the Toreadors 

Here's a dance to the Toreador. 

Here's someone having a bit of fun pretending to conduct an orchestra playing the Toreadors. Listen
for the music getting faster and slower.  He also plays some of the instruments himself - and has a bit of fun with a bull.

This video gives you  a good view of the kettle drums being played. You also get to see another style of conducting.

And this one is just a very clever - and fun - way to play The Toreadors music.

The video below tells a story using the Toredors as background music. Watch how the movements and actions have been made to fit the story.  This music plays quite fast.






This video gives you a good view of the cymbals being played, as well as the kettle drums and the triangle. Watch for all the different moves the conductor uses to make the orchestra go louder or softer or stronger.


This conductor had a bit of fun with The Toreadors. How do his movements relate to the music?

Here's a very early Mickey Mouse Cartoon (1929). It's a funny version of the part of the opera Carmen. How much can you recognise?  There is some other well known music as well as the Toreadors in this. This was made in the days before colour movies.

Here's Andre Riue at an outdoor concert - where the audience are expected to cheer and clap along with the orchestra. You get to hear the brass section particularly well in this video.

And of  course, the piano keys playing the music with the graphic notation. Look for where the music is ascending and descending.

Here's a fun version called Bull in a China Shop  by a group called Beethoven's Wig

This video shows you an extract from the opera where the toreadors are marching. The singing is in French but the subtitles are in Spanish.