Carmen Jones - Music

Music

Although Oscar Hammerstein II translated the libretto for Georges Bizet's opera Carmen from French into English for his Broadway production, "The music was pretty much left intact," explains Arts and Entertainment Editor Elisabeth Vincentelli, "but Hammerstein transferred the action to WWII America. Carmen's tobacco factory became Carmen Jones' parachute factory, bullfighter Escamillo became boxer Husky Miller, and so on. As if this weren't enough, there also was the 'small' detail of casting the show only with African-Americans."

Vincentelli goes on to say, "...many of the show's songs retain a surprising impact. The feverish intensity of 'Beat Out dat Rhythm on a Drum,' for instance, hasn't dimmed over the years, and the song's been covered by a wide variety of performers, from Pearl Bailey and Marc Almond to Mandy Patinkin." The majority of the actors performing the songs in the film Carmen Jones were dubbed. Even singer Harry Belafonte was dubbed (by LeVern Hutcherson), and Dorothy Dandridge was dubbed by Marilyn Horne (long before Horne became a famous singer).

Read more about this topic:  Carmen Jones

Famous quotes containing the word music:

    Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Orpheus with his lute made trees
    And the mountain tops that freeze
    Bow themselves when he did sing.
    To his music plants and flowers
    Ever sprung, as sun and showers
    There had made a lasting spring.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)