“Yesterday I heard—would you believe it?—Bizet’s masterpiece, for the twentieth time. Again I stayed there with tender devotion, again I did not run away. This triumph over my impatience surprises me. How such a work makes one perfect! One becomes a “masterpiece” oneself.— And really, every time I heard Carmen I seemed to myself more of a philosopher, a better philosopher, than I generally consider myself: so patient do I become, so happy, so Indian, so settled … To sit five hours: the first stage of holiness!— May I say that the tone of Bizet’s orchestra is almost the only one I can still endure?”
– Friederich Nietzsche
As unlikely as it may seem, God may have been dead for Nietzsche, but apparently Carmen lived on and on, as it has for millions since the opera’s premiere in Paris in early March of 1875.
And not just in the opera house, either! The timeless melodies from Bizet’s evergreen opera have been arranged for practically every instrumental combination under the sun…including no fewer than three separate showpieces for violin and piano.
At a Heifetz On Tour performance at the Evermay Concert Series in Washington DC, violinist Ria Honda and pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen performed the least well-known of the trio…this virtuoso version by the Hungarian violinist and composer Jenő Hubay. Enjoy!
