Julien Giovanetti (ARTISTES LYRIQUES)
2 Rue Lamblardie, 75012 Paris, France

A specialist in Mozart and performer of numerous operas throughout the world, Julien Giovannetti was a bass-baritone at the Opéra-Comique, Paris. Originally from Bône in Algeria, Giovanetti played for the local football team AS Bône in his youth (they competed in the French amateur championship in 1959-1960 and 1961-1962).

CARMEN (Bizet)
Parle-moi de ma mere – JANINE MICHEAU and LIBERO DE LUCA
Seguidilla – SUZANNE JUYOL and LIBERO DE LUCA
Toreador’s Song – JULIEN GIOVANNETTI
Voyons que j’essaie—En vain pour eviter (Card Song) – SUZANNE JUYOL
with Opera Comique Orchestra, Paris, conducted by ALBERT WOLFF

Bizet’s Carmen (1875) is set in and near Seville, about 1820. In the first act Don Jose, a Corporal of Dragoons, is fatally attracted by the gipsy Carmen, although he is betrothed to Micaela, a girl of his own district. Micaela meets him in the square in Seville and gives him a letter from his mother, who also sends him a kiss by her messenger. In the course of a charming duet with Micaela, Jose remarks that the kiss removes the peril in which he stood through his attraction to Carmen.
Later in the act Carmen is arrested by the guard for her part in a riot, and Don Jose has to take her into custody. But she sings him a Seguidilla, vamping him mercilessly the while and inviting him to join her as her lover at the inn of Lillas Pastia, near Seville. The weak corporal surrenders to her charms and agrees to release her if she promises to return his love.

The second act of the opera takes place at Lillas Pastia’s tavern. Amongst the company is the principal toreador of Seville, Escamillo—soon to be Jose’s rival for Carmen—who sings his world-famous description of a bull-fight.
The third act is set in a wild spot in the mountains near Seville. Jose has deserted his regiment and followed Carmen to the mountains, where she has taken up with a band of smugglers. She and her companions are telling their fortunes by cards, and, drawing a diamond and a spade, Carmen finds that both she and Jose are to die. In a gloomy solo, she accepts the prophecy, which is justified by the later events in the opera.