Summary: Dixie Carmen
Assignment 3: Article Summary by Andrew Velez
- Fauser, Annegret. “‘Dixie Carmen:’ War, Race, and Identity in Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones (1943).” Journal of the Society for American Music 4, no. 02 (2010):
Summary:
This article captures the history, reception, development and effects of a unique stage (and later, film) production entitled Carmen Jones. It was Oscar Hammerstein II’s adaptation of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, and was written in December of 1943 featuring an all–African American cast. Hammerstein originally began work on Carmen Jones a month after Pearl Harbor, in January 1942, alongside a Porgy and Bess revival. Hammerstein’s original version, set in a Southern town and among African Americans, shows the influence of the revised version of Porgy and Bess, with Catfish Row echoed in a cigarette factory in South Carolina and the “Hoity Toity” night club. However, after roughly eighteen months Hammerstein found a producer for an altered setting in a parachute factory in urban Chicago which reflected new priorities brought on by wartime changes. It would prove to be a commercial success with a Broadway run of 503 performances over a two-year time frame, but the live version has been overshadowed since the mid-1950’s by its glamorous Hollywood offshoot starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. The original 1943 stage production of Carmen Jones has received only scant attention from musicologists and theater historians.
Fauser continues to give a full-depth look at the rich history of the show, but also the creation and events of its post-production. The impact of Billy Rose would prove to be a huge factor in making the production so successful in terms of over-the-top outfits, scenes, etc. The article cites pictures of the original production and excerpts of the music written by Hammerstein. Dialect was a huge aspect of the production that stirred European-opera followers, similarly to Hot Mikado or Swing Mikado. Fauser’s analysis gives a thorough and genuine portrayal of the production, with balanced tone that does not give readers a direct opinion, but rather, guides the reader to develop their own conclusions.
Sources:
Primary materials such as various versions of the scripts and scores, stage promptbooks and design notes, and vintage newspaper stories/reviews were used as sources. Reviews seemed to be the forefront of information pulled to sculpt an understanding of the stylistic differences and proper cast descriptions. Secondary commentary in relation to topics and sub-topics were also used in conjunction with scholarly interpretation.