This week Fiona Campbell sings Habanera from Carmen for the WA Opera’s Ghost Light Opera series. Accompanied by Tommaso Pollio she takes to the darkened stage at His Majesty’s Theatre.
Every Saturday night the West Australian Opera releases a clip of a performer singing a well known aria. The series takes it name from a ghost light – the single light left on the stage when a theatre is empty.
The tune of one of the most famous operas of all time was originally thought by Bizet to be from an old folk tune. In fact he took it from a Spanish composer who’d died 10 years before. Needless to say, it’s Bizet’s version the world knows now.
The opera had its premiere in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died after it’s 33rd performance, and never learned of how his work became one of the most popular operas in the world. The composer was in ill-health for much of his life, and at just 36 years of age he died after suffering several heart attacks.
Take a listen to Fiona Campbell singing one of his most famous songs.
OIP Staff
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