Frank Proto: A Carmen Fantasy Program Note

Posted on May 9, 2023

FRANK PROTO:
A CARMEN FANTASY (1992)
Frank Proto’s A Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass and Orchestra draws its thematic material from Georges Bizet’s wildly successful opera Carmen (1875).

A Carmen Fantasy was composed in 1991 and then premiered in the same year by the legendary SyrianFrench double bassist François Rabbath, a virtuoso who helped shift perception of the bass and its solo capabilities through his playing, composing, and teaching. Rabbath, who had collaborated with Proto on several previous occasions, was so thrilled with the new concerto, originally written for double bass and piano, that he requested for it to be orchestrated. The orchestrated version was premiered the following year, in 1992. Since then, it has become a staple of the double bass repertoire, taking its place for bass players alongside the violin Carmen Fantasies of Sarasate and Waxman and Hubay. Proto’s concerto is written in five movements. It opens with an original cadenza for the solo bass, which is followed by four of the greatest themes of the opera Carmen - the Aragonaise, Micaëla’s Aria, Toreador Song, and Bohemian Dance. The storyline accompanying each of these songs in the opera, which takes place around 1820 in Seville, Spain, remains crucial to full enjoyment of this work even in its concerto form. The Aragonaise, featured in the second movement of the concerto immediately after the opening Prelude, serves as the entr’acte to the fourth and final act in the opera and precedes Carmen’s final rejection of and death by her former suitor Don José. The middle movement is the beautiful aria in Act 3 sung by the lovely maiden Micaëla, who possesses faithful and undying love for Don José. She sings her aria in the mountains whence she has wandered to seek Don José, begging God for strength to bear the fear of being alone in such a place and voicing her desire to rescue Don José back to herself from Carmen’s powers of enticement. In stark contrast, the concerto’s fourth movement presents the famous Toreador Song, the aria of the bullfighter Escamillo, who later wins Carmen’s love after she has rejected her once-beloved Don José. In this aria, Escamillo visits the tavern and amidst great enthusiasm from the regulars, he boasts about the glorious dangers of his profession and dramatically details a bullfight scene. Carmen is present, and he flirts with her. The final movement of the concerto is taken from the timeless Bohemian Dance, which opens the second act and is sung by those inhabitants of Seville who are happily passing their time at the tavern, in particular army officers and young ladies from the cigarette factory where Carmen works. They dance and sing as Carmen leads them in a passionate song of exuberance about their lives of freedom, filled with dancing and music.

– Maggie Carter, 2023