More Micaela

[igenlode]

I spent some time looking for a "Carmen" libretto that gives the original, non-recitative dialogue just in case it gives any more detail about Micaela and her precise relationship with José's mother; it doesn't really, although at least it doesn't contradict as such anything that I've written. The spoken dialogue is just a little more explicit about the content of the letter and the mother's desire that they should marry because the girl is "gentille" and "sage", although one interesting element is Carmen's initial claim to be from José's province -- a nod back to Merimée's novel, where she contrives her escape by speaking to him in Basque and appealing to his fellow-feeling rather than (at this point in the plot) by seducing him.

I'm not entirely happy about this domestic scenario of mine, since ironically enough it's based off a couple of elements in Robin Norton-Hale's revised version that don't actually exist in the original libretto; however, at least it doesn't turn out to be actively incompatible with canon.

This is turning out to be more of a 'what happened behind the scenes' tale than I'd anticipated, as I became more interested in Micaela as a character in her own right rather than just as narrator. The result is that I now need to decide what is going to happen to her at the end of the story -- it really is completely open, as I hadn't planned to go into the question of her future...