LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN Directed by Peter Brook
A conversation between Prosper Mérimée and Georges Bizet, overheard in the smoking room of the Parnassus Club:
Mérimée: And so, my friend, what do you think of the job this fellow Peter Brook has done with your Carmen"!
Bizet: Excuse me, but I do not regard it as my Carmen.
Mérimée: Oh, come. I admit there have been a few changes—
Bizet: A four-act work that takes nearly as many hours to perform is chopped to a single act of 82 minutes, the entire cast is reduced to four singers and two speaking parts, the plot and music...