Carmen Jones (produced 1944) by Oscar Hammerstein II is a version of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen (produced 1875), one of the most widely-known and best-loved of all operas. In transforming Carmen by changing its time and place, rewriting the libretto in English, and replacing Bizet's characters with African Americans Hammerstein was attempting to broaden the audience for opera in America. Although Hammerstein managed to create the popular success he wanted, many of his changes undermined the dramatic-musical synthesis on which the success of Bizet's opera rests. The principal flaw in Hammerstein's version is that while Bizet's, and the characters', exoticizing racism was essential to the dramatic and musical structure of Carmen, the later work eliminates this essential tension. Carmen Jones was left with the drama of romantic passion and an attempt to expand the story's moral sphere by incorporating a patriotic element. These changes were not entirely unsuccessful--since Carmen Jones proved quite satisfying to audiences. But it not only reduced the levels of meaning in the story--it also removed meanings that were intrinsically connected with Bizet's music--which Hammerstein had largely retained. In addition, by changing the characters to African Americans Hammerstein left viewers to focus on his own racist assumptions and this distracts from the story. There simply was no sound reason to make the characters African Americans, thus the decision causes the audience to ask why this was done and the resulting answers detract from the enjoyment of the piece.
Bizet, who believed "that a composer should find his subjects for himself," read Prosper MTrimTe's novel Carmen and sent it to Henri Meilhac and Ludovic HalTvy to be cast as a libretto (Dean 214). The novel had been a great success a generation earlier and was filled with those elements that appealed to the late Romantic tastes: "violence of action, urbanity and simplici...