Carmen (1915 Cecil B. DeMille film) so DeMille instructed his screenwriter brother William to base his scenario on the public domain novella "Carmen" by Prosper Mérimée. The novella's Carmen was more wilful and manipulative than the opera version. For instance, William included a cigarette factory fight scene from the book which was not found in the opera. Composer Hugo Riesenfeld arranged the orchestral score, his first of many for film, which "was" based on that of Bizet's opera. It was performed at the premiere and other prestigious screenings. There have been two restorations of Riesenfeld's score: the first was by Gillian Anderson, recorded with the London
Opera in English was the first English composer to experiment with Italian-style all-sung comic opera, unsuccessfully in "The Temple of Dullness" (1745), "Henry and Emma" (1749) and "Don Saverio" (1750), but triumphantly in "Thomas and Sally" (1760). His opera "Artaxerxes" (1762) was the first attempt to set a full-blown opera seria in English and was a huge success, holding the stage until the 1830s. His modernized ballad opera, "Love in a Village" (1762), was equally novel and began a vogue for pastiche opera that lasted well into the 19th century. Arne was one of the few English composers of the era who, although