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| "L’oiseau que tu croyais surprendere, battit d’aile et s’envola" |
In Seth Gordon's 2013 comedy, Identity Thief, there is a scene shot in a mall where the lead female character (played by Melissa McCarthy) is on an afternoon shopping bender with someone else's credit card. The background music begins and it is none other than Bizet's Carmen. The aria being played is "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" or more commonly known as the Habanera. "Habanera is the popular name for the aria 'L'amour est un oiseau rebelle' (Love is a rebellious bird) from Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. It is the entrance aria of the title character, a mezzo-soprano role, in scene 5 of the first act. The vocal range covers D4 to F♯5 with a tessitura from D4 to D5. The score of this aria was adapted from the habanera 'El Arreglito,' originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier. Bizet thought it to be a folk song; when others told him he had used something that had been written by a composer who had died only ten years earlier, he had to add a note to the vocal score of Carmen, acknowledging its source. The French libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. It is based on a descending chromatic scale followed by variants of the same phrase in first the minor and then the major key, corresponding to the vicissitudes of love expressed in the lyrics." [Source] Watch Maria Callas sing the famous aria, and a trailer for the film, after the jump.
"Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) gets a nice call confirming his name and other identifying information. The next thing he knows, a spa in Florida is reminding him of his appointment and his credit cards are maxed out. With his identity stolen, Sandy leaves his wife, kids and job to literally bring the thief to justice in Colorado. Keeping tabs on the other Sandy (Melissa McCarthy) and run-ins with bounty hunters is harder than he was expecting, and ultimately the cross-country trip is going to find both Sandys learning life tips from one another." [Source]
