March 27, 2022

As the program behind me suggests, I saw Carmen last night. It was my first time seeing it, and while I loved the music, it took me some time to process the final act, in which the powerful, independent heroine allows herself to be stabbed to death by her jealous lover after his tantrum over her refusal to take him back has consumed the latter half of the act. The best thing I can say about this ending is that it begs for a 21st century reboot, because in its original form, Bizet and his librettist crafted the mother of all #MeToo stories.