Domestic Violence: Carnage at the Opera
You may have read my last blog on Florence, Italy. I did not mention that I attended the New Year’s Eve concert at the Maggio opera theater. I noticed that Bizet’s opera Carmen was programmed for the beginning of 2018. Its performance was a bomb to be thrown in the rarefied world of opera. As an anti-violence-against-women protest, the male director changed the end of the misogynist plot, the first militant action of the #Times Up age. Instead of being stabbed to death, Carmen shoots her would-be murderer, her dejected ex-lover Don Jos é. Carmen, mezzo-soprano Veronica Simeoni, liked the alternative ending. This plot twist received mixed reviews, but the opera run was sold out. Does crime against women no longer pay? In Italy, women are so frequently murdered that a name has been coined for this social crisis: femminicidio or femicide. Carmen is one of the world’s most oved operas and a favorite of first-ti...