CARMEN OPERA SERIES

Other groups of Roma that came through eastern Europe were also mistakenly identified as originating in Bohemia, hence another misnomer exonym for the Romani people, bohemians. Linguistic and genetic evidence point to the Roma coming to Europe from northern India. The slur’s etymology comes from “Egyptian,” a case of mistaken identity for the Roma who came to Europe through northern Africa. It can easily be replaced with accepted endonyms for the ethnic group: Rom, Roma, or Romani people. It is a term that I’ll only use in sourced quotations in this article, edited as above, and one I encourage all of us to excise from our vocabularies because of its history-and its present-as a racist slur. If we look a bit more closely, however, we discover that the sexualization of the title character-and, more specifically, the exoticism of her ethnic minority-is precisely what Carmen is about.Ĭarmen has always been called a “g*psy,” an exonym for the Romani people that has long been used as a pejorative slur, often to justify oppressive public policy.

Opening a novella by saying women are only good for sex is a far cry from our 21st-century view of Bizet’s famous opera, an interpretation that paints Carmen as a “free-spirited, independent woman” who simply happened upon a murderously possessive partner in Don José. But she has two good moments: one in bed, the other at her death.” If you could read Greek, and if you owned a copy of Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella Carmen, the basis for Bizet’s opera, you would notice that the tone of the story is revealed in its opening inscription by fifth century poet Palladas: The next three installments will appear in Cues editions for The Snowy Day, The Magic Flute, and Turandot.

CARMEN OPERA SERIES

Great art, harmful stereotypes, and a 21st-century dilemmaĮditor’s note: This article is the first in a four-part series examining race and representation in opera.

Carmen opera