Our intrepid man about town, Ray from MN, is back in the movie theaters for this week's HD encore of the Met’s Carmen, and files this report:
Well, I learned something tonight. Carmen is not about bullfighting!
I would have lost my meager fortune had I bet on that pre-conception.
Enjoyed it very much. But enormously different from La Boheme, to say the least. I thought the first two acts were a bit slow and unfocused for me but towards the end it was very riveting.
What is with all the tra la la-ing in some of the lyrics? Gypsy technique?
I was amused by all the smoking by the cigarette girls and the lyrics about "clouds of smoke", but I'll be danged if I could see any. Actually, I did see one of the men exhale a bit of smoke.
I wondered about the cigarettes. When were they "invented?" I would have thought about 1900, but Wikipedia tells me that the French started manufacturing them about 1845. But they first were used in Spain in the 16th century.
Who knew you could learn so much from a night at the opera? ◙
