“The opera is so loaded with sexual imagery,” explains feminist musicologist Susan McClary, “it is not to be believed, as we see Carmen rolling up cigars on her bare thigh. Although she is a prostitute, she is primarily interested in having sex for the sake of physical closeness, and not for getting money. But above all, Carmen is obsessed by her physicality, her body and its movements. Carmen is smart, brave, resolute, independent, and exotic. She is certainly the most intelligent person in the story, managing to free her husband from jail, and organizes all the business transactions of the band of smugglers. And in the world of opera, face it, there is no stronger woman than Carmen. Georges Bizet Credit: his decade-long relationship with Clara Schumann is any indication, Johannes Brahms had always been attracted by strong, intelligent and beautiful women. All protestations and musicological explanations aside, the singular reason why this particular work should have enjoyed such favors with Brahms can be summarized in a single word SEX! He even gave the score as a present to many of his friends. In a letter to Elisabeth von Herzogenberg in December 1883, he called it “a very special favorite of mine.” Supposedly, he attended no fewer than 20 performances of that opera and declared that he would have been ready to go to the ends of the earth to meet the composer.
Captivated by its wealth of melody, he developed a profound and passionate admiration for the work. Also, the role of Carmen is not a success for it is trivial and brutal, turning this feline girl into a cynical harlot.” Initially, Brahms disliked the work because it mixed tragic opera and light-hearted operetta, but soon he changed his opinion. If one takes that away, only educated noise is left. It is melody that is the design of music. Such a way of composing must inevitably produce works that are confused. For this school of composition, of which Wagner is the high priest, motif is old-fashioned, melody is superannuated the voice is overpowered by the orchestra, leaving only a feeble echo. Bizet as is known, belongs to that new sect that believes in vaporizing musical ideas instead of enclosing them within definite bounds. Brahms had been aware of the scandalous Parisian premiere, summarized by a local critic. Credit: Bizet’s opera Carmen was first produced at the Vienna Opera on 23 October 1875, with an extremely curious Johannes Brahms in the audience.
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