Rewriting the Classics !

It seems that the mood to make the world " politically correct " has now moved to altering the finality of opera stories.  The talented people who wrote the music and story of so many operas that we love were telling tales without regard to the ethics that apply to women today.

When Georges Bizet wrote " Carmen "  his finale had the Gypsy heroine stabbed to death by her discarded lover.    An Italian musical foundation has rewritten this opera to completely alter the ending.  Instead of being stabbed to death, Carmen produces a pistol and shoots the man who has done her wrong.

The Foundation head justifies this on the grounds that the change delivers a " more modern meaning ".   At a time when our society is having to confront the murder of women, how can we dare to applaud the killing of a woman.

Many opera lovers will despair - but where does it end ?   We revere Shakespeare but many of his stories would attract criticism from the women's movement of today. The " Taming of the Shrew  "  would have many feminists in a frenzy, but it is hard to see how this play could possibly be relevant with a different ending.

If morality is to be the new measure in entertainment, we may have to go back and do a remake of " Gone with the Wind ".  That rejection scene where Rhett Butler delivers his " I don't give a damn "  line would be rejected - and replaced with a long winded explanation to satisfy the whims of today.

Strangely, in this new version of " Carmen "  there is no outcry from men that one of their gender dies from a pistol shot.  We are not seeing a movement to exclude all forms of violence from entertainment, because that would make the genre boring - to the point of being unwatchable.  It seems to be just the female gender that is getting prickly about the reality scenes being portrayed on stage or on screen.

Over the years many operas have been revised to make them appealing to different - sometimes younger - audiences.   A new version of" Carmen " titled  "  Carmen Jones "  simply changed the scene from bull fighters to boxers and street gangs, but with the same music and updated lyrics.  It was evident that it did not do anything to replace the original as a popular taste.

This revised version of " Carmen "  will probably suffer the same fate.  The " difference " aspect will draw some people to opera for the first time but across the world where Carmen is performed it is Bizet's original that will play to audiences.

Reducing the violence faced by women is mainly a matter of education.  It will not be achieved by denigrating the brilliance of the old masters by destroying their story lines !