Word: carmens
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...measure of a masterpiece is the amount of abuse it can take. The hit tunes from dozens of operas have been ragged, jived, jazzed, boogied, swung and popped-and most of them have emerged little the worse. Carmen, especially, has survived countless transmutations. Geraldine Farrar, Theda Bara and Rita Hayworth all vamped their way through screen versions; Bea Lillie mauled it at the Met. Maya Plisetskaya danced it to an orchestration including 47 percussion instruments. Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones gave Bizet's gypsy girl a surname and set her to work packing parachutes in the Deep South...
...rock version was inevitable. The Naked Carmen is a rock extravaganza in which Bizet's score is emotionally stripped, musically raped and symbolically incinerated in a simulated atomic blast of electronic caterwauling. Written, arranged and produced for Mercury Records by Composer John Corigliano and Record Producer David Hess, The Naked Carmen regards Carmen as a Women's Lib heroine. "Free, honest, a hippie traveling around like the gypsies in Spain," Hess explains. "But Micaela is a bitch, a real castrating female. In the opera she minces up and whines, 'Here's a kiss from your mother...
Halfway through, The Naked Carmen strips off its campy veneer and goes for the jugular. The March of the Toreadors suddenly becomes Deutschland über Alles as crowds roar "Sieg Heil!" Then Spiro Agnew denounces effete snobs-and the band plays Stars and Stripes Forever. It is as devastating as a knee in the groin. Children shrill the Gypsy Song, break into a tapdance and a pianist plays an ornate set of embellishments on the first phrase of the Habañera; he knows all the tricks but cannot remember the melody. The Card Song is swallowed by a monstrous...
Artists come off differently under photographic inspection. Tenor Jon Vickers is a powerful stage actor, but he seems meek and calculated in Carmen and I Pagliacci. Raina Kabaivanska, a bland personality at the Met, emerges as a film actress of subtlety and range. Best of all is the Hamburg Opera's leading lady, American Arlene Saunders, who illuminates her roles with humor, and warm, emotional singing...
...black contribution to modern dance has been enormous. Performers include Katherine Dunham, the Alvin Ailey company, and many black stars like Clive Thompson, Mary Hinkson, Matt Turney and Carmen de Lavallade. But in classical ballet, there is still sharp prejudice...