Carmen's Habanera Case

Carmen's Habanera

Arguably the most famous tune in opera history, Carmen's Habanera from Bizet's Carmen, has become an ode to feminism and a woman' personal sense of sexuality. Maria Ewing's performance certainly does not fall short of what Bizet had hoped to convey with Carmen's character. Through the employment of costumes and staging, she portrays the Carmen that Bizet would have been proud to see.

Carmen's Habanera is a hypnotic piece of music, set to a driving chromatic beat that juxtaposes all other character's melody lines in the show. This chromatic line is created by Bizet to evoke the body and make one feel sexually alive and free. The term Habanera is used to describe a dance done in Havana, giving way to the idea of Orientalism within Carmen's character. She, along with her musical numbers, is exotic and foreign sounding, adding an air of mystery about her to her western audience. Along with her mysterious characteristic, she also holds a strong sense of self-confidence as self-reliance. She makes it clear that she needs no man to be happy. The text of this aria is talking about the fact that she is free as a bird and her love cannot be tamed or tied down for long. All men who wish to get involved should beware of her and her indecisive attitudes towards love. Maria Ewing's portrayal of Carmen is a captivating one that Bizet would have been completely satisfied with.

The stage production of Carmen with Maria Ewing uses all of the right methods to make Ewing the Carmen that Bizet would have wanted. The costuming is the first prominent aspect that makes Ewing's Carmen look like an independent sexual woman. While all other women around her are wearing traditional conservative dress, Carmen wears a plain petticoat and an embroidered corset, with a rose tucked away in the cleavage of her breasts. Her hair is loosely thrown up on her head, with a few tendrils falling around her face. This relaxed, somewhat provocative costume makes Ewing look like a sensual being. The look puts her sexual availability on display and beckons handfuls of men throughout the song to snag a piece of her while she flits about, singing the Habanera. The scenery looks as though Carmen is placed in a public bar setting, creating a more relaxed setting that would make it more appropriate for Carmen to sing about her desires in the way that she does. In terms of the staging, the director chooses to have many men grab and caress Carmen, stealing kisses on her hands and neck while she is singing. Bizet would agree with this staging choice wholeheartedly, as it portrayed Carmen as desirable and in control of who she chooses to lust after. Bizet wrote Carmen to be an opera that was extremely feminist and raw and the way that Maria Ewing's production was played it followed the way that Bizet would have liked to see his opera played; sensual,