Carmen review

Where do I start with Carmen? The story itself was so intricate and not really what I was expecting, from the down fall of Don Jose’s character, to Carmen’s desire and hold to her freedom, I was pleasantly surprised of the entire story line. I loved how we could see Jose slowly fall deeper and deeper into basically his obsession and madness towards Carmen and his destruction, and how his two love interests paralleled each other. Carmen herself was such a complicated character that I don’t really know what to make of her, which I love. The first impression I got of her was just a tremendous manipulative flirt who knew she was attractive, and used her looks to get whatever she wanted.  That image of her continued for me throughout the entire opera until the very last scene where she says she rather die than live without her freedom. That line for me really changed my perspective of Carmen and had me pause and review all her past actions, and see even though she was manipulative and selfish, she was also a strong woman who refused to live her life on anyone else’s terms. In general, I enjoyed the opera, most likely because of the story of Carmen and the interesting music that was performed.