Opera Star Michael Fabiano: “Carmen is a bully… She taunts Don José.”

metroweekly.com:

Carmen. Fabiano is Don José, the humble soldier who spurns everything and everyone else after becoming infatuated with the titular seductress, played by fellow opera superstar Isabel Leonard.“In light of the way the world is right now, Carmen could seem taboo for some people and some sensibilities, as a man basically violently murders a woman at the end of the opera,” he says. “But we still today face huge problems with violence against women in our society, where men stalk women until they’re murdered.

We can’t deny that this kind of thing still happens to this day.“We also can’t deny that bullying still happens,” he continues. “Carmen is a bully.

It is what it is. She taunts Don José. She’s fully aware that she taunts him, too. She pushes him so much to the edge that he becomes infatuated to the point of murder, which happens.

If we don’t showcase that there can still be this kind of unrest between humans, we’re actually denying reality. The great thing about Carmen is that it’s an extremely real story.”Carmen‘s appeal and continued relevance runs far deeper than that, though.“There are so many incredible questions to ask inside of the opera Carmen.