“If you don’t love me, I love you — if I love you, guard yourself!” |
Christine Rice as Carmen — the original Bad Girl. |
The idea of a strong central female character that makes her own choices and controls her own sexual life, can still be seen as disturbingly transgressive today. In “Carmen,” the male characters are the ones who tag along and suffer (Carmen’s pathetic, clingy and desperate lover Don Jose), or who serve as eye candy (the studly Escamillo, who struts around singing the familiar “Toreador” song). Here’s Ruggerio Raimondi singing it in Francesco Rosi’s 1984 film of the work —
“The chain which binds us will bind us until death!” |
(P.S. During my research, I recalled listening to a recording of this obscure and bizarre pop number. It was the flip side of the 1955, 78 rpm hit cover of “Sh-Boom” by the Crew-Cuts. I could not find that recording, but here’s the Andrew Sisters’ version of “Carmen’s Boogie” from 1952 — solid, cats!)