Finding a Spanish Voice for Carmen

In Chapter 7, the focus returns to Spain, where Sevillian opera singer Elena Fons built on her own local heritage to create a new authenticity as Carmen, applauded throughout the Latin world. The influence of verismo in tandem with the acceptance of Carmen in Spain was to have a significant impact on Spanish composers searching for a national operatic voice, their new lyric works leading to comparison with and ambivalence toward Bizet’s opera. The chapter ends with a case study of Maria Gay, the internationally renowned Catalan opera singer who created a reading of Carmen that was both modern and Spanish, defining it as a verismo role while critically engaging with the layers of Hispanic stereotype it had accrued.