14 - Carmen for the Czechs and Germans, 1880 to 1945

Summary

This chapter focuses on the politics of Carmen reception in Prague between 1880 and 1945. During this period, Carmen was performed not only in Czech, at the National and Vinohrady Theatres, but also in German, at the Estates Theatre and later also the New German Theatre. Due to the opera’s enormous popularity, various Prague productions often featured famous international Carmen performers and notable conductors, such as Blech, Zemlinsky, and Szell. Prague’s critics discussed Czech and German performances of Carmen not only in terms of artistic issues, but Carmen criticism also became a site of nationalistic debates. Although Carmenis a French opera, in Prague, it was often discussed in connection to Czech and German cultural politics. Whereas a group of Czech and German critics approached Carmen as a progressive, proto-Czech or quasi-Germanic opera, other critical reactions were mostly negative, viewing it as too cosmopolitan and an immoral, commercial anathema to national art.