ABSTRACT

Cathy Berberian, the late great singer–whom no female performer has been able to equal since–always regretted that she was not able to convince opera house directors to let her interpret Bizet’s Carmen. And so because this legitimate desire of hers remained unfulfilled during her lifetime, it assumed the feeble physiognomy of a dream. To those who still remember her for real, that particular lack of fulfillment leaves us one more disappointment: La Berberian could have recreated Carmen like nobody else, unrivalled as she still is in today’s music.