Carmen Jones, RIP

In my very early teens, I sneaked into an over-16s ‘A’ film of an all-black casting of Bizet’s opera Carmen.

Never having seen Carmen in an opera house, I was overwhelmed and not a little confused by the sexual energies that swirled through Carmen Jones and I still call it to mind when watching yet another live Carmen in the opera house.

The star of Otto Preminger’s film – and the only one who sang her part rather than having it dubbed, was Olga James. She just died, aged 95. Olga never got offered another film role.

I got caught and banned from that cinema.

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