Operas end in death whereas football ends in ad breaks. Opera is drama set to music, comprising vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and overtures. The great operas are acclaimed for their epic quality and brilliance of melody, atmosphere, and orchestration in which story, tragedy, emotionality are superbly interwoven.
Carmen is a great opera. Written in French by Bizet, set in Spain, it tells the story of love and distorted expression thereof. It tells the story of a good man turned bad by a bad woman. José is a soldier about to be engaged to Micaëla, a good safe girl. Alas, in the town square, the cigarette factory girls emerge, one of them Carmen, a feisty girl, sings to José that love is a bird that cannot be tamed and throws him a flower. José is not impressed for he’s got his Micaëla. Later that afternoon, he’s ordered to arrest a girl who’s stabbed another in a fight in the factory and the naughty girl turns out to be Carmen, but Carmen sings to him about a night of passion with her and José frees her and for this dereliction of duty, he’s sentenced to 2 months in the cell.
Carmen waits for him and on his release they go to the hills. However Carmen loses interest as you would with a soldier when a bullfighter appears. Escamillo is the bullfighter and he can sing too. They all can; it’s opera. Carmen is infatuated by the bull. José is flummoxed, as is Micaëla who comes to save José from himself, telling him her mother is dying. José leaves with Micaëla vowing he’ll return to Carmen. Escamillo invites them all to his next bullfight.
At the bullfight, Escamillo and Carmen express their mutual love before Escamillo goes into the arena. Carmen’s friends warn her that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and waits. Alone, the desperate José entreats her to return to him. Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her. He stabs her, at the same moment as Escamillo kills the bull in the ring. Carmen dies. José confesses.
Spain versus Italy in Euro 2020 (held in 2021) had the ingredients of opera; an epic conflict ending with ‘sudden death’, and a tragic hero. The tragic hero being Álvaro Morata, Spanish striker whose function is to score, but Álvaro can’t score. Luis, Spain’s manager trusts Álvaro but Álvaro is severely trying. Luis’s patience for a striker who cannot score is like a soldier who cannot guard a bad woman – useless – and in the semi-final against Italy, Luis doesn’t pick Álvaro because he’s lost hope. Spain is really good but Italy take the lead and Luis turns to Álvaro, brings him on. Álvaro equalises. It’s redemption… but it’s not the end.
The end is penalties. Having redeemed himself, Álvaro doesn’t need to volunteer to take one, but operatic narrative demands that he does and he does and he misses. Spain lose; Álvaro is in tears. He’s comforted by Luis who tells him it’s only a game, it’s not opera; no one died. Next day, Álvaro returns home to his beloved wife Alice – she’s Italian – who tells him she overheard people say: ‘Álvaro Morata wouldn’t score in a brothel!’ She tells him that whereas Spain is the country of the bullfight, Italy is the country of the pizza and together they have delicious pizza and there are tears and hugs and love – which is the way to end these things.
It’s a rare football match that has the mix of brilliancy, narrative and emotionality that can be called epic. Spain versus Italy was truly operatic.
