CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian opera company is being criticized for banning as part of a sponsorship deal performances of “Carmen” for two years because the 140-year-old French opera depicts smoking.
West Australian Opera had been considering a 2015 staging of the popular opera about a Spanish gypsy named Carmen who works in a cigar factory. The ban lasts the duration of a 400,000 Australian dollar ($355,000) sponsorship deal with a state government health promotion agency, Healthway.
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