What's a gypsy? I've never knowingly met one (I've heard of gypsy moths.) I remember hearing the Irish Rovers singing "The Gypsy Rover," about a lady of quality falling for a gypsy's charms. In my opera group I've done chorus parts in Bizet's Carmen, in which a gypsy woman leads a soldier astray and gets knifed by him in the end. And in my choir we sang Verdi's Il Trovatore once, which also involves gypsies.
Gypsies appeal to operagoers because we see them in romantic terms, though in real life they sometimes get discriminated against. (Some got murdered by the Nazis!) I once read a Tintin comic book that dealt with anti-gypsy prejudice. Some gypsies prefer being called Roma, so I'll keep that in mind if I ever meet one.
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