Carmen!

[Lilas Pastia]

Good decision. That'll do nicely until you get to see Migenes 'in the flesh' - seeing is believing!

[DarkAngel]

Good decision. That'll do nicely until you get to see Migenes 'in the flesh' - seeing is believing!

At least we have youtube videos to get a taste............

Have you seen the Callas Forever movie where Maria Callas (Fanny Ardant) is asked to star in a Carmen movie and lip sync to her original vocal recording? Not a great movie but entertaining for Callas fans, notice the "head toss" that Ardant uses to mimic Callas singing style 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITvRxoIKNBM

[Lilas Pastia]

I haven't seen it, but this clip is certainly entertaining. Fanny Ardant (long time companion of François Truffaut) is one of my favourite actresses. She has a magnetism that is irresistible. She seems to do more with the facial expressions than Callas did. Not overinterpreting, but really living up every moment of the aria. Callas (in concert) was more playful - she never lets the smile go away.

What role does Jeremy Irons play in the film? He, too, is one of my faves!

[DarkAngel]

What role does Jeremy Irons play in the film? He, too, is one of my faves!

Jeremy Irons is a gay producer friend of Callas who talks her into coming out of retirement to star in a Carmen film that uses her old EMI vocal recording that she can lip sync to.......at first she is very reluctant to lip sync but eventually agrees to do the project for new generation of fans........

[kishnevi]

I had high expectations for a seductive sassy Carmen performance from Shirley Verrett after the hype I read at Amazon, but it did not work out that way for me. Callas has nothing to fear from this rival performance, also 1973 Solti is a bit relaxed for my taste and doesn't have the excitement shown in his later Decca recording with Troyanos

How is the sound?  I bought three or four Opera d'Oro issues and found only one to have acceptable sound quality, and that turned out to be a reissue of a studio recording. 

[DarkAngel]

How is the sound?  I bought three or four Opera d'Oro issues and found only one to have acceptable sound quality, and that turned out to be a reissue of a studio recording.

The live 1973 sound for vocals is pretty decent but there is plenty of stage noise since a large cast is on stage for many scences with lots of movement, also Solti is not as ideally dramatic as his later Decca recording (sounds more refined like Karajan orchestrally)

[DarkAngel]

I thought Baltsa was tremendous in the role, when I saw her at Covent Garden. She was refreshingly free of those awful hands on hip mannerisms most Carmens resort to, and played her almost as a wild, untamed animal. I bought the second Karajan recording on the strength of those performances, but was terribly disappointed, not in her, but in the whole recording, which, as I said, is turgid, Germanic and overblown in the extreme. Still, Baltsa and Carreras do manage to whip up something of a storm in their last duet.

I agree that Agnes Baltsa herself has great Carmen potential, but Karajan a bit too lax orchestrally and the CD version has the kiss of death.......actors doing spoken parts!
Despite those handicaps I may get a cheap used version for Baltsa's passionate Carmen

[zamyrabyrd]

If I were Carmen, I would not mind this Toreador at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk-g6tsbAhI&feature=related

Besides vocal mastery, Hvorostovsky achieves the maximum dramatic effect by means of well-timed facial expressions instead of trotting out extra-musical gimmicks.

ZB

[Brian]

There's a new Carmen DVD with Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, and the Met, and it got a rave review from Robert Levine, who observes, "for once the last-act prelude does not sound like cats knocking over trash cans." 

[Wendell_E]

There's a new Carmen DVD with Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, and the Met, and it got a rave review from Robert Levine, who observes, "for once the last-act prelude does not sound like cats knocking over trash cans." 

So we might want to give a little credit (at least a mention) to conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.   

[Tsaraslondon]

There's a new Carmen DVD with Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, and the Met, and it got a rave review from Robert Levine, who observes, "for once the last-act prelude does not sound like cats knocking over trash cans." 

Sounds worth getting to know, and I always prefer Alagna in French opera anyway.

[czgirb]

There are two reasons the CD you have stinks:

1) Karajan: The most effortful conducting of this opera ever, completely misses the humor and wit. Actually not unlike his conducting of La Boheme and M. Butterfly. Some extremely plodding tempi and allowing L. Price to milk it add to the drugery.
2) L. Price: A complete miscast. She makes a good Aida and Amelia(in Ballo) but utterly lacks any charm as Carmen. The spinto voice is just wrong for the role. Get the feeling that she dislikes the role? Because she sure does. Fact: she sings that role because like Isolde it is a hot-ticket role for big $$$. Since no one in their right mind would indulge her in recording Isolde she settled for the next best thing.

I have the misfortune of owning the complete Karajan/Price set. You are fortunate, you only have 1 disc.

Absolutely AGREE with you.
Btw ... I owned that RCA Soria and BMG CD's version.
But don't forget ... Solti (DECCA) or Bernstein (DGG) ... it's a great CARMEN recordings also.

[czgirb]

How about Solti with Troyanos, Domingo, Te Kanawa, van Dam? I am rather fond of that set.

Me too! That's Solti DECCA ... the sound is good also.

[czgirb]

Oh my God! How can I forget this recording? It's good also.

[Tsaraslondon]

Oh my God! How can I forget this recording? It's good also.

I commented on this recording earlier in the topic. Baltsa and Carreras are very good (almost as good as when I saw them in the roles at Covent Garden), but Karajan's ponderous, overblown conducting, and the use of actors to speak the singers' parts puts it out of the running for me. Ricciarelli is completely miscast as Micaela too, though the rest of the singers are pretty good. I will always treasure it as a memento of two great stage performances, but it's hardly a first choice.

[zamyrabyrd]

As a spin-off from another thread I found a 1909 recording of the contralto Jeanne Gerville-Réache singing Habarnera and the Cards Aria. There's some interesting interpretation in the second part of the Habanera where she practically speaks the words, like telling the guys on stage - a nice touch.

She takes more breaths than most singers, probably. Whether this was a physical fault or nervousness is speculation. But maybe the public back then wasn't so demanding regarding actual technique. But the sound of the voice is lovely, in my opinion, even though this recording is probably a very poor reflection of it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9d9-rZegc&feature=related

ZB

[Florestan]

As a spin-off from another thread I found a 1909 recording of the contralto Jeanne Gerville-Réache singing Habarnera and the Cards Aria. There's some interesting interpretation in the second part of the Habanera where she practically speaks the words, like telling the guys on stage - a nice touch.

She takes more breaths than most singers, probably. Whether this was a physical fault or nervousness is speculation. But maybe the public back then wasn't so demanding regarding actual technique. But the sound of the voice is lovely, in my opinion, even though this recording is probably a very poor reflection of it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9d9-rZegc&feature=related

ZB

This Habanera is so wrong... but so compelling! It's truly a capricious gypsy woman, a mixture of flirtation and mockery. I love it. 

[zamyrabyrd]

This Habanera is so wrong... but so compelling! It's truly a capricious gypsy woman, a mixture of flirtation and mockery. I love it. 

Wrong for the era in which it was composed? 1875, the year of the first production of Carmen, is closer to 1909 than 2009. Instrumentalists and singers took, which would seem to us, astounding liberties at the end and turn of the 20th century - a kind of improvisation and putting one's individual stamp on the work.

ZB

[(poco) Sforzando]

Only $179 at Amazon...............

Very interesting. I have the VHS tape and did my own personal transfer to DVD. Not professional quality, of course, but the price was right. It's a must-see.

[Harry Powell]

Hello,
What's your favourite approach to Don José? What's more important to you, a raging final scene or an overall performance including the softer nuances in the previous acts?