Bizet: Carmen | Georges Bizet, Claudio Abbado, ... | A well done "Carmen" from the 1977 Edinburgh...

Bizet: Carmen | Georges Bizet, Claudio Abbado, ... | Excellent CD!

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Bizet: Carmen

	Bizet: Carmen Georges Bizet, Claudio Abbado, ... Deutsche Grammophon, 2005 average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a super performance, slightly outside the common mold. In 1977, when this was recorded, Claudio Abbado was a great opera conductor, filled with sharp insights and a nice sense of the architecture of whole operas. He always seemed to know where he was going, and his ability to build to climaxes was second to none. Abbado has a rather elegant Carmen here in the smallish-voiced, introspective Teresa Berganza, a gorgeous singer who patently refuses to force her voice or her character into vulgarity. It's a fine reading. Placido Domingo is at his best in both intimate and maniacal moments, and Ileana Cotrubas's Micaela almost makes us care about this sappy little gal. Sherrill Milnes's Escamillo has plenty of swagger and voice. Berganza's subtlety combined with the wild passions of those around her make this a very good Carmen indeed. --Robert Levine

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A well done "Carmen" from the 1977 Edinburgh Festival (but a studio recording)

"Carmen" has become one of the most popular operas in the repertoire since its premier in Paris in 1875. It was received coolly at first, but Bizet had received a nice payment for the publishing rights and it received 37 performances (the composer, however, died after the 31st performance at 36 years old). This opera has an interesting performance history as well as a very unusual plot and musical treatment.

First of all, do not be deceived by its classification as opera comique. This is a stylistic category because there is some spoken dialogue rather than using recitative. However, for performances outside France, it was supplied with recitative (not by Bizet, because he had died). This performance uses a "restored" score and does not use recitative for those passages.

How should the role of Carmen be played? First, think about whom she is playing against. The male protagonist, Don Jose, is not a hero. Once he becomes enflamed by Carmen, he spirals into worse and worse behavior. These two never become of one heart or even genuinely in love. This is not a traditional love story. There are no heroes or even a clearly defined bad guy. Well, Don Jose is a bad guy, but he is also the male lead and doesn't really fill the role of a villain in the traditional sense.

The issue for playing Carmen is what kind of gypsy do you believe her to be? She is certainly flirtatious, fierce, and will not be possessed. Nowadays, we tend to admire her fierce independence rather than being shocked by it. Her casualness towards love and sex can still shock and trouble those who believe in more traditional values. Still, this Carmen, Teresa Berganza, sees a certain dignity and propriety in her and plays her with a national pride. She is Spanish and refused to play Carmen as a French caricature of a Spanish gypsy. This is not how Carmen is often seen. It is easier to excite the audience with a more erotic (lurid) performance.

The singing here is very fine with Berganza as Carmen, Placido Domingo as Don Jose, and Sherrill Milnes as Escamillo. This recording was made after this cast (largely) performed the opera as part of the 1977 Edinburgh Festival. It sounds great. The notes are helpful and the libretto is provided in the original French with an English translation by its side.

This is Bizet's masterpiece, has many familiar tunes, and much other fine music. "Carmen" is an opera that anyone can enjoy and for a variety of good reasons.

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Excellent CD!

I love this version of Carmen! Teresa Berganza, Placido Domingo and the rest of the cast do an outstanding job! I'm looking forward to see this Opera in London in a couple of weeks! The quality of the CD is great too!

Great blending of elegance and strenght

Over the years, this is still my favorite Carmen: great orchestra, great conductor, force and over all elegance... Teresa Berganza is probably my favorite mezzo, and among the best opera singers, and here she probes it. Couple her with Placido Domingo and both spanish artist seems to rescue Carmen back to their native land, no matter how french the opera is.
This recording probably will be for ever in my collection, for sure in the first row.

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A good international performance (no French, please)

Abbado's 1977 Carmen dates form his fruitful early phase with the London Symphony, when his conducting was, if a bit tame at times, still fresh and engaging. He gained extra priase for casting two Spanish leads in Berganza and Domingo, but Carmen is French through and through, so that's no a vlaid advantage. In fact, Domingo's French is only passable, and what we have is another in a long line of Carmen recordings made without benefit of idiomatic Gallic style.

There are so few French Carmens, in fact, that one can't hold it against Abbado that none of his major singers are native speakers/singers. This is about par in three Karajan recordings (with Simianato, Leontyne Price and Agnes Baltsa), the much-loved Beecham (with de los Angeles), the Pretre (with Callas), and so on. The best of these employ French singers in minor roles as well as in the chorus. If a French singer pulcks a major part, it's usually as Escamillo.

Like most rugged collectors, I swear off Carmen every fivee years or so, only to add a few mor4e recordings when the itch comes--this is, after all, a perfect opera in its way. Didn't Wagner admire it? I know Tchaikovsky did. In any event, the Abbado isn't high on my list. The Karajan/Price recording has a wildly inappropriate Don Jose in Franco Corelli (who doesn't even attempt French, merely making up syllables as he goes). Sherilli Milnes's Escamillo is also innocent of French pronunciation, but he does sing at his best here, with a minimum of shouting.

For me, the real problem is teresa Berganza, a lovely but mild-mannered singer who firmly places Carmen in a seduction-free zone. Nor does she exhibit much anger, doom, or revenge. Abbado, too, seems content with a smooth finish, as does his British chorus. Which leaves only Domingo firing up for Don Jose, which he does admirably. He's in best voice and compares with the very best in the Flower Song as well as the final confrontation with Carmen.

I think we sitll await an revelatory French Carmen, and in the meantime all sorts of international hybrids will have to do, including this fine but not exciting one from Abbado.

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This is Carmen?

With all the hype about how Ms Berganza wanted to create an "authentic" Carmen (she deplored the stereotypical version of Spain that the opera has engendered) this is NOT the Carmen or Spain that Bizet envisioned! She has a gorgeous voice but she is not sultry, sexy, or fiery. This one doesn't really work although the sound is great and the other performances are extremely good. BUT..............this has to be considered a disappointmment because she forgot the one person she should have been faithful to, and that person is Bizet! She is tame, tame, tame! She even sounds tame when she dies! She should have been Micaela instead of Carmen. I guess she thought the inner Carmen was more sensitive instead of lusty. I was also put off by the spoken dialogue, even though I know Bizet composed it that way. The dialogue is much too fast for the pace of the music itself. Although I won't give this one away, I am still looking for another Carmen to go along with the de los Angeles version I have.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Tracks
Prélude | Act 1. No. 1. Introduction. Sur la place chacun passe | Act 1. Regardez donc cette petite | Act 1. No. 2. Marche et Choeur des gamins. Avec la garde montante | Act 1. Repons! | Act 1. Allons! allons! | Act 1. Dites-moi, brigadier? | Act 1. No. 3. Choeur et Scène. La cloche a sonné | Act 1. Mais nous ne voyons pas la Carmencita | Act 1. Quand je vous aimerai? / No. 4. Havavaise. L'amour est un oiseau rebelle | Act 1. No. 5. Scène. Carmen, sur tes pas nous nous pressons tous | Act 1. Monsieur le brigadier? / No. 6. Duo. Parle-moi de ma mère! | Act 1. Votre mère avec moi sortait de la chapelle | Act 1. Ma mère, je la vois... | Act 1. Que son fils l'aime et la vénère / Eh bien, eh bien! | Act 1. No. 7. Choeur. Au secours! | Act 1. Voyons, brigadier... / No. 8. Chanson et Mélodrame. Tra la la la... | Act 1. No. 9. Chanson (Séguidille) et Duo. Près des remparts de Séville | Act 1. No. 10. Finale. Le lieutenant!... Prenez garde! | Act 1. Entr'acte | Act 2. No. 11. Chanson. Les tringles des sistres tintaient | Act 2. Vous avez quelque chose à nous dire | Act 2. Tout est bien alors / No. 12. Choeur et Ensemble. Vivat! vivat le toréro! | Act 2. No. 13. Couplet (Air du Toréador). Votre toast... je peux vous le rendre / No. 13b. Choeur. | Act 2. No. 14. Quintette. Nous avons en tête une affaire | Act 2. Amoureuse... ce n'est pas une raison, cela / No. 15. Chanson. Halte-là! Qui va là? | Act 2. No. 16. Duo. Je vais danser en votre honneur | Act 2. Air de la fleur. La fleur que tu m'avais jetée | Act 2. Non! Tu ne m'aimes pas! | Act 2. No. 17. Finale. Holà! Carmen! holà! | Act 2. Suis-nous à travers la campagne | Act 2. Entr'acte | Act 3. Tableau 1. No. 18. Introduction. Écoute, compagnon, écoute | Act 3. Tableau 1. Halte! nous allons nous arrêter ici... | Act 3. Tableau 1. No. 19. Trio. Mêlons! / Mêlons! / Coupons! | Act 3. Tableau 1. Air des cartes. Carmen, pique... la mort! | Act 3. Tableau 1. Parlez encore, parlez, mes belles | Act 3. Tableau 1. Eh bien, j'avais raison | Act 3. Tableau 1. Nous y sommes | Act 3. Tableau 1. No. 21. Air. Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante | Act 3. Tableau 1. Mais... je ne me trompe pas... / No. 22. Duo. Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenad | Act 3. Tableau 1. No. 23. Finale. Holà, José! | Act 3. Tableau 1. Halte!... Quelqu'un est là qui cherche à se cacher | Act 3. Tableau 1. Entr'acte | Act 3. Tableau 2. No. 24. Choeur. A deux cuartos | Act 3. Tableau 2. No. 25. Choeur et Scène. Les voici! Voici le quadrille | Act 3. Tableau 2. Si tu m'aimes, Carmen | Act 3. Tableau 2. No. 26. Duo final. C'est toi? / C'est moi!

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