Customer Reviews

Bizet: Carmen

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've played Carmen in the pit many more times than I wish to admit. In spite of the two leads (something I do agree with - not the best vehicles for either of them), this is the most riveting Carmen I've ever heard. The entire conception is different. Tempos are slow. Don Jose is the focus, not Carmen. The ultimate tragedy is what drives the production. Not the color, not the brilliance. Everything is toned down to that end. The Opera-Comique version adds to the realism. You basically have the original opera as Bizet intended it, plus music that does not exist in the more familiar recitative grand opera version (the recitatives are not Bizet's).

I'm so tired of playing the 'usual' Carmen, which is played for color and brilliance, with the tragedy placed on the back burner, in addition to the usual generic stage direction given to the singers and chorus (horrible).

This is a tremendously personal vision of Carmen. In spite of the two leads (which one can get used to), for me it is the version I keep coming back to.

Bizet: Carmen I refer you to pclaudel's review. He seems to know the in's and out's of the genesis of this recording. I add, although from a fading memory, that Bernstein's first appearances in Vienna (Mahler's Lied von der Erde and Verdi's Falstaff) were greeted with rapturous acclaim and that DGG in consequence burst their breeches to sign him up. Certainly the MET production of Carmen was expected by record collector's (LP's in those days) to provide something exceptionally exciting; and the hardest thing for a music lover to accept is that those expectations were disappointed by the actual result. And so the "glamour" simmered on for years; and every now and then I would dig out the Bernstein "Carmen" and listen to it with growing disappointment each time. Pick any highlights whatever from Beecham, Solti, Frühbeck, Karajan (Leontyne Price) or Abbado for side by side comparison, and you will discover immediately what's wrong with the Bernstein set. Namely two things: the conductor's self-indulgence and the principal singers' non-acquaintance with the idiom. It was a risk putting this on record; and only the clamour of propaganda saved it for a while from being unmasked.
The point I am driving at is this. Too many reviewers in Amazon's pages plainly write after a single audition. But recordings are made to be listened to repeatedly. No-one should write unless they've had the recording to be reviewed for at least a few weeks and heard it at least 3-4 times. Otherwise the review is inevitably going to be a momentary impression and useless to anyone else. I have now heard the Bernstein recording about a dozen times over 20-odd years, and each time I am more dismayed. I heard parts of it again a few days ago, to refresh my memory; and I don't think I will ever listen to it again. Life is too short to be cajoled into experiences that are not enriching.

This "Carmen" is unique amoung the vast majority of Carmens out there. First of all, the quality of the singers is different. Most Carmens have a more youthful and sexy and sensual sound to their voices. Horne's voice, on this recording, does not sound young, sexy or sensual. But she is a supreme musician and a master of her craft, and it shows in this outing. Much of the same can be said about the Jose, James McCracken. Mr. McCracken does not have a sexy voice, but he does have ringing top notes, a beefy and substantive middle register, and an exciting baritonal quality. So you do not get a sexy, "Italianate," or lyrical Jose in the manner of say a Kraus, Domingo or Gedda, but you do get an interpretation that is influenced by McCracken's great technique and intuitive musicality. Adriana Maliponte is a pure pleasure as Micaela, with a beautiful, sweet and luscious sound. Tom Krause is competent as Escamillo - nothing special, but there is nothing incorrect or undesirable about his potrayel either. In other words, he is no Merrill or Milnes. Yet this is no catastrophe when you consider that one doesn't purchase "Carmen" for the Escamillo. The supporting singers, especially Colette Boky as "Frasquita" and Marcia Baldwin as "Mercedes," are very good.

This brings us to the conducting of Leonard Bernstein. Again, it is not to everyone's taste, and represents a departure from the "usual" approach to Carmen. The pacing is at times slower than other interpretations, at times faster. But Bernstein's consumate musicality and inate instincts are in abundant evidence throughout. He is always in complete control of the score, and his view of the opera is a valid and interesting one, even if it is not one that most of his colleagues would agree with. The Metropolitan Opera orchestra plays beautifully.

Finally, one thing that makes this "Carmen" unique is Bernstein's use of Bizet's original "Opera-Comique" version which includes alot of spoken dialogue and recitative. There is nothing wrong with this version, of course. I just mention it because most recordings and performances of the opera do not include it.

In a word then, this is a superb musical document the listening of which I found a rich and rewarding experience!

There was a lot of hype from the Met about his production, and it is acted with intensity. Although Horne's voice isn't exactly what I hear in my mind for the role of Carmen, she sings with her usual brilliance and ability. And just because she gives a somewhat different interpretation, less sexy and more tough guy than I was expecting, doesn't mean that it isn't a valid interpretation.
McCracken gives his usual "no holds barred" performance. Horne herself tells a story about the production--that the director wanted to give McCracken a real knife, but that Horne insisted that it be a rubber knife, as she was NOT going onstage with Jimmy McCracken and a real knife.
I happen to be a big fan of both McCracken, who was woefully underrecorded, and of Horne. And I enjoy hearing either of them sing anything. That said, this wasn't the best vehicle for either of them. Try McCracken's Otello or Horne's Norma (with Joan Sutherland). There are many better recordings of Carmen out there, such as the Leontyne Price version, or the one with Grace Bumbry, or the excellent Jessye Norman/Neil Shicoff recording. But I give it 4 stars due to the quality of Horne's and McCracken's singing.

Carmen is one of the greatest operas ever written - no question. It's a shame that it has been as badly played and miscast as it often as has. This recording is not perhaps the best cast ever assembled but everyone sings very well indeed - and with tremendous intensity. One has to admire Bernstein for his choice of the original Opera Comique version (one with spoken dialogue and a good bit of terrific incidental music here played in its entirety). Bernstein has conceived this piece as a white-hot drama with an absolutely inexorable march towards its inevitable tragic conclusion. His choice of held tempos, crisp brass articulation, and lush string playing all contribute towards a very effective dramatic reading. You can almost feel the heat of the Spanish sun! Also of note are the extremely careful preparation of the ensembles and choruses (not doubt with the aid of a young John Mauceri, chorus-master). This is not a performance to wait for the famous arias, but rather to relish in what is from beginning to end a terrific ensemble effort. Certainly as music drama, it's the best overall recording of this piece I know.

Bernstein rarely conducted opera in the U.S. and having him in the pit at the Met was virtually unheard of. DG made a huge deal out of this recording, therefore, but to me Marilyn Horne is an overstated, leathery-voiced, and very unsexy Carmen. Beenstein pulled out all the stops to give us a larger-than-life performance but lost a lot of charm along the way. There's a lot more to say, but even at a bargain price I couldn't lsiten to this set with much pleasure. BTW I am otherwise a big Bernstein fan.

I've attended several performances of "Carmen," at the Met and at other venues. I've also listened to innumerable recordings and seen a few DVDs. This is by far my favorite. Some of the learned reviewers here have enlightened us as to how this performance was hyped by the Met, the mediocrity of some of the staff, the artistic politics. Interesting, but none of that matters a damn. I downloaded this and listened to it without prejudice. Then again, and again. It's a marvelous recording. The sound quality alone is remarkable, and the singing and orchestral direction are extraordinary. Opera fans are among the most difficult and demanding people in existence. Imagine a baseball fan who would sneer at a hitter who had punched one out of the park, but whose slide into home plate lacked a certain flourish. That's your opera fan. Horne and McCracken wear the roles well and sing beautifully, Horne tough and sexy, McCraken strong but tormented. Bernstein conducts brilliantly, and the technical quality of the recording is superb.

However lamentable it may be, it is no secret that few opera aficionados give a damn about the conductor, especially outside the realm of Wagner's stage works (and to a lesser extent Mozart's). Yet this recording of Carmen has little to recommend it aside from the name of the conductor, Leonard Bernstein, and sad to say, his work here is quite disappointing. The underlinings, exaggerations, and overemphases in which he indulges (usually at the expense of the shape of a page or a whole scene), his neglect of the work's authentic performing tradition, and his use of an edition (by Fritz Oeser) that places the burden of large expanses of spoken dialogue upon a cast that was clearly uncomfortable speaking French--these factors and several others contribute to an interpretation that quickly passes from stunning to irritating.

This is a Carmen surrounded and driven by celebrity. It was based on a September 1972 staging of the opera that was to be directed by the Metropolitan Opera's then new general manager, Göran Gentele, whose regime this new production was meant to christen (Gentele, alas, was killed, along with two of his three daughters, in a horrid traffic accident in Sardinia in July 1972). One aspect of the production's guiding ethos--a turning of the back upon Rudolf Bing and upon Bing's decades at the company's helm--was the fact that its two leading singers (Horne and McCracken) had never sung their roles before. With the death of Gentele and the decision to place the staging in the hands of one of the Met's staff directors (a collection of nonentities that Eileen Farrell, using unrepeatable, un-PC language that would get her into very hot water today, derisively described as "skinny [boys] with clipboards"), was it then a coincidence that the bulk of critical attention was poised to devolve upon the superstar conductor, Leonard Bernstein, who had been engaged to direct the musical aspects of the production? Was it likely that the competition-averse Lennie--not yet the demigod he has since become and still a focus of contention in New York's musical life, in which he desperately wanted to retain an important place despite his departure from the Philharmonic a few years earlier--would fail to note these circumstances, especially in light of the fact that it was almost universally taken for granted by the opera fans of the day that the casting was a disaster in the making? Indeed, Bernstein's assent to conducting Carmen was contingent upon the agreement of a reluctant Deutsche Grammophon to record the production. (Those familiar with the Met of that period will recall that its chorus was habitually dreadful--the chorus that sings on the recording under review is largely made up of freelancers--and this factor was but one of several that lay behind DG's reluctance to invest a small fortune in what it correctly thought would be a white elephant.)

As for the principals, the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Horne was then at or near the very peak of her career, as was McCracken. (His fame was never as great as Horne's, yet he was a serious and frequently insightful artist, as admirers of Barbirolli's Otello know.) The performances they give, however, suggest that they failed to understand the characters or else were badly directed. With his rugged voice and bold temperament, Tom Krause should have been an ideal Escamillo, yet this role turned out to be one of his few failures (his earlier Escamillo, for Schippers, was better but still not so good as it might have been). Since he shortly afterwards sang Guglielmo splendidly in Solti's first recording of Così Fan Tutte, blaming the musical and dramatic direction he received here is as reasonable a recourse as any. Adriana Maliponte is quite an adequate Micaela, but since the part has been brilliantly sung by Freni, Cotrubas, Donath, and (perhaps best of all) Martha Angelici, adequacy simply won't do. Still, her performance is the best thing on this set.

Carmen's popularity, as enormous as it is justified, tends to make any recording of the opera the object of widespread acclaim, yet fans need to be aware that far better performances may easily be had. In particular, the many admirers of Horne, Krause, McCracken, and, yes, Bernstein should know that this recording is best forgotten. For notable performances by these esteemed artists, one had best look elsewhere.

Bernstein's gifts suited him perfectly for the lyric theater, and we are the poorer for his relative absence from it. Unfortunately, his character and temperament were largely at odds with his gifts, and the range of operatic repertory he chose to perform ended up being limited by both his musical prejudices and his patent requirement (once he was past his apprentice and journeyman days) that he be the uncontested center of attention in every project in which he took part.

I agree with the above review about Carmen in particular. However, I feel that this is one of my favorite recordings of the musicians, despite the preformers.

This is an amazing musical collaboration. She is the epitome of Carmen. Her mezzo voice is absolutely wonderful for the role. We've heard other Carmen's that are very good but this one is the best!