Customer Reviews

Bizet - Carmen / Migenes, Domingo, Raimondi, Esham, Lafont, Watson, Le Roux; Maazel (1984 film)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's strange that reviews on Amazon written so far on this recording seem to have focused on the film production rather than the CD set. Although this is a sound track of the Francesco Rossi film adaptation of Carmen, it is marketed(and rightly so) as an opera recording.

First on the individual singer: they are all good, but I think Raimondi {Escamillo} and Domingo {Don Jose} stand out. Both perform superbly (and this is assuming you're just listening without seeing the movie). Faith Esham's Michaela is great. Her voice is full and smooth and fits Bizet's lyrical style very well. I like Migenes-Johnson's Carmen. She sings well, with a good amount of sultry, capricious aura.

If you just listen to the CD's without having watched the film, you might have gotten a different feeling about Don Jose. Domingo's portrayal of Don Jose (perhaps partly due to his imposing physical presence) in the film is more confident than what his singing may suggest. Don Jose should be a more tentative character. {OK that's all I'll say about the film.)

Now about the sound quality. There is more background noise than other recordings. I guess this is becasue it is a sound track after all, so a lot of stage sound is not filtered out. The sound is also not too "loud," so I typically have to turn up the volumn, and end up hearing quite a bit of noise.

Recommended even just for the performances alone.

I sympathise with those who want their Carmen quintessentially French, more in the Opera Comique tradition, with lighter voices, perfect accents and generally more Parisian than Viennese, but this recording provides such a complete dramatic experience that for me, it leaves all the others - and there are an awful lot of them! - in the dust. The only other recording I enjoy as much is even more unauthentic: the beautifully sung, hugely dramatic Karajan reading with Corelli (French worse than Domingo's and without the excuse of at least sounding a bit Spanish), Price (smokey, alluring but very grand) and Merrill (vocalising marvellously without bothering much about characterisation details). You don't have to have seen the film to appreciate this Maazel account but it happens to be one of the very best visual realisations of any opera. Migenes Johnson re-trained her voice to acquire plenty of gutsy chest register without losing the delicacy of her top and she delivers that famous music with some lovely portamenti - not at all vulgar, in my opinion, just properly in character. When all is said and done, Carmen IS a bit of a slut - but a brave and likeable one! I get fed up with the already outdated interpretative wisdom that she is, underneath it all something of a lady and should be sung with Gallic understatement; for me, Berganza simply underplays the role while Migenes Johnson gets it right. Domingo sings his best Jose on record - powerful, with a rapid vibrato and some easy, plangent top notes. The surprise for me was Raimondi's Escamillo; I agree with another reviewer that it is the best on disc and the voice sounds truly baritonal - which perhaps explains why I have sometimes found his timbre too light for some of the true bass roles he has undertaken. Maazel's direction is masterly; all the tempi are beautifully judged and the authentic French orchestra, chorus and secondary roles are a delight to the ears. My only slight disappointment is encountered in Esham's Micaela; she sings neatly and expressively but the fundamental tone is thin; I miss the beauty of Te Kanawa's sound in this role. Still, that doesn't really spoil the set; you won't find a better.

This recording&the video turned me into an operanut.... I LOVE it and cannot stop to listen to it as often as possible. By now I own 35 recordings of Carmen with the likes of Ponselle, Simionato, Callas, Cossotto, de los Angeles, Callas, Crespin, Resnik, Moffo, Bumbry, Baltsa, Troyanos, Larmore, Verrett, Fassbänder.... Only Baltsa (whom I heard live as Carmen) came close to Migenes. I prefer Carreras' Don José because he is more passionate, more fatal, more self-destructive.....but Placido is amazing too. Raimondi is the ONLY Escamillo whom I really like in the role... All the others merely "act" Escamillo but he IS Escamillo. Esham is a pretty, fragile Micaela, very lovely.

I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT!

This soundtrack to the 1984 Francesco Rosi film adaptation of the classic opera Carmen has been hailed as the definitive version. Starring the famous Placido Domingo as Don Jose and Julia Migenes-Johnson (now only Migenes) as Carmen. Though it is a studio (rather than live) work, Migenes' Carmen is now hailed as one of the best Carmens ever, and Domingo sings his role excellently. This CD set also features Ruggero Raimondi as the bullfighter Escamillo and soprano Faith Esham as the innocently girlish Micaela. All of the singers deliver unforgettable performances. You will love this CD set!

I know, I know: Usually you buy _Carmen_ for the soprano, and here Placido Domingo and Ruggero Raimondi are the most famous singers.

Chill out and buy this anyway. There's every reason to believe that Migenes would have done a fine job with Carmen live and may have done a fine job with it live. After all, while she opened Hodel in _Fiddler on the Roof_, she also had an opera career.

The thing is that this is the soundtrack to a movie, so Maazel got to put everybody's best take on the track, and Migenes does a wonderful job with the role, including giving us lovely versions of Habanera and Seguedille. That doesn't mean you won't enjoy having the occasional concert version from your favorite soprano, but I found myself happy to give up even Maria Callas and Leontyne Price to get Ruggero Raimondi and Placido Domingo. That is especially true when Migenes' interpretation works so effectively in the overall context of the performance.

That is what this three disc version is: a performance with a beautifully illustrated libretto translated into English, Italian and German, page by page, word by word so you can follow it right along with the French.

Placido Domingo does an utterly fabulous job with Don Jose. Here, he acts as well as he sings! For some reason, Don Jose was Domingo's role when he sang this, and his age only improved his performance.

This may be his best recorded performance ever. The set would be worth buying the set for that reason alone.

Ruggero Raimondi has delivered the definitive performance of Escamillo. His performance is unsurpassable. It does give me pain to admit that Robert Merrill was ever second best at anything, but the truth is that Ruggero Raimondi somehow becomes essence of Escamillo for this part. Somebody may equal this or do something in a different style that appeals to a different taste, but that's what it would take. I think that it might be that Raimondi is a baritone bass, and that gives his baritone a very supported full sound, and he uses the depth of that to turn it dark, cut it off sharply or bring it up in a laugh or challenge. He's fabulous. You'll play his "Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre" over and over again.

Faith Esham's Micaela is gorgeous and unaffected. She soars through high notes as if they were nothing. If she made them seem harder, she might have gotten more attention. Instead, she delivered a masterful performance of underplaying to perfection.

Personally, I wouldn't change a note, and I'm delighted to have spent every penny.

The libretto is a separate book, too large to go inside the CD case. The product comes in a slipcase that holds the CD case and the libretto together.

Granted: it's expensive, but it's worth every penny.

Rosi's film (for which this is the soundtrack) is visually so powerful that the music could have been sacrificed. But it certainly wasn't! This performance is so perfect that, having now got to know it, I find it almost impossible to listen to any other.

As for Julia Migenes (Migenes-Johnson when this recording was made), what words could be sufficiently superlative? Even her acting in the film does not match her exquisite singing in this recording, upstaging even Domingo. The dramatic impact of the final scene is simply overwhelming.

Produit parfait délais très bien resqpectés je recherchais ce proiduit depui ssi longtemps merci merci beaucoup

This CD set is the definitive recording of Bizet's Carmen. Julia Migenes Johnson is not French, as an Amazon critic had pointed out. She is American, born in New York, Good Old U.S.A! One does not have to be French to sing Bizet or Italian Puccini. Julia Migenes Johnson is brilliant in both the acting and singing roles in the 1984 film of Carmen. She fleshed out the "dreadful" and "vulgar" character of Bizet's Carmen. Don't miss out this CD set.

I know Julia Migenes Johnson is not french, but she is the best Carmen ever. She have a sensual touch in the voice that I like. Perfect singer for the role. I have heard the Habanera many time with other singer. The others is not that good as her. You will also get Placido Domingo as Don José. He is brilliant here. I love this recording very much. I have also the film on the DVD. The film is maybe the best Opera movie ever made. I will give this the highest rating. 10/10 is my rating. Carmen is my favorite opera of all time.

Sure, Francesco Rossi film was beautiful, but from a musical point of view Julia Migenes is just dreadful, vulgar and not French at all. Rather go for Berganza (DG) or De los Angeles (EMI).