Product Details

• Actors: Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, François Le Roux
• Directors: Francesco Rosi
• Writers: Francesco Rosi, Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy, Prosper Mérimée, Tonino Guerra
• Producers: Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Patrice Ledoux
• Format: Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: December 28, 1999
• Run Time: 152 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000022TSV
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,593 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Composer > Bizet, Georges
  #48 in	Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Performer > Domingo, Placido

• For more information about "Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, Domingo" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This is the most popular opera production so far on DVD, surpassing even Franco Zeffirelli's lavish, symbol-laden La Traviata. It is an exciting Carmen, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress--even better than Maria Ewing in the competing DVD edition from Covent Garden, though Ewing acts very well and has a more appropriate voice.

This movie version was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence hard to achieve in a staged performance shot for television. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes. The opening titles are superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. The changing of the guard in the opening scene, with the boys' chorus playing soldier, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act II, the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout, all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. But the music is, on the whole, more effectively performed in the Covent Garden production, which also handles close-up shots better, perhaps because it was directed with a small screen in mind. The opera house atmosphere will make hard-core opera fans feel more at home. The movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. --Joe McLellan

Product Description

All the passion and spectacle of Bizet's Carmen comes to life in this dazzling screen opera starring Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson. In 19th century Seville, the lusty, tempestuous Carmen (Migenes-Johnson) seduces a naive Army corporal, Don Jose (Domingo), newly assigned to the village fortress. Jose abandons his career, his fiancée and even his dying mother for the love of this sultry gypsy. But soon she spurns him in favor of a toreador, Escamillo (Ruggero Raimondi). Crazed with jealousy, Jose begs Carmen to return to him, but her taunting declaration of independence results in tragedy. Shot entirely on location in Andalusian Spain, Bizet's Carmen has been hailed as the definitive version of this classic opera. 155 minutes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant film version of Carmen, August 25, 2001

By	David (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

This film production of Bizet's Carmen, shot on location in southern Spain, is magnificent. The singing and acting are first rate, as are the sound and picture quality of the DVD. Carmen, like Don Giovanni, is a complex, multi-faceted character that can be played a variety of ways. Julia Migenes portrays Carmen with raw sensuality, and it works, as we see her opposite, Don Jose (performed brilliantly by Placido Domingo), unable to escape her womanly powers. The film uses dialogue rather than recitatives, as that is what Bizet intended--Carmen is an opera comique, which means that spoken dialogue (not recitatives) are employed between the singing. The dialogue definitely heightens the drama of Carmen, and it was only after Bizet's death that sung recitatives were unfortunately used in in this opera. Because this is a film version of Carmen, there are many creative and symbolic options that couldn't be done in the opera house. The use of a live bull in the ring is extemely effective, and it is the first image we see in this film. We see how beautiful and noble the bull is, how strong and free spirited he is. This powerful and tragic image will stay with us throughout the film. The use of such symbolism allows us ultimately to compare Carmen to the brave bull who would rather die than surrender its freedom, while don Jose is the bullfighter who must kill the object he lives for and loves most. There is real frisson between Domingo and Migenes as they heat up the screen--Domingo gives an amazing performance of don Jose's gradual fall and ultimate self-destruction. There are no disappointments in the entire cast. The final act is most effective as don Jose essentially is transformed into the matador while Carmen represents the courageous bull--refusing to back down, she must die, just as the bull must be sacrificed in the ring. While they are performing their "dance of death" we are shown clips of Carmen's new lover, a matador, in the ring facing a real bull--this is a powerful juxtaposition that could obviously only be done on film. This is a striking film, one that captures the very essence of Carmen and her world, and it only gets better with repeated viewings.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bizet's Carmen in movie form, November 3, 2002

By	R. Nicholson - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I've watched this version of Carmen several times and like it more and more each viewing.

This is the first opera I've watched as a movie and the effect is certainly different than before a live audience. I don't think any movie can compare to having the performance done in the intimate setting of an opera house: and this is the reason it took me a while to appreciate this work. Having said that, this production does please the visual and auditory senses. The scenes are beautiful with a pastel quality to them: just enough color for warmth and atmosphere to complement the locations. Some of the views are panoramic while others a close-up.

The roles of Carmen and Don Jose are done by Julia Migenes -Johnson and Placido Domingo respectively. It is hard to imagine two better people for the leads.

Although Julia Migenes-Johnson has a wonderful husky voice that complements her part, it is her acting that is truly outstanding. Swiveling hips, swishing raised skirts, ringlet hair and the look that absolutely makes her the genuine temptress and seductress that her part calls for. How could poor Don Jose not fall for her?

Placido Domingo's interpretation of Don Jose is stellar. Handsome with a voice to die for! Watching his downward spiral as his relationship with Carmen deteriorates is, from a male perspective, hard to watch. The begging and pleading are heart wrenching and you cannot help feel sorry for Don Jose while at the same time wishing he would stand up for himself.

My two favorite scenes are the beautifully choreographed and sung "Habanera" and the finale "It's you! It's me!"

All in all a wonderful production of Bizet's Carmen in movie form. Highly recommended if you don't mind losing the stage effect of a live production

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant & Erotically Charged Version Of Bizet's "Carmen", May 23, 2005

By	Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Julia Migenes-Johnson is the most wanton, flirtatious, outright outrageously sexual Carmen I have ever seen, or listened to, in Francesco Rosi's lush 1984 film adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera, "Carmen," filmed on location in Andalusia. The casting of the fiery femme fatale is essential to the success of the opera, because the diva must be able to project femininity, defiance and sensuality, as well as a phenomenal mezzo-soprano voice in order to be believable. After training for ten months to adapt her natural soprano to the mezzo range, Ms. Migenes-Johnson brings Carmen to life in a manner which I have never seen. Opera purists may quibble because she was cast in a mezzo role - but why not, if she can sing the part? And her singing and acting are exciting...brilliant, actually! She really makes one understand the tremendous erotic attraction between Carmen and Don Jose, and why the honorable soldier fell so tragically in love with her.

Italian tenor, Placido Domingo, excels as Don Jose, the sincere army corporal who becomes obsessed with love for the feckless gypsy woman. Domingo's voice is in top form here, and he is convincing and absolutely dashing, in what I believe is his finest screen performance. The supporting cast is superb - especially bass Ruggero Raimondi, who plays suave Escamillo, the toréador who competes for Carmen's affections; and Faith Esham, as Micaëla, Don José's lovely and loyal hometown sweetheart. Those who act the parts of Spanish peasants and gypsies, really add to the illusion of reality. The music, performed by the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Lorin Maazel, is first rate, of course.

This famous nineteenth-century opera was originally based upon a novella by Prosper Mérimée. The story is about a poor and honest soldier who is seduced by a sensuous gypsy. His love for her becomes his eventual downfall when she abandons him for a lauded toreador. The opera was looked upon as scandalous, tres risque, for the period. When it premiered, it was called "sordid" and "unmelodic."

"Bizet's Carmen," (as this film is titled in the US), is first and foremost an opera film - and so much more than a live recording of a static stage performance. This highly energetic production was shot almost entirely in southern Spain. The real sceneries, (no artificial stage sets), are shot outdoors and feature beautiful pastoral landscapes, as well as those drenched by the southern sun, the bull fight arena, and colorful gypsy camps, lending an extraordinarily rich and open atmosphere to the movie. Pasqualino De Santis' cinematography captures the settings perfectly - and his opening shots of the bull fight are exquisite and powerful. Also, Bizet's original dialogue is used, as he meant it to be, (and is well translated with English subtitles), which makes the opera more accessible to audiences. For a period, after Bizet's death, recitatives were written and commonly used in the opera's performances rather than dialogue.

One does not need to be an opera aficionado to appreciate this compelling film and become caught up in the drama and the glorious music. This is one of the first operas I watched all the way through, and I found myself riveted to the screen. I became motivated to explore other operas after enjoying this one so much, and bought the VHS tape back in the mid-1980's. I recently purchased the DVD. The only extras are two trailers. The first is of "Carmen" and the second, "The Dream Life of Angels," which is an excellent film, but I don't understand its relevance here. I'm not complaining, mind you.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. The performances are outstanding and extremely realistic. This is a work of art to be enjoyed by the novice and opera connoisseur alike.
JANA