Georges Bizet's "Carmen" actually puts the heroine on stage much less than other operas with a strong lead female. In Verdi's "La Traviata" and, even more, Richard Strauss' "Salome", the heroines spend all or a majority of the opera on stage, dominating the action and the music. An opera like Bellini's "Norma" also puts the lead singer front and center for large spans of time. In contrast, Carmen is on stage sporadically, and has surprisingly few arias or duets in what is a fairly short opera.
This has an impact on how I reacted to the two very different Carmen interpretations by these two famed sopranos. The St. Louis-born Grace Bumbry is excellent technically, has a beautiful voice, but does not project much personality. Maria Callas of course concentrates on Carmen's dramatic potential, with a strong-as-metal personality and will. As someone with a natural taste for the pure singing Bumbry engages in, I will say that I liked Callas' interpretation on a musical level very much, which may be something of an out-of-consensus opinion. Callas pays a lot of mind to the vocal color she applies to certain notes and passages, producing some very musical effects and also colorful phrasing, and also is very rhythmically inventive. In short, I think her display of musicianship in this famed recording of Carmen is absolutely excellent. But to come back to my original point, I didn't find the interpretation of the central role a make-or-break deal. To me, it was important but not vital. "Carmen" is an ensemble opera and different members of the performance team can "take over" and dominate the interpretation.
The dominant performer to my ears in the Bumbry version was in fact the conductor, Rafael de Burgos, who leads a well-executed and -paced choral and orchestral performance. Bumbry's relative lack of characterization isn't such a problem in such a context. Her "non-dramatic" take on Carmen is complemented by a very good Jon Vickers, as Don Jose, who approaches the role as a musician more than as an actor. I found Mirella Freni, a singer I usually like very much, uninspired as Micaela and thought she had some problems with her big 3rd act aria "Je dis". One other negative is that the recording features the original spoken dialogue bizarelly not read by the opera singers performing the role, a money-saving idea that I think mars the dramatic continuity of the opera. The recording dates from 1970 and it is generally superb. Notwithstanding a bit of harshness in the treble, this is a beautiful sounding record.
The 1964 Callas "Carmen" may be the world's most famous opera recording. In a performance that has entered the realm of myth, Callas is well-paired with a very dramatic Nicolai Gedda, who offers an interpretation of Don Jose close artistically to Callas'. Additionally, I found the Micaela in this set, sung by the Parisian soprano Andrea Guiot, very good. The conducting of Georges Pretre is pretty good but I think the pacing in the best part of the opera, Act 1, bothers me - there's something sluggish about it. Sound is good for its time period and holds up well. One surprising thing about both sets being reviewed is that neither version of the opera's most famous single number, Act I's "Love is rebel bird", really hits it for me. Both are paced a little sluggishly and don't have the ideal rhythmic pizzazz.
These are two five-star interpretations of the famous and very entertaining "Carmen" with greatness in them.
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