# Carmen on record



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Thought we might take the opportunity to review the various recordings of Carmen on record. Carmen is one of the greatest operas ever written imo - I believe it was Richard Strauss who said that students wanting to learn about orchestration should study Bizet rather than Wagner! Whatever the truth the score of Carmen glitters and it has become one of the most popular operas, frequently recorded.

I have many recordings but begin with this one as I believe it's been unfairly dismissed, maybe because the producer, John Culshaw, was so scathing about it in Keeping the Record Straight, in which he referred to it as 'this wretched Carmen'.









The fact is Culshaw never wanted to make this as EMI already had a first rate version in the Beecham and he was about to record it for RCA with Price and Karajan. However, the powers that be at Decca demanded a recording for their label so a cast was assembled. Just about everything went wrong and Culshaw ended up despairing. So did the critics most of whom have slated it.
However, listening to the recording, it's not half bad apart from one rather important thing. Thomas Shippers' conducting is brilliant and the whole recording reeks of grease paint. The sessions were done at night and the orchestral playing is a bit ragged but acceptable. The quality of recording is excellent Decca of the period but you do have to accept some sound effects not all of which have worn well.
Regina Resnick is an experienced Carmen and gives a really good performance, better than most I would say.
Joan Sutherland pars her large voice down for Michaela and sounds rather good, although word pronunciation is not her strong suite. But the singing is beautiful, which counts a lot on recordings.
Tom Krause is a rather rough Escamillo with rather the wrong voice for the part. As if Pizarro had strayed into the wrong opera. But he sings with great gusto.
The small roles are very well done and the Guiraud recits and used as was the custom.
Which brings me to the rather large fly in the ointment in the form of Mario del Monaco as Jose. Culshaw relates how he wanted the elegant di Stefano in the part which would have been fine. However, del Monaco stormed in to Culshaw's boss Maurice Rosengarten, who was financing the thing, and demanded the part, and sadly got it. Frankly much of his singing is a travesty with appalling French and a lack of style that climaxes in possibly the worst flower song on record. He literally bawls and shouts his way through it as he does most of the part - like Canio on a particularly bad hair day. In fact del Monaco has the distinction of making Franco Corelli (for Karajan) appear a model of French style and diction in comparison!
A pity, as with a different Jose this would have been a front runner. But as it is it's well worth hearing. The last scene is vibrantly dramatic and here del Monaco really does sound like a maniacal killer. The problem is he has sounded like this throughout the whole opera! If only we'd had di Stefano!


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Was Del Monaco not the original recipient of the phrase "not so much bel canto as can belto ". :lol:


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

The DVD with Garanca/Alagna says it all. It is the premier Carmen for me.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

This recording of a live concert performance was made by the Austrian Red-White-Red Network in 1954. Karajan conducts the VSO not the VPO but the playing is really superb. The edition used, not surprisingly for 1954, is that of Ernest Guiraud. Karajan's performance is both energetic and dynamic - he was a different animal live than in the studio. 
Giulietta Simionato offers a clean, agile account of the title role, channeling the temperament into her singing and generally handles the role with a light touch. If not the most seductive of Carmens this is certainly one of the best sung, a forerunner of Berganza.
As Jose, Nicolai Gedda sings superbly and his French is impeccable. This is more the noble youth corrupted by Carmen than the more modern approach of a potentially dangerous psychotic character. But given that Gedda sings better, I think, than in his versions with Beecham and Pretre. It's a pleasure to hear him in such fresh voice near the beginning of his career - the Flower Song is gorgeous - and if he's a bit light of voice for the final two acts then he makes up for it in musicianship. 
Michel Roux, the one French singer in the cast, is a light voiced, serviceable Escamillo - nothing more than that. But a pleasure to hear it sung with a genuine French style.
Hide Gueden as Michaela sings well and has the right kind of voice for the role. She actually makes this into a character which is good.
The minor roles are all well taken and the recording is in reasonable mono, good considering its source.
This recording is interesting as it has Simionato's Carmen which she never recorded commercially, a wonderfully fresh Jose from Gedda and the younger Karajan live.
Not a first choice but if you can pick it up cheap (as I did) well worth hearing.


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Anyone else like this 1951 recording? Unmatched sense of spirit from the versions I have heard, including Cluytens, Beecham, Reiner, Karajan, Abbado, Solti, Pretre, and Maazel.


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## perempe (Feb 27, 2014)

today I heard Mozart's flute quartet in A major (K. 298). did Bizet steal the intermezzo from Mozart?


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

There's only one Carmen and one Carman only - Callas. No other recording or interpretation even comes close.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

gellio said:


> There's only one Carmen and one Carman only - Callas. No other recording or interpretation even comes close.


Sorry but with respect I always wonder why people make statements like this. There are an abundance of recordings and a myriad of interpretations of which Callas is just one. Callas never sang the role on stage and I for one have never been able to warm to her Carmen maybe because by this stage of her career the voice had deteriorated and just didn't sound good. The recording is also somewhat lamed by its supporting cast and a somewhat prosaic conductor. I have the recording but have never been able to warm to it. So although for you Callas might be the only Carmen it is not true for everyone.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

gellio said:


> There's only one Carmen and one Carman only - Callas. No other recording or interpretation even comes close.


I fully understand the sentiment behind this post, I too feel the same way when I listen to Callas' Carmen. However, one of the hallmarks of a great interpretation is that the artist finds and expresses things that hadn't been seen before in the work and thus opens our minds and hearts to discover new possibilities. I find great interpretations make me consider wider possibilities of a role and thus underline the point that with great art there are a number of valid different interpretations that can all stand alongside eachother.

When the specific example relates to Carmen then it is even more apt as there isn't even one Carmen when it comes to the opera itself. Solange Michel is an excellent Carmen in the Cluytens recording and very, very different to Callas. Furthermore, if Callas is the one and only Carmen, what point is there in staging the work ever again?

N.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

What a great opera. Too bad there is no definitive score, hence no definitive performance. I have several, but the Beecham, old as it is, still is tops for me.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The topic was discussed fairly exhaustively in the Opera on CD subforum, and quite recently too

Carmen on disc

Surely we don't need another thread here as well. Maybe the mods could combine them.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> The topic was discussed fairly exhaustively in the Opera on CD subforum, and quite recently too
> 
> Carmen on disc
> 
> Surely we don't need another thread here as well. Maybe the mods could combine them.


The two threads were even started by the same member about a year apart. Memory lapse?


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> The two threads were even started by the same member about a year apart. Memory lapse?


I would blame the one who replied to this extinct thread three years after the last post, when the other thread had been much more successful.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

gellio said:


> There's only one Carmen and one Carman only - Callas. No other recording or interpretation even comes close.


Sorry, but there seems to be a whiff of the Cult of Callas aspect to this - a definite statement but with no argument to substantiate it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

DavidA said:


> *Sorry but with respect I always wonder why people make statements like this.* There are an abundance of recordings and a myriad of interpretations of which Callas is just one. So although for you Callas might be the only Carmen it is not true for everyone.


Sorry but with respect I always wonder why people make statements like _"But better than anyone else!"_ when others point out that _La Clemenza di Tito_ isn't Mozart at his best. The Metropolitan Opera Broadcast listeners thread..................

So tell us, Mr. "people": why _do_ "people" make statements like that? 

(Not to get too far off the subject, but I find the idea that third-rate Mozart is "better" than first-rate Wagner or Verdi idiotic. It's annoying enough to have "people" going around confidently proclaiming that _Don Giovanni_ or _Le Nozze di Figaro_ is "the greatest of all operas" or "the highest achievement of Western culture" - but _La Clemenza di Tito???)_

My point is, I can understand being annoyed when someone states categorically that Callas is the greatest Carmen on records. But you don't have a right to be annoyed when you yourself are famous for such categorical judgments.

I wouldn't say that Callas is the "best" Carmen, since there's more than one way to approach the role. But I would say confidently that no one's interpretation is anywhere near as creative. It's a unique and powerful conception in both musical and dramatic terms, alongside which most interpretations seem bland, crude, or generic. For this listener, who normally finds the opera a bit superficial and not awfully interesting, Callas may be the Carmen for people who don't care for _Carmen._


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Maybe. I love "Carmen", and that can be the reason I'm not a big fan of Callas singing the role.

My favorite recorded rendition:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

GregMitchell said:


> The topic was discussed fairly exhaustively in the Opera on CD subforum, and quite recently too
> 
> Carmen on disc
> 
> Surely we don't need another thread here as well. Maybe the mods could combine them.


I appear to have had a brain freeze when I started this other one. Sorry. I would second Greg's point.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

perempe said:


> today I heard Mozart's flute quartet in A major (K. 298). did Bizet steal the intermezzo from Mozart?


There is indeed an echo there. I'd never noticed that before!


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Here is the Wolff, for people interested in idiomatic recordings:


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