Carmen

Let me begin by stating that “Best” is very subjective, so I’m not going to declare this or any other recording as THE one to get. What I will say is that Callas turns the acting up to 11 inhabiting the Carmen character in a unique way. The result is a more three-dimensional Carmen with wider emotional range. Callas may or may not be Carmen, but in this performance Carmen is definitely Callas. Having lived in Paris for years her French is also better than most, although some vowels get weird when she has to reach (eg: tra-la-la turns into tro-lu-lu). While Callas is most definitely the star, the surrounding cast is all quite good, particularly Massard bringing plenty of swagger. While Gedda is a respectable José, put up against Massard it’s no wonder Carmen dumps him. Gedda is no slouch but he has to carry an awful lot of weight and frankly I think he did better in the recording with de los Ángeles a few years earlier. Guiot captures Micaëlas’ charm without rendering her as a weakling. Prêtre’s direction is very French, with tempos never letting things drag yet also never rushed, lovely balances between parts, and attention to detail.The remastered sound quality is fantastic, with nice dynamics, impressive depth, and very little tape noise. There’s a clarity to the orchestra sound compared to previous editions that upon hearing this one it’s like a blanket has been removed from over your speakers. The lone downside of this newfound clarity is some of the edits are more obvious now than before.The packaging is minimal with the two discs in a single-space jewel case and a single-fold “booklet” with a handful of notes. Not a big deal for me since I also own the original very luxe lp set complete with not only a libretto & translations but also Merrimée’s novella! :) At least they kept the original cover artwork.Overall this disc is definitely a winner, and the remastering is a revelation. Whether you’re a newcomer to this opera, or you want to know what all the fuss is about over Maria Callas, or have different recording and just want to try a new one, you can’t go wrong with this set.

Callas never performed Bizet Carmen on stage but despite hers by being excellent as Carmem she was not the best.There are several excellent recordings of Carmen I think is the recodng of Carmen on RCA Victor with Risee Stevans,Jan Peers,Licia Albanese ,Robert Merrill conducted by Frirz Reiner. Risee Stevens performed Carmen on stage 89 times and that speaks for its self.Great exprerence but abave all great voice. I have to stop here: This review is not about Reese Stevens but about Callas ,the Prima Donna of the 20th. Century.Speaking about Callas is difficult because she was great singer and great actress.for those Amazon customers who don’t know Callas I will writes her greatest roles:Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor, Cherubini Medea,Bellini Norma , Verdi La TRaviata, and Puccini Tosca. these are the roles that make her great.

Firstly BRAVO to Warner Classics for remastering this recording of "Carmen" - I have no idea of the technical equipment used however you'll be stunned when you hear the improvement of the always fine stereo sound. I have the EMI Classics recording which is beautifully presented with a full booklet and libretto and it should be noted that the Warner Classics has only the 2 CD's and a small booklet with the cast and and brief note 'Callas on Carmen'. The present issue is the approximate size of a single CD and fits nicely next to my EMI Classics release. Maria Callas IS CARMEN and is finely supported by Nicolai Gedda, Andrea Guoit and Robert Massard. George Pretre conducts the Orchestre Du Theatre National De L'Opera and the chorus under the direction of Jean Laforge which is first rate. Every lover of opera should hear Maria Callas as Carmen a very individual interpretation which in my opinion has stood the test of time.

Great Opera - the cast is fabulous highlighted by Callas!

First and foremost, Pretre is one of the BEST 'Carmen' conductors of the 20th century, and I would recommend the recording on HIS account before anything else. He REALLY brings Bizet's celebrated score to life in a way that is simultaneously DEAD ACCURATE and FRESH.Of course, Callas and he seem to be absolutely in sync, and between the two of them, the *TEMPI* are absolutely SPOT ON here, which isn't the case in so many recordings!!!! Just listen to the 'Seguidille' for instance, which Callas and Pretre execute in such a way that you feel like they were reading Bizet's mind AS he was composing. The rhythms are rendered exactly the way they were meant to be.I must also give a *HUGE SHOUT-OUT* to the French baritone who sings the role of Morales here. Not only is he quintessentially French in terms of the EXCEEDINGLY EVOCATIVE AND NUANCED way in which he brings the text to life - but he has the quintessential LYRIC FRENCH BARITONE voice, which is unfortunately all but lost today, all these decades later, when the whole opera world seems to have shifted to the much darker, heavier, and vastly less colourful Germanic/Teutonic style of vocal production and singing. Almost all baritones today sing roles like Morales as if they are auditioning for Wagner! Ugh. The French school of singing is practically gone now, but THIS Morales right here provides the *MOST EXQUISITE WINDOW* into that bygone world......and the baritone doesn't JUST sing everything more beautifully than you've ever heard the opening of Act 1 sung before - he also ENACTS the role in such a vivid and three-dimensional way, that you ABSOLUTELY feel as if you're listening to a flesh-and-blood human being, and not some disembodied voice coming out of a singer in a studio who is treating it like some thankless minor role. Micaela would have been unbelievably virtuous to resist THIS Morales!!The Choruses, both children and adults alike, are most authentically French, and although I think the supporting characters OTHER than Morales have probably been portrayed more memorably in a few other recordings, for the most part everyone acquits themselves of their parts either admirably, or well enough.I'm NOT the biggest fan of Massard's Escamillo here, especially the Toreador aria - where his handling of some of the words like "Il entre, il frappe" in the 2nd verse is rather messy/clumsy - but at least he pronounces everything accurately unlike the HORRENDOUS Robert Merrill, who was a famous Escamillo during that era, but whose French was really ugly and anglicized. The best erstwhile Escamillo is probably the baritone who did the Beecham recording from 1958/1959 - his shadow definitely looms large over Massard here (even though Pretre is vastly better than Beecham in almost every conceivable way, from beginning to end, as a conductor).Nicolai Gedda is definitely overall in BETTER vocal and dramatic form here than on the aforementioned Beecham recording, because I guess he had had ample time during the intervening years to settle into the very difficult role of Don Jose. He still sings like an angel, and is unquestionably one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, but perhaps not the best equipped to handle the more dramatic sequences in Acts III and IV. Putting Gedda and Callas together was still a stroke of genius, because they are such different singers, who approach their material in very different ways - but it's a MUCH MORE COMPELLING pairing than Gedda and the far more like-minded Victoria de los Angeles, and we really get a Yin and Yang sense here. A veritable CHIAROSCURO, so to speak, between Gedda's lightness and Callas's darkness.The main problem with Callas, of course, which you've probably heard/read elsewhere, is that (as she herself admitted nearly a decade later) this particular time period was NOT her vocal peak!! I'm not even talking about any high notes, but rather, I'm more concerned about her LOWER NOTES here - especially in Act 4 during the epic finale, where she JUST DOESN'T have the kind of heft and depth and power in the bottom end of the vocal spectrum that you would have expected someone with her voice type to have! Listening to Callas after listening to the great Rosa Ponselle handle those exact same sequences, for instance, is VERY DISAPPOINTING shall we say. While Carmen fit Rosa Ponselle like a custom-made glove, the same simply ISN'T true for Callas when all is said and done.It's when she sings in her MIDDLE and even UPPER registers that Callas COMES TO LIFE as Carmen and is able to make the role her own. But don't get me wrong. She is more suited for the role than Victoria de los Angeles in at least 100 different ways, and she DOES PUT her trademark Callas stamp on the part, but she was clearly vocally better suited to play the darker SOPRANO roles like Lady Macbeth or Medea at the end of the day, than Carmen.As has been mentioned elsewhere, Callas also does some utterly weird, incorrect, and inexplicable vowel modifications with "Tra la la la" during Chanson Boheme in Act 2. Did she really think that "la" and "le" sound the same in French? Surely not. That is one of the most famous pieces in the score, and Callas undermines it. Her portamenti in the Act 3 ensemble where Carmen throws it in Don Jose's face that she will distract, tease and flirt with the customs officers along their route DOES make Callas sound EXTREMELY AND APPROPRIATELY *SLUTTY* at that point, however.Despite her overall vocal shortcomings here, you can always always count on Callas to commit to the psychology, background and personality of her characters, and she DOES at least portray Carmen as an alluring but DANGEROUS, SEXUALLY IMMORAL GYPSY who will take you to the dark recesses of her OWN mind if you're not careful. A far cry from silly Victoria de los Angeles who basically just portrayed herself on her TOTALLY OVERRATED AND OVER-HYPED recording. At the same time, Callas isn't just a one-note caricature either by any means. Her Carmen DOES very much have multiple different dimensions and facets - and she allows Escamillo to turn her into a more vocally beautiful and sublime version of herself during their brief duet in Act IV. Unfortunately, her voice just wasn't capable of bringing the DRAMATIC FIREWORKS to the final duet with Don Jose the way Rosa Ponselle did back in the 1930s (if you haven't heard her Carmen, you need to listen to the Metropolitan Opera Live Radio Broadcasts which are uploaded on YouTube. Ponselle WAS Carmen. Callas merely TRIED, however admirably, to do justice to Carmen).So my final verdict is that the MAIN STAR of this album is the *CONDUCTOR*, not Callas, and that's okay. You don't need to buy a recording just for the sake of the 'star name'. But any astute listener will know by the time the recording is over EXACTLY WHY Callas never played Carmen onstage - and no, it wasn't just because of any "dancing". She was probably intelligent enough to know, unlike Victoria de los Angeles, that her voice was not going to carry sufficiently ONSTAGE with all the lower notes in Carmen's decidedly Mezzo range.