Recommended Recordings
Compiled by Peter Russell
In common with, say, The Tales of Hoffmann , one can argue endlessly in discussing recorded interpretations which performance edition to choose. In the end, however, actual performance bulks large in determining which version of Carmen best captures the flavor and style of the piece.
For many of us, the best all-around commercial recording remains the 1959 EMI version conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham with Victoria de Los Angeles as a bewitching Carmen. Beecham makes use of the standard Guiraud recitatives rather than the original spoken dialogues, but who cares? Excepting a slightly vinegary, albeit authentically French, Micaëla from Janine Micheau, the balance of the cast, led by Nicolai Gedda and Ernest Blanc, is excellent. Beecham unerringly finds the right mix between insouciance and passion in the score. Supporting roles?unusual among recordings of this work, yet important?are all taken by French singers, and the orchestra and chorus are both French as well.
If you prefer your Carmen big-boned and broader in scale (i.e., about as Gallic in flavor as a slice of Sachertorte), check out the RCA 1963 recording with Herbert von Karajan leading the Vienna Philharmonic with Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, Mirella Freni, and Robert Merrill. This is an exciting take on the piece as Grand Opera rather than as opéra-comique , sung by people with big, passionate, juicy voices and uniformly bad French.
Somewhat along the same lines?only this time reinstating the spoken dialogues?is Sir Georg Solti's 1975 take on the opera for DECCA. With Belgian José van Dam as the sole Francophone among his four principals (and arguably the finest Escamillo on records), Solti nonetheless brings an exceptional drive and alertness to the score, and when the remaining principals are as vocally gifted as Tatiana Troyanos, Placido Domingo, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, there is much to please the ear.
All available videos of Carmen are problematic to some degree. However over-blown Francesco Rosi's 1984 RCA/Columbia Pictures studio film may be, it is a must-see to experience the performance of Julia Migenes-Johnson in the title role, one of the all-time great operatic performances captured on video (by an artist who never actually performed the role in the theater). Migenes-Johnson's acting style for the camera is so natural, and she inhabits the role so completely, that the performances of her colleagues (Placido Domingo, Faith Esham, Ruggero Raimondi) seem more than usually like all-purpose ?operatic acting.? Migenes-Johnson's years of experience hosting her own variety program for German television even lend her lip-synching an exceptionally convincing quality. Single-handedly, she embodies both the enigmatic heroine of Bizet's opera and of the Merimée novella which inspired it.
Note: Concerning these recommendations for audio and video recordings, especially regarding audio recordings, it is critical to bear in mind that recordings go in and out of print constantly. If a recording is described herein as ?currently out of print,? it may again be available within the coming year, so it is always worthwhile to seek things out.
