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Is "Carmen" Anyone's Favorite Opera?

7.6K views 62 replies 34 participants last post by  Eva Yojimbo  
#1 ·
I've seen it twice, once in my early days of opera going with Crespin and a second time when Kaufmann was scheduled to sing Don Jose and cancelled.
I can't imagine ever wanting to see it again unless there's an outstanding cast.
 
#8 ·
Haha. He liked to pretend it was - or momentarily convinced himself it was - in order to stick out his tongue at Wagner, especially Parsifal. He ended up asking that his extravagant praise of Carmen not be taken seriously, and wrote that Parsifal made "other really good music, which I have at other times heard and loved," seem like "a misunderstanding."

Which is not to say Carmen wasn't one of his favorite operas.

It isn't one of mine, except once every decade or so when I put on the Callas recording and feel that other good interpretations are "misunderstandings."
 
#23 ·
Not my favourite opera, but I adore the finale. When performed well, it is a beautiful piece of drama.


I’ve always been thoroughly disappointed by that recording with Thill, I find it totally lifeless throughout. I love his Werther but this Carmen doesn’t do it for me. I really can’t think of a complete recording of Carmen that I actually like. There’s a great one from Marseilles with Germaine Cernay although the sound isn’t great. The Cluytens and Beecham recordings are beautifully conducted but I‘m not particularly enamoured with the casts, especially the tenors. The Callas recording doesn’t do a great deal for me either, Gedda sounds more like a Tamino than Don Jose. There’s a live Solti recording with Verrett which is enjoyable but then Solti’s conducting is a little relaxed for my tastes. The live Italian versions are exciting but make the opera sound like verismo. Neither Price or Corelli work in Karajan’s recording, the Schippers Carmen is one of Del Monaco’s worst records, the Reiner is good but Albanese is a little late in her career for Micaela. One of those operas that has been surprisingly quite unlucky on disc.
 
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#22 ·
I wouldn't call it a favourite, but every time I listen to the Callas recording I'm reminded how good it actually is. MInd you, I don't really like most Carmens (I'm talking about the character now). I've seen the opera on stage quite a few times now and Baltsa at Covent Garden got her. No silly, hip swinging vampishness. She was a real free spirit, a bit of a wild cat, but a woman who absolutey refused to subjugate herself to a man's idea of what she should be. Unfortunately on record, she is hampered by Karajan's slow tempi and by the use of an actor speaking her dialogue and, by the time the Met video was filmed, her portrayal had lost its spontaneity. On record I can only really take Callas, who understands the character better than anyone else I've heard.
 
#25 ·
Blimey. I never took so many of you to be such musical snobs. It’s not my favourite opera by any means but it’s in my top thirty at least. And it is way ahead of anything by Bellini or Donizetti in my book! 😇😎
 
#26 · (Edited)
I'd probably agree with you. Well, maybe not Norma, but the problem with Norma is it doesn't make its full effect without a truly great leading soprano (I'm thinking Ponselle, Callas, Caballé). Carmen can withstand some less stellar performances and, though I have pretty definite ideas of how I want my Carmen and José to be, the music still carries it along.
 
#32 ·
The first Verisimo opera ? and it shocked and scandalised early audiences, for those reasons alone I think its great. Not in my regular rotation though. Favorite quote...😄

For we humbly
and most respectfully acknowledge:
when it's a question of trickery,
of deception, of thieving,
it's always good, I swear,
to have women around.
And without them,
my lovelies,
no one ever does
any good!