Bizet, Georges

Bizet - Carmen / Levine, Baltsa, Carreras, Metropolitan Opera

Georges Bizet - Carmen / Peter Hall, Bernard Haitink, Maria Ewing, Barry McCauley, London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Carmen is one of the few indisputable masterpieces of its time to be composed for a small theater and Glyndebourne provides a heaven-sent backdrop for this sizzling Peter Hall production. "Bizet's score sounds miraculous in this theatre. " FINANCIAL TIMES. The accent is on stark realism and dramatic intensity. An electrically vivid Carmen is portrayed by Maria Ewing ".a rare combination of gifted singer and outstanding actress" SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. Bizet's famous Spanish gypsy is matched with the sentimental Don José of Barry McCauley ".an American tenor of real promise.a thrilling Don José" OBSERVER. Bizet's famous score includes such favorites as the Habanera, The Flower Song, The Toreador's Song and perhaps the most famous overture of all opera. "The London Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink is honouring every treasurable detail of Bizet's enchanting score" INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE.

Bizet - Carmen / Obraztsova, Domingo, Mazurok, Buchanan, Rydl, Zednik, Kleiber, Vienna Opera

Georges Bizet - Les Pecheurs de Perles / Massis, Grassi, Nakajima, De Donato, Viotti, Pizzi (Teatro la Fenice, Venice)

Bizet - Carmen Ballet / Mikhail Baryshnikov, Zizi Jeanmarie

There's never been a Carmen like this one - there's never been a Don Jose like Baryshnikov! Ballet superstars Mikhail Baryshnikov and Zizi Jeanmaire sizzle in this erotically charged ballet set to the music and story of Carmen. The program's highlight is a sexy duet between the show's stars, in which they express their fatal attraction. Famed choreographer Roland Petit created this dance spectacular, set to Georges Bizet's classic music. This remarkable ballet provides Baryshnikov with one of his greatest roles, and proves yet again he is the most charismatic performer of our time!

Bizet - Carmen / Jordan, McVicar, von Otter, Haddock, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

EXTRA FEATURES: Costume design • How to fight on stage • Illustrated synopsis • The cast and their characters • Choreographing Carmen • The Gardens of Glyndebourne • Booklet with new short story by novelist Jeanette Winterson An exhilarating new Carmen from Glyndebourne. Director David McVicar describes Carmen as "the first ever musical", and in his new production, with Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role, Carmen is restored to the original Opera Comique as Bizet wrote it, stripping away subsequent re-workings which turned it into a grand opera. Philippe Jordan makes his Glyndebourne debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Chorus and a cast that includes Marcus Haddock, Laurent Naouri and Lisa Milne.

Bizet - Carmen / Domashenko, Berti, Aceto, Dashuk, Pastorello, Josipovic, Lombard, Verona Opera

Bizet - Carmen

Bizet's tale of the fiery gypsy and her naive, ultimately murderous lover, is an operatic staple but few versions boast such well-acted, brilliantly sung leading roles. Grace Bumbry's Carmen is a beautiful, witty temptress, amused at the deliriums she induces. Bumbry's facial expressions and body movements help create a nuanced character, and her singing is compelling, especially effective in the big moments; the Habanera done with languorous flirtatiousness, the Seguedilla entrancing.

One of opera's greatest singing actors, Vickers portrays the unworldly soldier of Act One before morphing into the tortured hero torn between love and duty of Act Two and finally, the insane outlaw of the finale. He and Bumbry strike sparks in the tavern scene and his "Flower" aria is the vocal and emotional highlight, begun in a throaty half-voice and building into an overwhelmingly intense cri de coeur. Mirelli Freni's Micaela, the village girl Don Jose abandons for Carmen, acts and sings her arias with vocal beauty and charm to burn. Justino Diaz is a straightforward Escamillo in a part that wants more flair and self-centered smugness. Smaller roles are adequately done.

Herbert Von Karajan directed and conducts. He's seen during the Prelude and the entr'actes in his closed-eyes mode of conducting. This Munich-made film is based on 1967 Salzburg Festival performances. It's without obvious lip-synch problems, but busy camera work indulges in many meaningless close-ups, including a shoe-top view of von Karajan's hands. Not as cohesive as Kleiber's DVD or Levine's MET production, but a must-have for Bumbry and Vickers. --Dan Davis

Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, Domingo

This is the most popular opera production so far on DVD, surpassing even Franco Zeffirelli's lavish, symbol-laden La Traviata. It is an exciting Carmen, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress--even better than Maria Ewing in the competing DVD edition from Covent Garden, though Ewing acts very well and has a more appropriate voice.

This movie version was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence hard to achieve in a staged performance shot for television. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes. The opening titles are superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. The changing of the guard in the opening scene, with the boys' chorus playing soldier, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act II, the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout, all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. But the music is, on the whole, more effectively performed in the Covent Garden production, which also handles close-up shots better, perhaps because it was directed with a small screen in mind. The opera house atmosphere will make hard-core opera fans feel more at home. The movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. --Joe McLellan

All the passion and spectacle of Bizet's Carmen comes to life in this dazzling screen opera starring Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson. In 19th century Seville, the lusty, tempestuous Carmen (Migenes-Johnson) seduces a naive Army corporal, Don Jose (Domingo), newly assigned to the village fortress. Jose abandons his career, his fiancée and even his dying mother for the love of this sultry gypsy. But soon she spurns him in favor of a toreador, Escamillo (Ruggero Raimondi). Crazed with jealousy, Jose begs Carmen to return to him, but her taunting declaration of independence results in tragedy. Shot entirely on location in Andalusian Spain, Bizet's Carmen has been hailed as the definitive version of this classic opera. 155 minutes.

Bizet's Carmen -- film version [Import]

This movie version of Bizet's popular opera Carmen was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence that's hard to achieve in a staged performance. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes, with the opening titles superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. Elsewhere the changing of the guard, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act 2, and the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. It's an exciting Carmen, too, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, though, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress. Unlike most opera-house performances this movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. -------- Sub Titles: Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish