Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875): Carmen5099996671726
Opera in four acts
Libretto: Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy
Chœurs René Duclos
Chorus master Jean Laforge Chœurs d’enfants Jean Pesneaud Orchestre du Théâtre National de l’Opéra de Paris Georges Prêtre |
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Introduction
Maria Callas never sang Carmen on stage, but her gypsy is vividly sensual, proud and witty, playing brilliantly off the Don José of Nicolai Gedda and an all-French supporting cast under Georges Prêtre.
Synopsis
Carmen, the free-spirited Andalusian gypsy, is opera’s most notorious femme fatale. Bizet’s groundbreaking masterpiece, based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée and first performed in 1875, initially shocked Parisian society, but has long held a defining place in the repertoire.
The earnest young soldier, Don José is seduced into a life of crime by Carmen, but she soon tires, instead setting her sights on Escamillo, a star matador. José returns to his village in Navarra to visit his dying mother and comes back to Seville a broken man. He begs Carmen to love him again. When she rejects him, he kills her.
Carmen expresses herself with alluring dance rhythms and undulating melodies in the Habanera, Séguedille and Danse bohémienne, but her tone shifts when, in Act III, she sees death in her cards. José’s so-called Flower Song in Act II shows a man in thrall to love, while the melody of Escamillo’s swaggering ‘Toréador’ aria dominates the opera’s overture. Contrasting with the provocative Carmen is Micaëla, a virtuous girl from José’s village, whose soaring aria is in the best French tradition; the sparkling, lighter side of opéra comique is engagingly captured in the smugglers’ Act II quintet.
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Compact Disc 1 1 Prélude 2.14 ACT ONE 15 Entr’acte 1.40 ACT TWO |
Compact Disc 2 |
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