Carmen

It was a wonderful way to welcome in 2006: TFO presented this classic opera-film for my complete enjoyment. Francesco Rosi made some classic films in Italy (Salvatore Giuliano, The Mattei Affair) and he knows how to mix violence and passion with ravishing music. If Placido Domingo's face doesn't show very much of the emotion that boils below the surface, his voice is sublime. He was the best Don Jose I have ever heard.

Julia Migenes would not be called beautiful, but she knows how to portray the sluttish and irresponsible sides of Carmen. You know this woman is not going to achieve lasting happiness because of her volatile, impulsive nature. Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo shows why he could get women with animal magnetism. The parting of Jose and Carmen outside the arena is wonderfully poignant, a triumph of direction and acting.

I want to comment on the review of Mike. The fact that he writes: "the vast armpit hair on Carmen" and that he finds the subtitles annoying doesn't make a movie awful. He watched the movie against his will at school. But if you do enjoy opera, and realise that in the time this movie is shot or represents the ladies didn't shave there armpits this is a pretty good movie. Good sets, deep, classic story and the camera work is okay but what can you aspect from an opera that is written to be watched from just 1 angle, the audience in front of the stage. This movie is a French classic with all the good singing of an opera, good sets, average camerawork and good stage acting. (An opera is always more body language because of the fact it used to be in a hard language to be understanded from the "normal" people.). So, enjoy this movie!

I'm not an opera fan ... mainly because the words usually seem so trite compared to the music which carries the real meaning of the story and actions. Anyway, after years of enjoying the music without ever seeing the Opera of Carmen I watched this video and am totally enthralled! Bravo! Encore! Francesco Rosi certainly brings the story to life in a most wonderful way using the medium of film ... Bravo! Encore!!! Bravo!!!

This is one of the best opera films ever made. The singing and orchestral playing are superb. The acting, directing, and scene setting made the story credible and even moving. Domingo is rather old for the role of the soldier so besotted by the sexy Carmen that he defies military orders. No matter, it works - Julia Migenes is so alluring, sings and moves so seductively, that it's not hard to imagine a man old enough to know better ruining his life for an hour with her. A must for opera lovers, and an excellent introduction to opera for those who think it's just about fat ladies playing teenage geishas and consumptive seamstresses.

Julia M-J oozes sexuality. She is the most erotic Carmen I have ever seen at the Met, Statsoper, Covent Garden, La Scala, on TV or in flicks and I go back to the forties. The photography is superb, it gives a sun drenched washed out effect that takes you back in time when all that happens is where you want to be. People have trashed the opening Bullfight background to the overture, I don't agree but then I am not very PC and don't believe in a sanitized blood free world. In the context of a nineteenth century opera it's valid. So listen to a young Domingo and watch Julia Mi-J have her way with him. I wold rate this as an opera movie second only to the Domingo-Richiarelli Otello.