Carmen

For the longest time I have considered Carmen THE French opera, the story is compelling, the characters(except perhaps Micaela) are vivid and the music is magnificent. I have seen several productions, heard several recordings, and while of the productions I've seen of that this 2002 performance is not my favourite, that's being the 1984 and 1967 films, it is one of the most entertaining and most scintillating productions of any opera I've seen recently. My only criticism really is the sound quality, some of it was so muffled that I had to turn up the volume to hear the singers and this is including Von Otter.

Although this was distracting, it wasn't enough to not make me think so highly of this Carmen. The costumes and sets are very good if sometimes cramped regarding the chorus and pretty authentic, the camera work is interesting and the picture quality is sharp and clear, adding to the effect of the performance. On the visual aspect I do understand why this 2002 Carmen mayn't appeal to all, it is dark on an emotional level and is quite crude and violent, but I personally didn't mind this.

Musically, this Carmen cannot be faulted. The orchestra play with great beauty of tone and plenty of Spanish flavour, the Overture and the Les Voici Chorus are especially exhilarating. Phillippe Jordan's conducting is equally impressive, his sense of tempo are acute throughout, he pays attention to dynamics and he with his open eyes, frowns and what not is very enigmatic to look at if understandably off-putting to the orchestra. The Chorus do have moments where their action is downstage and cramped but they sing with a great sound and at least react well to the action.

There were a lot of great decisions staging-wise. First and foremost, the dialogue. Here there is more dialogue than on various other productions and recordings I've heard and seen. This I loved, as there was not only an opera comique element as well as the inevitable tragic element, but we learn more about the characters and perhaps even are able to follow the story better. I loved Carmen's entrance, it is a very fiery and charismatic entrance.

Not only this, but the Don Jose and Escamillo duel in act 3 is expanded, so we see Don Jose lose and the toreador spares him but is later bested. The children's march song is more reminiscent of a taunt rather than an imitation, but actually this works. Also, the characters here do have distinctive personalities. The only exception is Micaela, who comes across as flat and matronly, but Frasquita and Mercedes are very different to each other, while McVicar's decision to have Morales as a man with an attitude rather than a friendly character is interesting.

The performances are excellent. The weak link for me is Lisa Milne, her singing is beautiful and her Je Dis Que Rien M'Envouvente is moving, but her stage presence comes across as rather meek, and it doesn't help that the character is so flat. I thought Laurent Naouri was fine as Escamillo, the voice has resonance and he is hearty and charismatic even if he is occasionally a tad too aloof. Mary Hegarty and Christine Rice(recently herself an outstanding Carmen) are excellent as Carmen's friends Frasquita and Mercedes.

Zuniga and Morales' performances are also right on the money. Which brings me to the two leads. Marcus Haddock mayn't have the most beautiful voice or be the most compelling of all Don Joses, but while his change from disinterested to love-struck to angry is introduced a little too quickly, he does do a good job at displaying his dark, angry side which we see frequently such as in the genuinely nail-biting fight between he and Zuniga, yet the exquisitely shaded Flower Song shows a sympathetic side. His voice while not beautiful perhaps is compensated by great diction and musicality.

Best of all is Anne Sophie Von Otter as Carmen. Hers may be different to other interpretations, I often see a dark-haired woman in the role and Von Otter I have often heard described as a "swedish ice queen". This didn't matter though because from her very first entrance she really makes the role her own. She is a stunning woman with a rich beautiful voice, very erotically charged and sizzles with sexuality(as we see with some groping of crotches for example). She is a very vivid actress too, not in a long time have I seen a Carmen so genuinely frightened as she at the end of act 3 and her death scene stayed with me long after.

In conclusion, a scintillating performance if not for everybody. 9/10 Bethany Cox

just finished watching the DVD of last summer's Carmen from Glyndebourne. I'll admit to huge reservations about one of my favorite mezzo's taking this role I never felt would be right for her, but Anne Sofie von Otter is the Carmen of one's dreams - or nightmares. A more gutter wenchy, ballbusting, shrewish, trash talking, vulgar Carmen I've never seen. To the critics who last summer asked "what man would ever want a woman like that?" all I can say is von Otter is so overtly sexual and raw that she makes Carmen something she has not been for me for a very long time - dangerously fascinating. This is not like any Carmen's I've seen the last last 20 years, coming more closely to Peter Brooks "Tragedie" - even outdoing it.

This Carmen is also one of the very best ensemble acted operas I've seen in ages and after one viewing is ready to be placed at the top of my DVD list. To be sure, this will not be a Carmen to everyone's liking; it's rude, crude, violent, and emotionally dark - with an almost Dickensian quality that sends it and all its characters across the screen with a voltage that positively burns. David McVicar's production was described as "exhilirating" and that is almost an understatement. This Carmen includes more dialogue than I ever recall hearing, making far more sense of the entire story and integrating every aspect into a taut, cohesive melodrama that I felt I was watching Carmen for the very first time.

Marcus Haddock fares far better as Jose than he did in the recent Met "Fausts" showing what, with real rehearsal time, good direction and collaboration he is capable of. It's not a voice that many would describe as beautiful, but he uses it with passion, attention to detail, text, and some exquisite shading (most notably in Jose's "Flower Song.") He and Carmen are like a bad habit for each other and his violent streak comes out early on. The Act II fight between he and Zuniga may be the first time I felt worried someone would actually get hurt, and Zuniga getting up with blood coming out of his mouth had me, even for just a second, wondering if it was real! His later tangles with Escamillo and Carmen nearly get out of hand. Even after he settles down to leave with Michaela, it's obvious this dude has been pushed right over the edge and Michaela (portrayed nicely by the wonderfully fruity-voiced Lisa Milne).

von Otter's Carmen really is so over-the-top that it nearly defies description. She smokes cigars (like a fiend) - even sings (or hums) part of the Habanera with one clenched in her teeth. Her entrance is fantastic; running down a flight of steps, hitting a fountain and washing up then plunging her head into the water to cool off. Everything she does is charged with a raw, sexual energy that is the complete obverse of refinement. Musically, she can, however, be quite refined, with amazing French and a bizarre ability to be both elegant and rude simultaneously. Her actions are never less than stunning, the way she devours an orange (biting one section out of Jose's mouth!) while singing or speaking, the smashing of a plate for her castanets, which she later tosses aside to play the rhythm on her thighs, breasts, Jose's legs, etc., all are eye popping. She's got a thousand different faces reacting to everything with . . . when Michaela shows up to rescue Jose in Act III and sings tenderly, von Otter looks like she's seeing someone from another planet, so foreign is Michaela's world from hers. Later in that same scene when her face registers, for the first time, fear, at Jose's madness, it is the stuff that chills one to the core. The characterization work she does extends far, far beyond her hip swinging, crotch grabbing obviousness - there is someone tortured in this Carmen who cries out she wants nothing more than to live "free" as she does - but she seems imprisoned in every way and her wildness almost seem like acts of desperate escapism gone wild. It is an amazing performance.

The DVD comes with some great features, photo galleries, biographies, a detailed narrated synopsis of each act with tons of production photos. Unlike most opera videos filmed over several (or more) performances, this is from one night at Glyndebourne August 17 2002 and has the energy that can only be found in a live performance. (How great that the producers saw fit to release this only months after it was taped!) I won't go overboard in describing every detail (for a change!), as I feel this really needs to be seen and I hope my obvious enthusiasm is helpful in getting folk out there to buy this thing and show the companies that we want more of this . . . lots more!