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Jose Echenique wrote:

fergus wrote:

Not only the greatest Carmen but one of THE great recordings of the Century. They just don´t do them like that any more.

Undoubtedly a magnificent performance and production Pepe but do you not think that Berganza, admittedly as suberp as she is, is just a bith too "posh" or genteel for the role?

Adrian wrote:Vivaldi Wind and Brass Concerti.... Concentus Hungaricus



Enjoyed very much this evening...

That is a lovely disc Adrian and I am glad that you found it enjoyable.

fergus wrote:That is a lovely disc Adrian and I am glad that you found it enjoyable.

All part of my therapy treatment at the moment ;-) !!!!

fergus wrote:

Jose Echenique wrote:

fergus wrote:

Not only the greatest Carmen but one of THE great recordings of the Century. They just don´t do them like that any more.

Undoubtedly a magnificent performance and production Pepe but do you not think that Berganza, admittedly as suberp as she is, is just a bith too "posh" or genteel for the role?

And that´s exactly how it should be sung Fergus. Bizet of course never met an Spanish gypsy, in fact they are very different women from the Carmen in Bizet´s opera. Bizet in all probability took as a model a popular chanteuse he knew called La Mogador, it was from her that he learned the song "El Arreglito" whose music he used in the Havanera. Carmen in Bizet´s opera is in fact a very French woman, for example the scorn with which she mocks don José when he says that he has to go back with his company is 100% French, a gypsy would have acted completely different, she would have spit on don José, but mock him? no, that never would have happened. It is in fact ironic that the 2 Spanish singers that have recorded Carmen, Berganza and Victoria de los Angeles, are the ones that sing the role in true Opera-Comique style and not in the much later Italianate Verismo fashion.

Adrian wrote:

fergus wrote:That is a lovely disc Adrian and I am glad that you found it enjoyable.

All part of my therapy treatment at the moment ;-) !!!!

And great therapy it is too! I am looking forward to the new you LOL!!!

Jose Echenique wrote:
And that´s exactly how it should be sung Fergus. Bizet of course never met an Spanish gypsy, in fact they are very different women from the Carmen in Bizet´s opera. Bizet in all probability took as a model a popular chanteuse he knew called La Mogador, it was from her that he learned the song "El Arreglito" whose music he used in the Havanera. Carmen in Bizet´s opera is in fact a very French woman, for example the scorn with which she mocks don José when he says that he has to go back with his company is 100% French, a gypsy would have acted completely different, she would have spit on don José, but mock him? no, that never would have happened. It is in fact ironic that the 2 Spanish singers that have recorded Carmen, Berganza and Victoria de los Angeles, are the ones that sing the role in true Opera-Comique style and not in the much later Italianate Verismo fashion.

Thank you once again Pepe for your great insights into all things Operatic; I am just displaying, once again, my total ignorance of the genre! However, I can still appreciate a superb performance and production such as this when I hear it!

Carmen has been the victim of a serious misunderstanding for most of the 20th Century: that it is a Verismo opera because of it´s subject. Sure, portraying a low class gypsy that lies, smokes, is involved in smuggling contraband, etc, was a first in operatic history, but the music is high class Parisian, something between Gounod and Offenbach. When Carmen is played and sung like Cavalleria Rusticana or I Pagliacci you get something very different from what Bizet composed. Just look at the lavish care Abbado bestowed on it, and the music really needs it. It´s not only you who thinks that Berganza sings a posh Carmen, yes she does, and it´s absolutely right!

Lorin Maazel died today in Virginia. May he rest in peace.
He left many importante recordings: Madame Butterfly and Il Trittico with Renata Scotto and Plácido Domingo, Luisa Miller with Katia Ricciarelli and Renato Bruson, Turandot with Eva Marton, and of course he recorded a Mahler cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic and a Bruckner cycle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Vivaldi L'estro Armonico, Wind and Brass Concerti



Most enjoyable.... therapy continuing!!

Maazel made some outstanding opera recordings, but I think this Trittico tops them all, not least because of Renata Scotto´s sovereign Suor Angelica.