Simon Rattle has been unlucky in opera recordings. Save for his recordings of Porgy and Bess and King Roger, his Cosi fan Tutte and Fidelio have been distinct failures. Now he tries his luck with one of the most difficult of all popular operas: Carmen.
The Berlin Philharmonic launches the prelude with Prussian discipline, but the sense of theatre, of drama, that Abbado and Solti immediately command is missing. The best thing that one can say of Rattle is that he manages to keep the score together, something that many conductors have failed to, Karajan included, but if you are going to conduct Carmen you will have to be measured against the likes of Beecham, Abbado and Solti, who conducted Carmen brilliantly, and that´s where Rattle is found wanting.
His Carmen is his mistress in real life, Magdalena Kozena, a light, lyric soprano/mezzo better known for her Mozart and Baroque repertoire. Long ago she recorded a French opera arias recital where she included some of Carmen, so we knew what to expect. There´s nothing wrong with a lyric mezzo singing Carmen. Since Carmen was premiered in the smallish Opéra-Comique it´s almost certain that Célestine Galli-Marié, the first Carmen, had a small, lyric voice, because if it had been a big, grand voice she would have been a star at the more opulent Paris Opéra. Kozena understands what the role is about and even more important she is stylish and musically pleasing, all that is missing is that special Mediterranean magic that made Teresa Berganza utterly unforgettable at the Edinburgh Festival and in the Abbado recording.
Jonas Kaufmann is the one thrilling voice in this recording. He starts a little cold but by the Flower Song one is well aware that this is the real thing. We haven´t had a Wagnerian tenor as don José since Jon Vickers and the wait has been worthwhile.
The Micaela, Genia Kühmeier, and the Escamillo Kostas Smoriginas, are good.
This is a respectable Carmen, much better than either of Maazel´s recordings, more sound than the Ozawa with Jessye Norman, and more stylish than either of Karajan´s Spaghetti Westerns. But it falls short of the Beecham with the adorable Victoria de los Angeles, the surprisingly satisfying Solti with Tatiana Troyanos or the quite simply magnificent, incomparable Teresa Berganza/Plácido Domingo/Claudio Abbado version (who can top that?).
