Carmen (1968) User Reviews

Almost the best Carmen

[rgbatt · 7/10 · 9 February 2007]

Grace Bumbry is excellent as Carmen, Jon Vickers excellent as Don Jose, and Herbert von Karajan is of course a first rate conductor. Overall, the audio performance and recording are first rate. The directing, staging, costumes, set design, etc. are conservative in that they remain true to the original story and opera.

The only problem with the DVD is that the audio and video were recorded separately in 1967: the audio in April in Munich, the video in June in Vienna. Why this was done I don't know, but the result is that the singers look like they are lip-synching, because, well, they are lip-synching to the earlier audio-only recording.

The best opera recordings are of an actual performance, because this is what most of us want to see: if we can't be at the theater, then we want the next best thing. Unfortunately this Carmen is not at this level because the singers are not really singing on screen. If you are looking for a CD version of this opera, I recommend this one; for a DVD version, look elsewhere, or at least take a look at other performances in addition to this one.

Wonderful Grace Bumbry

[bob998 · 8/10 · 27 October 2012]

This is the fourth production that I have reviewed, proving that I really love Carmen. There is a passion in this opera that I haven't experienced with any other. Some will be put off by the lip-synching, but that was also done in Rosi's film with Migenes and Domingo which was a triumph. Rosi knew how to recreate a nineteenth-century world with bored soldiers far from home and cigarette girls looking for a bit of fun. Something of this loving attention is missing from this film, which I think is a vanity project for the conductor, von Karajan. Some of the crowd scenes look flat, empty of excitement when in the live versions they usually fizz with life.

Jon Vickers scales down his ringing Tristan tenor voice to sing Don Jose, and he does a good job, despite having an inexpressive face. Justino Diaz sings manfully,despite looking like he's just left high school--he must have been very young in 1967. Mirella Freni sings the best Micaela I will ever hear; her third act aria Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante is thrilling. Grace Bumbry, using the most subtle movements of her features--a raised eyebrow here, a curling lip there--achieves wonderful effects of characterization. Most Carmens play up the eroticism and wildness of the role, but Bumbry is more relaxed, subtler. The viewer has to understand that she attracts men because she's feminine, not a dog in heat. Bumbry goes to the top of the list of mezzos I have seen in this role.

The Perfect Carmen: The Greatest

[FloatingOpera7 · 10/10 · 26 June 2005]

This 1967 film has recently been released on DVD by Deutsche Gramophone. It stars African American superstar Grace Bumbry as Carmen, tenor Jon Vickers as Don Jose, soprano Mirella Freni as Micaela and baritone Justino Diaz as Escamillo. Herbert Von Karajan conducts the orchestra of the Salzburg Festival. This production was one of many successful performances that summer in Austria. Mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry as Carmen gives it her all, encompassing every nuance and color to develop the sultry Spanish Gypsy's character. More than any other soprano or mezzo who took on the role, Grace knew the role and performed it with ease, playfulness, wit, subtlety and she has genuine fun singing the role. Bumbry first gained worldwide acclaim when she sang Venus in Wagner's Tannhauser in Bayreuth, the first black artist to do this. But I think Carmen is her greatest mezzo soprano performance. Donning white and red Spanish gowns, smiling seductively and downplaying her sex appeal in the Habanera (she is more seductive in the Seguidilla) she makes the most believable Carmen, straight out of the Prosper Merimee novella. Her rendition of the Death Card Aria is grave and noble, as we see she is powerless to stop her fate. Truly the best interpretation of that aria. Her Death Scene in the finale is climatic, fully believable and we are even led to believe that she stood up to Don Jose, firm in her need for freedom which she would not have with Don Jose as his permanent love interest, and in standing up to him she was even willing to die for it. In some ways, Carmen and Don Giovanni, who adore liberty and licentiousness, do not give up their identity or change throughout the opera. It is plausible that Carmen at one time was in love with Don Jose and considered being loyal to him but her love of freedom to be herself- a devil-may-care libertine woman living dangerously, was a much stronger love. "Libre nee e libre morra!" (I was born free and I will die free!) she declares at the top of her voice. Bumbry and Vickers maintain great chemistry throughout. The Technicolor for the 60's looks great, there is no lavish overexcessive scenery like Zefferelli's productions. The chorus of adults and children sound great and the illustrious Maestro Karajan conducts with his eyes closed!! Jon Vickers as Don Jose is a fine performance, one lyrical, in-depth and accurate to the true nature of his persona. His big, booming, robust voice and masculine appearance is a blessing. His rendition of the Flower Song differs from other tenors in that he ends in a pianissimo note rather than a higher and stronger note, and is more introspective and melancholy than bombastic. He is seduced by Carmen, giving up his mother, his sweet but bland girlfriend Micaela and even his regiment with the Dragoons of Alcala. It is later that, when threatened by the strong presence of champion bullfighter Escamillo (sung by a very young Justino Diaz and looking handsome)that Jose begins to become possessive of Carmen. He is crazed with jealousy and is led to a crime of passion. All this Jon Vickers carries dramatically in his performance. He is the best Don Jose (though I have always thought that Placido Domingo equally does justice to the role). Mirella Freni is in this production, as a first-rate Micaela, interpreting the role as a noble heroine, as the antithesis of Carmen. Micaela is a strong Christian, willing to seek out Don Jose among the smugglers hide-out. Only Mirella Freni, with her warm tone and floating soprano voice makes Micaela a very sympathetic and less flat character than usual. This is without question the perfect Carmen, the greatest.

I think I just found my favourite Carmen

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 9 July 2011]

Before I saw this 1967 Carmen, my favourite was the 1984 film with Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson. After seeing this, although that will always have a special place in my heart, I think I just found my favourite Carmen. I saw it because I adore Mirella Freni, am very fond of Jon Vickers and after seeing her Eboli from Don Carlo I am starting to be quite taken with Grace Bumbry. And of course, Herbert Von Karajan is one of my favourite conductors ever.

This Carmen is just wonderful. Carmen I have always considered THE French opera, though I quite like Faust too, the music is magnificent, the story always compelling and the titular character is one of the most memorable titular characters in opera to me. What I did prefer over the 1984 film was Carmen's death scene here, I personally found it more powerful and Bumbry's performance during the fortune telling scene ranks among the best of that particular scene.

The costumes, settings and photography are truly excellent, very sumptuous, and stay true to the story and tone of the opera. The lip-synching is also done very well, and the sound and orchestra(with plenty of Spanish flavour to accompany the score) are first-rate. Karajan does a superb job conducting, the Card Trio was goose bump-inducing and Karajan's conducting and how well and characteristically the orchestra played are the main reasons why.

The singing and performances are better than I could have hoped. Best is Grace Bumbry, who is brilliant as Carmen. While she has a rich and flexible mezzo soprano voice, it was her acting that made the performance so good. She is everything Carmen should be like- attractive, flirtatious, sexy, playful, witty yet also subtle and nuanced, the latter two of which I don't always see whenever I see Carmen. Jon Vickers becomes the character of Don Jose, the acting as is always the case with Vickers-as I have said many times about him and Placido Domingo is that he doesn't just play the character he performs, he becomes the character-is outstanding and his big and I agree booming voice is put to very ideal use, plus he manages to do something special with the Flower Song with a very striking pianissimo where you least expect it.

Mirella Freni is one of my favourite sopranos, perhaps even my favourite, while I have seen several very poignant performances in the role of Micaela it has just occurred to me that compared to the other characters in the opera that Micaela is rather flat. Freni sings absolutely beautifully with perhaps the best musicality of anybody in this role, acts a dream and is very alluring, but what sets Freni's Micaela out from the other Micaelas I've seen is that somehow Micaela is not as flat as she can be and I can't quite put my finger on why that is. What just stood out for me was that not only is Freni one of the best Micaelas in my opinion but also one of the most interesting.

Mercedes, Frasquita and Zuniga are all performed adeptly, but other than the three leads I was also impressed with a young Justino Diaz(who I first encountered as a very credible Iago in the 1986 Zeffirelli film Otello) as bullfighter Escamillo. He is both commanding and handsome, and he sings the Toreador's Song very well, if not quite in the same league of those of Samuel Ramey, Lawrence Tibbett, Ruggero Raimondi and Jose Vam Dam. All in all, wonderful and my favourite Carmen as of now. 10/10 Bethany Cox

special

[Kirpianuscus · 8 May 2023]

It is one of precious lights of my childhood the discover of this version of Carmen. I feel, today, after decades, same emotion - fascination- admiration, front the impecable work of great Grace Bumbry.

Because it is not only music or performance or the touch of impressive herbert von Karajan.

It is, in pure sense, a gem , including for people like me, far to can define themselves as conaissers of opera.

The film proposes more than you discover in the lines of Prosper Merimee or in the other adaptations . A sort of confession from a lost world, in which magic has so many fascinating nuances .

A great film ? Indeed ! But great especially for a splendid show as precious gift to public.