Carmen (Sung in English)  (Audio CD) 
by Bizet

The real strength of this version is the dynamic drama. With the advantage of being sung in English, we get better insight on characters' emotions and motives, and we understand the drama a lot better. Carmen is all about great drama. Bizet drew the plot from the French writer Prosper Merimee's dark short story. Carmen is the ultimate femme fatale- a devil-may-care, sexy Gypsy living in Spain, seduces the conservatively raised soldier Don Jose, stealing him away from his fiancee, the passive Micaela, living a life of underground smuggling and rowdy taverns. "Habanera" and "The Gypsy Song and Dance" are very expressive of Carmen's extraordinarily liberal lifestyle. Don Jose, however, has fallen deeply in love- as he shows us in his song/aria "The Flower Song". But Carmen soon becomes tired of his constancy. Don Jose wants a committed, monogamous relationship with Carmen. But Carmen will not submit to love, since she is first and foremost a carnal creature. Eventually, she falls for the handsome Toreador Escamillo. Don Jose, consumed by jealousy, stabs Carmen at a bullfight after Carmen declares her love for Escamillo and rejects Don Jose's love. Don Jose's crazed, obscessive personality shines through in the English version as well. This tragedy has been done in English before so don't think this is the first time. Back in the 50's, there was a film, starring black actors "Carmen Jones" which was treated the same way as this opera- more like an English Broadway musical and with the dubbed singing voice of Marilyn Horne as Carmen. All in all, this recording is excellent.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally!  Sep 17, 2003
This recording really sells "Carmen" as a drama. Although I have two other recordings of this opera and have seen it performed several times, it never quite worked for me dramatically. But thanks to the fine performances, conducting, and translation here, I've become a "Carmen" convert. Producing a good English-language performance of a foreign opera, especially a warhorse like "Carmen," is much more difficult than it might appear. You need performers who not only can sing the parts (of course) but also can sing *English* and make it halfway intelligible and make it sound like English and make it dramatically convincing to English-speakers. The singers on this recording do an excellent job all around. Don't be put off if you don't recognize their names -- they are up to the task musically and (especially) in their acting. Admittedly, as with *all* English-language recordings, some passages are very hard to understand without reading along, but most of the time the words are clear and effective. I would recommend this recording to any opera beginner or opera lover, even those who normally turn up their noses at performances in translation.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

I love Carmen!  Aug 14, 2003
I do. I can think of no other opera with more melodic inventiveness, and few others with so sure a dramatic pulse. Carmen is popular and it thrills me to say that it is also a very good opera - not always true of popular things.

And what of this recording? Carmen sits well in English, so it is good to hear in translation, although some of the detais in the text jar. Escamillo refers to Jose as "my dear", which sounds rather peculiar, and the guide's line to Micaela: "it's not exactly inviting, is it?" sounds distinctly Middle England rather than Rural Spain. Some of the performers, not least Carmen herself, make the words work, although there are long tracts, especially with the chorus, where the language is distinctly indistinct.

The soloists are, by and large, strong. Patricia Bardon's deep, Handel-friendly voice adapts well to Carmen and she colours the music with phenomenal detail, sounding sexy and provocative from the start with an edge of pride and anger that emerges as the show goes on. She is out of her depth above the stave, though, and some extra top notes in the second act don't show her off to her best advantage. I have previously said that Julian Gavin is poorly served by recordings, though here he sounds much more even and gives a thrilling and musical performance (but his wooden spoken lines let him down). Mary Plazas is a lovely Micaela, rich-voiced and sincere (and word-perfect), but Garry Magee sounds miscast as Escamillo, lacking the ballast at the bottom of the voice to do justice to this tricky role.

The supporting cast is good (Mary Hegarty seems to do nothing but Frasquita these days!) but the really treasurable thing is the conducting. Stepping out of Italian Ottocento, David Parry turns his hand to this French Comedie with an appropriate lightness of touch. His pacing and handling of the set pieces is exemplary and the enrtractes go with a real swing.

A pleasure, then, for the Carmen naive or a novelty for the Carmen-acquainted. I nearly wrote Carmen-weary - but I don't think it's possible.