Having seen this production in January this year (2010), less
than a week after the one recorded here, I have still very clear
memories of it and I also looked back on my review
on Seen and Heard to find out how I reacted then. The overall
impression was the same the second time around, the essential
difference being the welcome opportunities to catch details
and get to grips with the characters in close-ups. The cast
is basically the same, the important exception being that Teddy
Tahu Rhodes sings Escamillo on the DVDs, having been summoned
on rather short notice to stand in for an ailing Mariusz Kwiecien,
who was the singer I saw.
The beauty and realism of the production has been successfully
transferred to the digital medium – this was the performance
that was relayed world wide to HD cinemas – but as usual the
impact of certain magnificent scenes is lessened when seen on
a TV-screen. This is however compensated by imaginative camera
angles and the evocative lighting comes over very well to the
small screen. Also the two dancers, personifying Carmen and
Don José are well caught during the prelude when they perform
in the gap in the curtain. With the red background this is symbolising
the blood that will inevitably stream from the stabbed Carmen
outside the bullring in the final scene – and also from the
bull who met the same destiny inside the bullring. The parallel
is elucidated when the turntable rotates the sets and allows
us to look into the arena.
The acting, which feels natural enough when seen live in the
opera house at a fair distance, can sometimes stand out as exaggerated
when seen in close-ups, but there are no such problems here.
All the principals, indeed all the lesser characters as well,
are well chiselled out and since the production was so new –
it was premiered on New Year’s Eve, just a little more than
two weeks before this relay – everything is fresh and no cobweb
has yet settled. They also look their roles. One could argue
that Barbara Frittoli’s Micaëla is rather mature looking, not
the innocent ingénue that is the common picture of her. But
Ms Frittoli, in an interview with Renée Fleming, maintains that
Micaëla after all isn’t that timid. She has the guts to search
for – and find – Don José in the town, at the regiment even,
and in the third act she bids defiance to the dangers and walks
alone through the mountains to find Don José again in the smugglers’
camp. This calls for courage and life experience that only a
mature woman can muster. I can buy that argument and thus also
accept that Frittoli’s tone isn’t as youthful as it once was
but she is still one of the most expressive and nuanced of today’s
great sopranos. Her singing in the first act duet is enchanting
and the third act aria is deeply involved and beautifully sung,
though she was even better on the night I saw her. Teddy Tahu
Rhodes as Escamillo is something of a sensation: tall, dark,
with matinee good looks, winning smile, excellent actor and
sings with dash and authority that makes this bullfighter both
dangerous and warmly human. He is less apt at expressing the
more intimate feelings in the short love duet with Carmen in
the last act but otherwise he is a winner. Keith Miller’s Zuniga
is as formidable as he was in the theatre and the quartet of
smugglers are well in the picture with an extra plus for Earle
Patriarco.
And the central couple, Carmen and Don José? Originally Angela
Gheorghiu was scheduled to sing the title role but she backed
out after the separation from Roberto Alagna. No one can deny
that she is a marvellous singer and actor and I have heard excerpts
from her complete recording with Alagna, recorded half a dozen
years earlier. She is very good there and I can’t put my finger
on any deficiencies – apart from her being a soprano and not
a mezzo-soprano. And Elena Garanca is a true mezzo-soprano
and she has a marvellous voice and she is a supreme actress
as well. In the theatre I lacked some fire in her singing; on
the DVDs she has plenty of that commodity! And her sex appeal
and flashing eyes are even more tangible in the many close ups.
Her singing is absolutely ravishing – which I also pointed out
recently when reviewing her new album Habanera (see review),
recorded a couple of months later than this performance. In
fact she has nothing to fear from comparisons with any of her
great predecessors. Garanca and Alagna had sung their roles
opposite each other at Covent Garden earlier and when reunited
at the Met they felt that they knew each other well and could
play and act uninhibitedly – That’s what Alagna says in the
interview with Fleming during the interval. As in the performance
I saw the tenor takes some time to warm up here too but he is
always ardent and involved and, though lacking some nuances
in the duet with Micaëla he makes amends during the final pages
with really sensitive singing. Throughout he creates a character
of flesh and blood of Don José and one can follow the gradual
decline. His flower song isn’t the last word in lyric restraint
but it is very alive and he ends it with a magical pianissimo.
Then his desperation grows until the final duet outside the
bullring. There he is resigned, soft-spoken, appealing at first
but when he realizes that everything is lost his anger just
wallows out of him. This scene seldom fails in arousing sympathy
for both characters and that is exactly what it does here too.
It is an artistic triumph for both Garanca and Alagna.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a sympathetic conductor, tossing off
the prelude at turbo speed but then he relaxes and shapes a
homogenous performance with stunning playing from the Met orchestra.
The quality of the pictures is superb and the sound well integrated.
The interviews, charmingly hosted by Renée Fleming, are pleasing
extras.
There is no lack of recordings of this opera, whether on CD
or DVD, and I have a soft spot for the film version with Julia
Migenes as well a Vienna State Opera production with Elena Obraztsova,
both with Domingo as Don José, but the present issue now rubs
shoulders with those two in my Carmen corner and I think
that among the three Carmens, Elina Garanca wins on points.
This is a great achievement.
Göran Forsling
.
Elina Garanca (mezzo) – Carmen; Roberto Alagna (tenor) – Don José;
Barbara Frittoli (soprano) – Micaëla; Teddy Tahu Rhodes (bass-baritone)
– Escamillo; Elizabeth Caballero (soprano) – Frasquita; Sandra Piques
Eddy (mezzo) – Mercédes; Trevor Scheunemann (baritone) – Moralès;
Keith Miller (bass) – Zuniga; Earle Patriarco (baritone) – Le Dancaïre;
Keith Jameson (tenor) – Le Remendado; Maria Koweoski and Martin
Harvey (Solo dancers) 
