Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: 'Carmen' is a favourite, but this version lives up to its promise. It also demonstrates the problems with the 'star' system, but there are no 'big names' on the stage (just one in the orchestra pit). But what there is on the stage are some of the finest performers and grand voices you may ever hear. Don Hose and Carmencita are stunning, and the delicate delivery in French is correct ! The flamenco sequence in the tavern is another delicate embellishment, and just perfectly understated. Not a demonstration of violent stage strutting, but the kind of 'play' typical of taverners. Five stars easy !
Rating: 
Summary: A good performance...not the best
Review: An overall good performance of Bizet's last opera in the Royal Opera. Maria Ewing is excellent in the title role. Throughout the opera, she has managed perfectly to demonstrate Carmen's sensuality in both singing and acting (except dancing!!). Lima was a good naive Don Jose at the biginnig but completely missed his role in the final act! You should see Placido Domingo in this role in the movie by Francesco Rosi with Migenes as Carmen.. But if you can't get it...this one is not so bad after all..
Rating:
Summary: not the best
Review: and not even ewing's best. this covent garden production has an excellent cast. luis lima and leontina vaduva both look and sound like the don jose and micaela you picture in your imagination. only gino quilico is a little dull as escamillo. ewing has the voice and charisma to play carmen, but this production doesn't take advantage of the covent garden stage. there isn't enough motion. for example, in the habanera, she just stands and delivers. yet, she's singing about love as a flighty bird that's here one minute and gone the next. the body language doesn't match the song. with the large stage, she should be dancing, not standing. just compare her habanero with julia migenes' and you'll see what i mean. migenes seduces not only with her voice but with her body. ewing doesn't do this. the best carmen video is still the domingo/migenes. second place goes to ewing, but not this production: the glyndebourne festival production from '86 has a superior performance from a younger ewing. more energetic, more characterful.
Rating:
Summary: You will not be deceived by this version.
Review: Carmen is one of the most popular and performed operas, so not just any performance can be put on screen. I liked this version. It is well acted (specially by Luis Lima and Leontina Vaduva) and well sung (by everybody) and I felt each singer had the right timber voice for their respective roles. A very appropriate use of cameras and a clever and tasteful set design, direction and montage contribute as well to make this version worthy of its release on DVD. You will not be deceived by this one.
Rating:
Summary: Profound and brilliant meditation on the nature of love
Review: Carmen is the favorite opera of many people, but surprisingly it is very hard to get it right. Very few singers have been able to characterize Carmen in a way that seems dramatically and vocally right. The good news here is that Ewing is a magnificent actress and makes a brilliant Carmen. This is an intelligent production and there are many fine directorial points made along the way. The thematic elements are fully brought out and (for a change) the opera makes complete sense. Carmen is far from Machievellian. She is a creature of passion who thrives on anarchy and danger--a woman for whom life has to be lived as its most intense. When Don Jose fails to respond to her challenges that he abandon what is most safe for the complete freedom she craves, she leaves him for a bull fighter. In this production the toreador is rather a weak link. Gino Quilico can be a superb performer but in this opera his talents are not well utilized and he comes across as rather dull. But having to live with one poor casting choice seems a small price to pay for such an otherwise fine interpretation. Overall, this production makes it clear why Carmen is such a profound meditation on the nature of love (and life). It fully reveals why this popular opera is actually a work of art of the highest order. Attentive viewers will note the amazing play of words: Toujours L'amour, Toujours La Mort which seems to say it all.
Rating:
Summary: Skip the Hollywood version....Get this one!!
Review: Excellent version of Carmen. It comes closer to the recicative version than any version that I've seen. This one is a keeper!!
Rating:
Summary: Skip the Hollywood version....Get this one!!
Review: Excellent version of Carmen. It comes closer to the recicative version than any version that I've seen. This one is a keeper!!
Rating:
Summary: The Great and the Good News
Review: I debated long and hard which Carmen to get: this live version from the Royal Opera House or or filmed version with Placido Domingo. Here is the Great news and the Good news. In short, this is a wonderful (hence great) production marred by a few technical flaws which limit it's brilliance (hence good). The great is firstly Luis Lima's wonderful, charasmatic performance as Don Jose. Imminently believable, sad, boyish and gullible--his voice is stronger than I've seen him in comparable roles (e.g. La Boheme). Maria Ewing's performance is less credible, not passionate or seductive enough--seems somewhat more self-serving and machiavellian (which is the way the liner notes suggests--"Carmen thinks like a man.") Nonetheless, Ewings vocal performance is outstanding. Also great is the the lavish Royal Opera House production and Zubin Mehta's orchestral flair. The limits of this video, is the technical editing and audio production. Some of the scene editing appears sloppy, with angle cuts too sophisticated to be effective (e.g. cutting faster during faster paced arias.) Or cutting to slightly blurred scenes. And the audio quality, while uncompressed and in stereo, is not dolby surround...hence slightly hollowed. But, in it's whole, while not perfect (although Lima is close), this is a good, if not long (over 2.5 hrs) production that shows beautiful Carmen in all its glory. A nice addition to any library. If Zefferelli had been involved with this produciton, this would have been an unbeatible staging.
Rating:
Summary: A good opera
Review: I have act this in Hong Kong.
Rating:
Summary: Great Entertainment!
Review: I was skeptical at first about watching an opera somewhere other than at the opera house, but I was very pleased when I sat down and watched this recording. The images were focused, adequately lighted, the sound was just the right level (it didn't seem way off in the distance like some other recordings of theater I have seen). It was a great way to enjoy opera in the privacy of my own home!
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