Rating: 
Summary: One of the best Opera films EVER
Review: Not only did Leonard Maltin miss the boat on this one, but so have several of the reviews I've seen here. This is a terrific video of CARMEN, and very failthful in spirit, if not always to the letter of Bizet's original. Yes, the spoken dialogue has been adapted and made specific to the filmed settings, and to the general "opening out" of the action, but they succeed in fleshing out the action, amplifying the characters and their motives and making the piece "work" as a movie, not just an opera recording with lip-synching. As to faithfulness, there is no perfect version of CARMEN. Poor Bizet died 3 months after the opening and people have been revising his work ever since. This edition is very faithful to the opera-comique original. I don't give it 5 stars because (1) it isn't perfectly sung and (2) some of the lip-syching doesn't make it. But you get used to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Mogenes/Domingo... a wonderful team, but an annoying VHS
Review: Migenes and Domingo play wonderfully, but this production of Carmen leaves much to be desired or, equally, much with which to become plain irritated or disgusted.The sound effects, camera angles, dialogue (that is certainly NOT from the original production.. nor an attempt to bring back the dialogue from Bizet's original production at the Opera Comique) seems very much out of place for any opera fan. In other words, this is NOT a production of the original, which took place in 1875, having had the recitatives added later.... but sort of a Hollywood-esque mish-mash. There are, however, some wonderfully inspired scenes and the vocal performances are top-notch. I would NOT recommend this video to anyone who is building a library of operatic performances and seeking the "on- stage" reality... But for a newcommer to opera, this may well be an exciting adventure, given that it plays out more like a movie than an operatic opus. (Opera aficienados beware! There are MANY edits to the Bizet score!)
Rating:
Summary: Music very good, visuals uninspired, acting only competent
Review: Incredible music value for the low price. The music is fine and the use of ambient background noise is imaginative. However the visual compositions and acting are uniformly uninspired. Also, the video crops the sides of the picture in order to fill a TV screen and this creates some painfully ugly results, particularly during the opening shots. It also means that the subtitles overlay the picture. The acting is about the level of a good high-school play. In the most effective films of operas I have seen (such as the Bergman Magic Flute, the recent TV Butterfly and the Carrera-Hendricks Boheme) the singers don't try to portray real characters, they portray opera singers doing an opera. This enables them to use their impressive talents for communicating emotion using opera idiom and it allows imaginative and evocative visuals. For example, nobody would have wanted Kelly, Hagen, O'Connor, and Reynolds to play "realistic" roles in Singin In The Rain. Operas, like musicals, aren't reality, they are much more.
Rating: 
Summary: An essential addition to your video collection
Review: The music is wonderful. The acting very believable and if I have any complaints they are personal. I do not like bullfights or to see women with underarm hair--but as I said, these are personal prejudices and not a condemnation of the production itself. Certainly the bullfight was essential to the plot! Placido Domingo is wonderful, both in his singing and acting ability and if it seemed to some that he was too old to be so naive...well, a man in love is not necessarily in full command of his wits (nor is a woman). All in all, even if one is lucky enough to be able to enjoy 'live' opera, this video is a must for those times when one must stay home.
Rating:
Summary: Migenes Proves No One Is a Better Singing Actress Than She
Review: This film of the famous and often overplayed, overblown Bizet Opera was fresh and vibrant when it was first released in 1985, and that vibrancy is still present nearly 15 years later. Migenes protrayal of Carmen has no parallels...she sings, dances and acts with complete believability and becomes the character. Small wonder the french call her the greatest Carmen since Calvé. Domingo is in good voice and gives a better than average performance. Esham is visually a bit bland, but sings beautifully. Escamillo is fittingly protrayed. But the film belongs to Migenes with her multi-faceted protrayal of the most popular role in the operatic repertoire. For opera lovers, and lovers of good art, this film is a must! Obviously, Leonard Maltin is out of his league with his review of this film. He must have missed the point!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for opera novices
Review: While some opera purists will slam this "film" version of "Carmen," this is a terrific "introduction to opera" for novices. It is exciting, lush, with a lusty Carmen (what the role deserves, as opposed to some of our more dumpy and/or naive Carmens of "traditional" opera) and fantastic singing. The subtitles may distress some novice fans, but video makes review possible! I thoroughly disagree with Leonard Maltin (Movie Guide) in his review -- give this one a try!
Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: The music is all it should be. Julia Migenes-Johnson plays an absolutely believable "bad girl", entirely different from the traditional opera Carmen. Placido Domingo is a bit old to be so naive, but who cares. Shot on location in hot and dusty Spain, the photography is absolutely stunning.
Rating:
Summary: This video breathes life into opera.
Review: The characters and the set in Seville intensify this opera beyond its capacity for passion, desire, and despair as Bizet had intended. I can watch and listen to this video often and enjoy it immensely each time.
Rating:
Summary: Busty, Lusty and Dusty
Review: One of the best Opera Movies.
Oh sure Opera purists will quibble with the choice of Julia Migenes Johnson because she is not a "classic" Carmen.
But believe me, when she seduces Don Jose while she is being detained, I too was seduced. In some other operatic productions on film the only way you could tell the leading lady was beautiful or seductive was because the characters told you, despite the obvious proof to the contrary.
In this beautifully shot film Carmen is not a ravishing beauty, if anything Micaela (Faith Esham, who is, by contrast, lovely and whose voice in both the duet with Don Jose and her solo later on, soars as high as the mountains in the background) is a doll. She's a good girl and his mama's choice for his future.
Don Jose's career path is also set. He's a good soldier and due for promotion. Yet he'll throw it all away on a promise of Manzanilla and some hot lovin' and we believe it because Julia Johnson sells it.
The film portrays Carmen as a 21st Century woman stuck in a dusty backwater world, where strict formalities are mocked by the common folk (witness the children mocking the soldiers in the beginning). She's not a slut, she's a playful flirt who doesn't recognize Jose's seriousness.
I can quibble with some things myself, for example the aforementioned duet between Jose and Micaela is shown in a long shot that feels like it goes on forever. Give me a couple of close ups, please. I understand their wanting to show the stiffness and formality (and distance?) between the two, but there's no need to bore us; and there maybe too much dust swirling about as the peasants dance about, but you do get a sense of reality often missing in operas (or even movie musicals when shot on location, like West Side Story, though shot in Manhattan, where was the garbage?)
This movie works on the two levels it strives for. The opera is wonderfully performed by both singers and orchestra. The story is timeless and the plot easy to swallow. Cinematography is top notch, and though the direction could have been more imaginative
this is more than a good opera movie, this is a good movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but I prefer the stage
Review: I've seen two filmed versions of Carmen, this one and the Metropolitan Opera's staged production featuring Baltsa and Carreras. Of the two, I greatly prefer the Met's version. It's not the acting and singing in the Mignes/Domingo version that I dislike. Both are superb, with Mignes' Carmen's look and moves outshining those of Baltas' Carmen (which I find a bit distracting in a negative, non-Carmen like way). The Met's staged performance is simply a better, truer overall operatic experience.
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