Monday, March 3, 2014

Happy birthday: Bizet’s Carmen

Home Paddock reminds us that this is the 139th anniversary of the first performance of Bizet’s opera Carmen. Bless you, YouTube: there is a complete performance here of Carlos Kleiber conducting it in the Vienna 1978 production by Zeffirelli, with Elena Obraztsova as Carmen, Placido Domingo as Don Jose, and Isobel Buchanan as Micaela; James Levine conducting it at the Met here with Waltrud Meier as Carmen, Domingo again as Don Jose, and Angela Gheorghiu as Micaela (fantastically irritating introduction but worth ploughing through it); the 2010 Vienna production with Andris Nelsons conducting here with Nadia Krasteva as Carmen, Massimo Giordano as Don Jose and – starry! – Anna Netrebko as Micaela; and more. 

We are not supposed to do this but it is possible to save YouTube clips to your hard drive for later viewing. Just saying.

So here is Elina Garanca singing the Habanera (probably at the Met in 2010). All together now: “Love is a wild bird that no one can tame…”:

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