Piollet, Uria-monzon, Alagna, Poplavskaya, Schrott - Bizet: Carmen (2011)
Piollet, Uria-monzon, Alagna, Poplavskaya, Schrott - Bizet: Carmen (2011)
Classical | Bluray-rip 720p | Audio: French | Subtitles: Francais, English, Deutsch, Espanol, Catalan, Korean, Chinese | Run time: 155 mins | 7.36 GB
AVC, MKV 1280x720 (16:9) 29.97fps, 5998kbps | AC3, 48000Hz, 6ch, 640kbps
Classical | Bluray-rip 720p | Audio: French | Subtitles: Francais, English, Deutsch, Espanol, Catalan, Korean, Chinese | Run time: 155 mins | 7.36 GB
AVC, MKV 1280x720 (16:9) 29.97fps, 5998kbps | AC3, 48000Hz, 6ch, 640kbps
Musically, the production is excellent. Béatrice Uria-Monzon is a smart…Roberto Alagna is in excellent voice, too, offering honeyed tones that never disguise his passion or his potential for violence…Erwin Schrott is an impressively self-confident Escamillo…The other roles are well handled-and Marc Piollet and the orchestra provide a high-contrast palette, with plenty of detail and vitality. Sound is first-rate, as is clarity of the picture; and the patient and luxurious camerawork avoids the hyperactivity that mars so many opera videos these days. All in all, then, a very good Carmen… (Fanfare)
“If a Barcelona Carmen suggests authentic atmosphere, forget it. It's staged by Calixto Bieito, notorious for shock-effect productions…On home ground, though, he's comparatively restrained, although he does update the opera to the 1970s…Beatrice Uria-Monzon's veteran Carmen is compelling. Roberto Alagna equals his Met video, fluently lyrical while indicating the hair-trigger violence beneath.” (BBC Music Magazine)
“Updating rarely makes such a seamless case for itself as in this modern production of Carmen…Alagna has always had a certain Mad Max side to his temperament that, combined with his Italianate lyric tenor, has made him one of the best Don Joses in the business.” (Gramophone Magazine)
Composer: Georges Bizet
Performer: Alex Sanmartí, Marc Canturri, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Marina Poplavskaya, …
Conductor: Marc Piollet
Orchestra/Ensemble: Vivaldi Chorus, Barcelona Teatro Liceu Orchestra, Barcelona Teatro Liceu Chorus
Reviews: Carmen is Carmen, as far as I'm concerned, and personally, it's not an opera I would go out of my way to see again. Fantastic opera, brilliantly scored in a way that is full of life and passion, consummately operatic, but done to death, to the extent that it's almost become a cliché, removed and detached from whatever real human emotions used to underlie it. Consequently, until the recent Bizet: Carmen in 3D production from the Royal Opera House, I hadn't seen or really listened to the opera in about ten years, and Francesca Zambello's conventional and unimaginative staging for that production reminded me why. The production itself wasn't bad, but there was just nothing new in it.
From the standpoint of the casting alone however, there's plenty of good reasons to like this production, which has the right kind of blend that is needed in terms of experience for the two principal roles and up-and-coming young singers for the supporting roles. With Roberto Alagna and mezzo-soprano Beatrice Uria-Monzon, both native French, the roles of Don José and Carmen are not just in reliable hands, but both invest a great deal into the interpretation, singing wonderfully and maintaining a strong presence on the stage. Erwin Schrott is a good Escamillo, again another fine actor willing to push interpretation as well as possessing a fine baritone voice - but this is a minor role for his talent. Marina Poplovskaya finds the right blend of freshness, innocence and purity that the opera needs as Michaëla.
As good as each of the cast are in their own right, the famous arias as good here as any interpretations I've heard - Alagna's 'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée' is terrific - they work wonderfully together and it's the duets and ensembles that make the biggest impression, presenting a refreshing new perspective on the opera. The orchestra and the performance are also superb. It's everything you expect Carmen to be, but with enough character, verve and energy of its own, and a willingness to explore the dynamic that make this something more vibrant and alive, (the HD sound reproduction on the Blu-ray is also outstanding), the music seeming once again to be organically part of the drama rather than illustrating a bunch of clichéd routines. It's a long time since I've heard this particular opera sounding so fresh.
How much of this is down to the stage production is debatable. Other than modernising the period setting however, the essence of the drama isn't touched or played around with, the emphasis shifted slightly perhaps to emphasise the masculine aspect of the opera and the culture of machismo (although a full-frontal naked bullfighter might be too much for the more sensitive traditionalist). Even if it were just for the fact of stripping away all those old routines and hackneyed gypsy imagery, Calixto Bieto's production, often minimal, the stage permanently giving the impression of a bullring, at least forces the viewer to focus once again on the characters and how they express themselves through Bizet's score and the libretto, and that alone is a bit of a revelation. Yes, everyone knows that Carmen is all about jealousy, lust and Latin passions, but removing the set-pieces goes some way towards restoring the balance of the other more noble aspects the theme of love beyond all reason ("Love is a gypsy child who knows nothing of the law") in the unconditional familial love on the part of Don José's mother and also in the purity of Michaëla's love for him. Whether it's obvious or not (and all the better if it's not), I'd say that the production and direction is certainly instrumental in achieving this. This is a great Carmen.
Tracklisting:
1. Carmen by Georges Bizet
Performer: Alex Sanmartí (Baritone), Marc Canturri (Baritone), Béatrice Uria-Monzon (Mezzo Soprano),
Marina Poplavskaya (Soprano), Eliana Bayón (Soprano), Roberto Alagna (Tenor),
Itxaro Mentxaka (Soprano), Erwin Schrott (Bass Baritone), Francisco Vas (Bass),
Josep Miquel Ribot (Tenor)
Conductor: Marc Piollet
Orchestra/Ensemble: Vivaldi Chorus, Barcelona Teatro Liceu Orchestra, Barcelona Teatro Liceu Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1873-1874; France
Cast:
Carmen – Béatrice Uria-Monzon
Don José – Roberto Alagna
Micaëla – Marina Poplavskaya
Escamillo – Erwin Schrott
Frasquita – Eliana Bayón
Mercédès – Itxaro Mentxaka
Le Dancaïre – Marc Canturri
Le Remendado – Francisco Vas
Moralès – Àlex Sanmartí
Zuniga – Josep Ribot
Cor Vivaldi – Petits Cantors de Catalunya
Liceu Grand Theatre Chorus and Orchestra
Marc Piollet, conductor
Calixto Bieito, stage director
Alfons Flores, set designer
Mercè Paloma, costume designer
Xavi Clot, lighting designer
Recorded live from the Gran Teatre del Liceu, October 2010.
Screeshots
Piollet, Uria-monzon, Alagna, Poplavskaya, Schrott - Bizet: Carmen (2011)
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My own rip