Review of Bizet: Carmen

Introduction

Perhaps one of the all time favourite operas, Carmen is a love story between a sexy manipulative gypsy girl (Carmen) and a naive soldier (Don José) who`s just dying to be made a fool of. Carmen is the seductive gypsy who works in the local cigarette factory. Don José helps Carmen to escape imprisonment and eventually deserts his regiment for her. Carmen is attracted to the bullfighter Escamillo, soon tires of Don José but he begs her to return. She refuses and what ensues is a crime of passion.

If you want a breakdown of all four acts, read on, else skip to the next section. Warning: there are spoilers here!

• Act I
In a square in Seville on one side there is a tobacco manufacturer and in front of it are the Dragons` Guard barracks. The soldiers are eagerly awaiting the young cigar-makers` exit from the factory. Micaela, an inexperienced young peasant, is looking for Don José, a brigadier of the Dragons. The two are betrothed. Micaela is told by the rude soldiers that Don José will be there at the change of the Guard. Micaela timidly goes away, and soon after Don José arrives, just when the girls are going out of the factory. Among them there is Carmen, who tries to seduce Don José throwing him a flower.

Later, Micaela is back and meets Don José. She brings him news of his mother, and the two renew their promise of marriage. When Micaela has gone away, a quarrel bursts among the young workers. Carmen hurts a workmate and is arrested; Don José is assigned the duty to take her to prison. Carmen has the chance to use all her charm and personality to obtain her freedom: she promises to meet Don José at Lillas Pastia`s. The soldier is hesitant, but eventually accepts to let Carmen flee away: she tries to escape and he simulates to be surprised, falling on the ground while she runs away.


• Act II
In Lillas Pastià`s Inn, while Carmen is dancing with her mates, enters Escamillo, the famous toreador, and immediately starts flattering her. Carmen refuses his courtship, as she is waiting for Don José who was freed from prison. The soldier was condemned because of Carmen`s escape, but loves her everyday more. He does not know that the Inn is a den of smugglers, and even Carmen is one of them. Remendado and Dancaïro are plotting a great coupe, while Don José arrives and meets Carmen. When the trumpet sounds the retreat Don José wants to return immediately to the barracks, but Carmen wants him to desert and to follow her on the mountains, where everything is freedom. Soon after Zun****, the captain, arrives and orders to Don José to follow him. A quarrel bursts, Remendado and Dancaïro take away Zun****, and Don José is forced to flee away with Carmen.


• Act III
The scene moves to the smugglers` refuge on the mountains. Don José is tormented by remorse for not having fulfilled the promise to marry Micaela, a promise he made to his old mother, while Carmen is already wearied by this man who is not able to get accustomed to the free life of the smugglers on the mountains, the life she loves so much, and starts to think about Escamillo, the matador. But when Carmen asks her future to the cards, she sees death. Escamillo arrives at the camp to seduce Carmen, but he meets Don José: only the arrival of Carmen avoids a tragedy, as the two were already fighting with their daggers. Don José has already quite totally lost Carmen`s love and esteem, when Micaela finds the camp and begs Don José to follow her, as his mother is dying. Don José goes with her, but threats Carmen who impudently challenges him.


• Act IV
The scene is now set again in Seville, in the square in front of the Plaza de Toros. The crowd is cheering with incredible enthusiasm the matador, Escamillo, who is going to his corrida with Carmen, who is now his lover. Carmen`s friends alert her that Don José is in Seville, and is looking for her. Carmen is not afraid and waits for him. Don José arrives and begs her to leave Escamillo and return with him. Carmen answers rudely and throws on the ground the ring that Don José had bestowed her when they were lovers. In that moment they hear the cheers to Escamillo coming from the plaza de toros. Don José, crazily jealous, kills Carmen with his dagger, and then cries desperately lying on her corpse.

Video

The back of the box states 1.33:1, which isn`t correct. Carmen is presented with a 1.78:1 letterbox transfer. The overall quality, as letterbox transfers go, is better than average. There`s edge enhancement present and mild compression grain creeping in, I`m guessing this might be down to the fact that this is a 2.5+ hour opera with three sound tracks. Despite this, colour is well balanced and detail looks fair. The video, having been shot on digital video, doesn`t suffer from dust or dirt. Its shortcomings won`t affect your watching.

Audio

There`s a choice to be made from three soundtracks: French Dolby Digital 2.0, 5.1 and DTS 5.1. Putting the 2.0 stereo soundtrack to one side for the moment, the two 5.1 audio tracks sound similar, except for the volume of the DTS sound, which is marginally, lower. There`s a wide sound stage and an even spread of music coming from the front. Bass sounded fine and it`s easy to make out the individual instruments. The surrounds only offer ambience and don`t bombard you with sound. Returning to the stereo soundtrack, this is okay as stereo tracks go, but needs significant amplifying to get anywhere near the power offered by the 5.1 audio mix.

Features

Easy to navigate static menus with a couple of extras:

• Cante de Flamenco - Martinete (3:41) - This is a nice little flamenco solo.

• Creating Seville (11:15) - This is a behind the scenes of the setting up of the opera and is interesting. Unfortunately the quality of this is poor due to too much compression, but you can still make out what`s going on.

Carmen has easy to read English subtitles.

Conclusion

Carmen is a classic tragedy, which perfectly embodies the power of passion and desire. George Bizet was a French composer who was commissioned to write an opera for Paris`s Opera-Comique opera house. Then, as in many cases now, people preferred a nice happy ending where good conquers evil and that sort of thing. Carmen however, was a little different to what people were expecting and this caused quite a stir at the time. Brutal selfishness, an irresistible seduction, manipulative and containing a raw sensuality, were just some of the more charming qualities Carmen possessed. She knew how to play games with men and did so with impunity, not caring about whom she left heart-broken in her wake. She carried no guilt whatsoever. The human heart is but something to toy with and Carmen will retain her freedom at any cost.

That said, Carmen was never afraid to do her own thing, and to hell with anyone who sought to tie her down with "expressions of love", such as the poor Don José. He`s driven over the edge, being a fool in love, and without thinking decides upon the only course open to him; one that tragically ends Carmen once and for all.

The main performance of Carmen herself from Hermine May, was just right; she has a wonderful voice and it`s easy to fall prey to her seduction. I wasn`t sure if I would enjoy this performance as much as I did, so I was pleasantly surprised. Bizet`s wonderful score sounded very forceful in 5.1 surround making a difference to the way the opera sounded; the quality of the music really transforms the whole affair. It`s hard not to enjoy Carmen.