Cheap Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, Domingo (DVD) (Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo) (Francesco Rosi) Price
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This movie version was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence hard to achieve in a staged performance shot for television. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes. The opening titles are superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. The changing of the guard in the opening scene, with the boys' chorus playing soldier, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act II, the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout, all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. But the music is, on the whole, more effectively performed in the Covent Garden production, which also handles close-up shots better, perhaps because it was directed with a small screen in mind. The opera house atmosphere will make hard-core opera fans feel more at home. The movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. --Joe McLellan
| ACTORS: | Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo |
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Francesco Rosi |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 01 January, 1984 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Columbia/Tristar Studios |
| MPAA RATING: | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen |
| TYPE: | Foreign Film - French |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 043396048799 |
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Customer Reviews of Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, Domingo
Here is Carmencita First a caveat: my recommendation is to always, if possible, buy a opera on DVD. DVD's are hypermedia and videotapes are linear media; the ability of hypermedia to jump from point to point rather linear media's limited ability to go only forward or backward gives you the ability to quickly find arias or other favorite parts and replay them to your hearts content.
That being said here is a DVD that is perfect for someone who wants to begin to explore the delights of opera, or who wants to give someone a great introduction to opera, or who just wants a marvelous performance of Carmen. Set in Andulusian Spain in a beautiful ancient town with the Chorus and Childrens Chorus of Radio France and the Orchestre National de France directed by Lorin Maazel, with Placido Domingo (he had sung this role about 150 times prior to this filming) as the corporal Don Jose, Faith Esham as Micaela the maiden who loves Don Jose, Ruggero Raimondi as Escamillo the toreador, Francois Le Roux as Morales, Lilian Watson as Frasquita, and Susan Daniels as Mercedes and last but certainly not least, Julia Migenes in a sizzling performance as Carmen. This DVD is an intoxicating combination of stunning scenry, a huge colorful talented cast, Bizet's timeless music, an excellent experiened orchestra and chorus, wonderful dancing by Compagnie Antonio Gades (El Amor Brujo), director Francesco Rosi's (Three Brothers) great sense of theater and staging. The digitally remastered video and sound quality are quite good and the audio would probably be even better if your television is set up with the latest in sound and speaker systems. A few scenes in this film are staged in settings different from the libretto and this performance uses the original dialog rather than the recitatives which were composed after Bizet's death and which are generally used in contemporary performances. Since it was filmed seventeen years ago there are few extras on the DVD. Enjoy.
Opera moviemaking at its finest
The problem with most made for movie operas is that its seems to be limited to a stage production. The prescence of a live performance is missed when viewing this type of production, and the acting is typically flat. The soundtrack is usually poorly dubbed or has poor accoustics.
Not so with this production of Carmen. It is the most beautiful, most charming and most invigorating opera movie I have ever seen. Jules Mignes Johnson worked diligently to portray her character Carmen accurately as the gypsy cigarette factory worker with an overdriven libido and an eye for troublemaking. As far as I'm concerned she completely overshadows Domingo, who looks ridiculous as a 50 year old private/sargeant who doesn't ever don a hat. Unlike most female leads she looks and acts her part (i.e. unlike the 200 lb soprano's that are dying from tuberculosis in other opera productions!).
Escamillo is particulary entertaining as the vain bullfighter; we can see the vanity and shallowness in both Carmen and Escamillo, and why they are attracted to each other. Don Jose' is brooding and serious and we can see right away how this will not work well with the flirtatious Carmen. All these characterizations are elements in this film that you will not see in other productions.
The choreography and cinemtography takes advantage of the expansive location and extras.
As an grand opera on a grand scale, I would highly recommend this movie.
Busty, Lusty and Dusty
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.