Because so many people these days, particularly younger
people, expect to get their music free or nearly free, and because the weak
world economy has been making it hard for most orchestras to produce records,
we are seeing fewer and fewer major symphony ensembles in new recordings. When
we do get a few new recordings, the orchestras themselves most often release
them on their own label, or they record them in front of a live audience in
which instance the paying folk essentially subsidize some of the costs. So,
it’s a pleasure to hear a new, 2012 recording such as this one from a big
record label like EMI of one of the world’s great symphony orchestras, the
Berlin Philharmonic.
French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) would never live
to see how popular his final completed opera would become, the work seeing a
poor opening in the year of the composer’s early death. Nevertheless, nowadays Carmen is among the handful of most
well-known operas the world over, the epitome of opera for a lot of opera fans
and non-fans alike.
Still, to compete, any new Carmen contender has to come up against formidable rivals. We have
great recordings of it from conductors like Karajan (DG and RCA), Bernstein
(DG), Beecham (EMI), Solti (Decca), Abbado (DG), Plasson (EMI), Petrie (EMI),
Sinopoli (Teldec), and others. Does Rattle’s new recording make the cut and
join the ranks of greatness, a Carmen
for the ages? Maybe, maybe not.
Set in Seville, Spain, during the early nineteenth
century, the opera’s narrative concerns a beautiful and tempestuous Gypsy girl,
Carmen (Magdalena Kozena), who lavishes her affections on a young,
unsophisticated soldier, Don Jose (Jonas Kaufmann). He becomes so enamoured
with Carmen, he spurns his former lover, deserts his regiment, and joins Carmen
and a crew of smugglers. When Carmen subsequently rejects him and takes up with
a bullfighter, Don Jose becomes so enraged with jealousy, he murders her. After
Bizet’s own death, critics and audiences found enough drama and romance in the
piece to help transform French opera comique into the emerging Italian realism
of Verdi and Puccini.
Over the years there have been any number of scores used
in the opera’s production, Bizet having died before he could make any
absolutely final editing of it. According to a booklet note, the text used for
this EMI recording “is based on Fritz Oeser’s revolutionary 1964 Barenreiter
edition, which was the first to restore not only the original dialogue but
virtually all of the cut material, especially in the long first act.”
Sir Simon Rattle’s interpretation overall sounds quite
refined, smooth, and elegant, yet it seems to lack a little something in sheer
earthiness, in rawness and swagger. In other words, it sounds a mite too pat,
too polished, too safe, at least for my taste, even though his tempos are on
the moderately quick side. This is not surprising to me, though, as I have
found the conductor’s performances getting progressively more sedate ever since
he took over the principal conductorship of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002.
The choruses--the choir and children’s choir of the German
State Opera, Berlin--sound most cultured, letter perfect in their execution.
The children, markedly, sing in charmingly sweet voice.
When Czech mezzo-soprano Kozena enters as the seductress
Carmen, we hear a beautifully dramatic reading of the role, without being quite
as sensual as some fans may like. The Habanera
flows in wonderfully lyrical fashion, yet neither the singer nor conductor
quite manages to wring from it the last ounce of lusty sinuousness.
Tenor Kaufmann as the naive, ill-fated Don Jose seems well
suited to his part. When he and Kozena finally get to sing together, they make
a good pair. However, I still don’t hear some of the sexy allure of competing
versions. That is, this Carmen may
not be as overtly melodramatic as it could be. Rattle and his players perhaps
try too hard to tame it.
The celebrated Toreador
tune, featuring baritone Kostas Smoriginas, comes off well, with a full-bodied
tone and authoritative air. Indeed, it is one of the highlights of the set, not
counting a few lifelike stage effects.
Nevertheless, things get more exciting as Rattle finally
warms to the project and the closing action commences. It’s almost as if the
conductor were holding everything back for a big finish. I suppose it’s as the
Bard wrote in his famous play of the same name: “All’s well that ends well.”
The recording, which EMI made at the Philharmonie, Berlin,
in 2012, is slightly more distant and veiled than I would have expected--not
excessively so but noticeably. Individual instruments like castanets come over
with excellent clarity and attack, but the full orchestra seems less than
transparent. There is a relatively narrow stereo spread, too. I mean, half a
century ago EMI made a more open recording for Beecham and his crew, so it’s
hard to convince me that the state-of-the-art in audio recording has advanced
that much over the years. Anyway, the sound is dynamic, with a wide range; and
voices, all-important in an opera recording, are fairly natural. It helps a bit
to play this one a tad louder than usual in order to nudge it into coming
alive. Then it’s fine, and you’ll enjoy it.
EMI managed to get the opera onto just two discs, which
they package in a hardbound Digipak-type container. It’s most handsome, with
the discs inserted into sleeves on the inside front and back covers. Bound
within the covers are more than sixty pages of text and pictures. However, the
company do not include a libretto; for that, you have to go to EMI’s Web site
and download it. This appears to me a massive inconvenience, not only to
download but to store afterwards. Oh, well, the package is attractive in any
case.
JJP
