Georges Bizet
Carmen

This is the most performed Opera in the world in the entire history of music. It beats everything and everyone in terms of performances.

Naturally, at its first representation, it was a half fiasco, like "Il Barbiere Di Siviglia" by G. Rossini, "La Traviata" by G. Verdi, "Madame Butterfly" by G. Puccini. (Notice that all these composers have names that begin with G, curious).

The version I am going to review is my favorite: the one recorded by Claudio Abbado in 1977 for Deutsche Grammophon.

Abbado achieves the most brilliant and whirling conducting one can hear of this Opera, which usually older conductors tend to slow down too much (Bernstein above all). A fan of vast sounds, smooth and clear timbres like crystal, expanding from the speakers with a skill that defies even the most horrible Hi-Fi systems. The miracle of the success of this recording is due to the fortunate fusion between the singers, the musical singability, the instrumental skill, the rhythmic perfection, and the recording technique.

Teresa Berganza was at the peak of her vocal capabilities, and at that time, there was hardly anyone who could match her at an interpretative level. Technically there is always better. Hers is an ironic Carmen, slippery, seductive, elusive and sweet enough to make one's head spin. Domingo is precise and does not overflow into the excesses that sometimes escape those who interpret José, a song [performance] broad and compressed in the power of one who is perfectly immersed in the role. The Cotrubas is definitely not Mirella Freni (Freni who, if she had taken part in this recording, would have made it stellar), still, she is an excellent singer. Expressive and able to control the most intricate passages in the most delicate arias of her character. Milnes, almost as always, insert the coin, and he doesn't miss. He interprets and sings virilely and with a mastery of a true master who knows how to fulfill the needs of his conductor, a great one. All the side roles are of high level, and the choirs are accurate and enhance the qualities of the recording.

A work of very high compositional level that receives justice from professional artists who know how to magnify it before the world waiting to hear it for the first time or who would like to just hear it again with all the criteria it deserves. Music capable of bringing even those who do not love Opera closer to this genre, because when it comes to Works of Art, classifications go to hell. Anyone who listens to music does so to receive emotions, and here, there is a deluge of them.