Bizet: Carmen

Re-Release (former TDK title)

As a highlight of this year, Monarda Music presents a sensational film document from the musical legacy of Carlos Kleiber, available only on Blu-ray: Franco Zeffirelli's wonderful production of Carmen, a live recording from the Vienna State Opera in 1978. The meticulous conductor always conducted a very select repertoire, and his few audio and video recordings include only seven complete operas.

The Zeffirelli production is the only premiere Kleiber ever conducted. In December 1978, the masterful Franco Zeffirelli created colorful and atmospheric images, while Kleiber's musical genius coaxed a rhythmic vitality and subtle passion from the music that never lost its transparency and lightness. Carlos Kleiber conducted an exceptional cast.

Plácido Domingo, still the young lyric tenor, was the star as Don José, and Elena Obraztsova gave a wonderfully natural Carmen, far removed from the usual erotic cliché of the She-Devil. The cast was completed by the young Isobel Buchanan, who stepped in at short notice for this production, and Yuri Mazurok, who would later become a top Verdi baritone. The Viennese audience at the opera house hailed the performance as a triumph. The legend of Carlos Kleiber's "Vienna Carmen" was born.

Almost half a century has passed, and the Vienna State Opera has seen many performances of Zeffirelli's production of Carmen, with singers certainly no less distinguished than the original cast—but none have achieved the cult status that this one has. The reason for this is surely the conductor Carlos Kleiber, who led this premiere and put his own stamp on it.