Name: Carmen
Genre: Music
Released: 1952-12-11
Cast: Risë Stevens, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill

What a joy to find broadcasts of some truly great singers and the Met in their glory days. This Carmen is a fine example. The sound is mono, but still has clarity. The orchestral playing has energy and sensitivity when needed, complete with the right amounts of authentic Spanish flavour. Fritz Reiner's conducting is very taut, with some of the more sprightly tempos I've heard for Carmen but that was hardly inappropriate. The performances are just great. Only Paolo Silveri disappoints, his high notes and diction are great but his low notes are nowhere near as well-projected and he lacks the charismatic swagger for Escamillo. Nadine Conner has a lovely voice, great musicianship and poignant presence if not as youthful as one would expect for Micaela, but some of her high register for me was a little too careful. Lucine Amara and Margaret Roggero are delightful as Frasquita and Mercedes respectively. Richard Tucker's Don Jose is superb, his voice is an Italianate sound but also a truly beautiful one, I loved how he started off lyric and grew into a more dramatic tenor, running on a parallel with the sympathetic then hardened man Don Jose initially was then becomes. The best asset was Rise Stevens' Carmen, a commanding, lusciously rich and nuanced vocal performance and passionate, sexy, flirtatious and jealous to the core. All in all, if you love any of these singers, Carmen as an opera or opera itself, you will find this broadcast from the Met in their glory days a treasure. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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Carmen

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