Search - Georges Bizet, Vincenzo Bellezza, Rome Opera Theater Orchestra :: Bizet: Carmen

So-so 1949 soundrack with Gigli

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 11/19/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Source: 1949 soundtrack for a filmed version of "Carmen" that was never completed.



Sound: Sounds just like the soundtrack of a 1949 movie.



Text: The opera is sung in Italian and uses the spurious recitatives tacked onto the score after Bizet's death.



Documentation: No libretto. Short summary of plot by act. Track listing shows Italian titles without timings. No identification of cast members singing. (For those interested, Disks 1 and 2 each time out to just above 72 minutes.)



In considering this set, I am tempted to follow the course of fans of the great divas who focus entirely on their particular goddess while ignoring shortcomings of the recording around her. I hereby declare that I am an unabashed fan of the extraordinary Beniamino Gigli, so here goes: This is Gigli at age 59 singing Carmen in Italian. He is terrific. Every Gigli fan must have this!



Having said that, I can now concentrate on why this is not a great recording of "Carmen." A failing of the set is the sound balance. Vocal soloists are very much at the front, while the orchestra and chorus are distantly in the background. Come to think of it, that is not necessarily so bad a thing, since the sounds generated by the band are pretty awful and the chorus seems both small and tentative.



Gigli's voice is less lustrous than on earlier recordings, but he is still head and shoulders above almost all of his successors in sheer, glorious sound. His interpretation of Don Jose is pure verismo--Bizet by way of Cavalleria Rusticana. Gigli is no love-sick shnook, but a passionate and dangerous loser whose internal fires are banked dangerously high from beginning to end. He sings the Flower aria in just the way that Canio might sing it while waiting to go on stage in "Pagliacci."



Ebe Stignani, one of the greatest Italian mezzos, was a famous Carmen in Italy from the 1930s and onward. If her voice sounds a little too old and a little too thick for an ideal Carmen, she still has moments of insight and plenty of verve.



Gino Bechi was a fine dramatic performer, wonderful in an opera such as Andrea Chenier, but wholly without the sheer vocal beauty that the role of Escamillo demands.



Rina Gigli, who passed away in 2000, was the daughter of Beniamino. She made her operatic debut opposite her father in La Traviata in 1943. She had a 35-year career, solidly placed in the B-list of European singers. As Micaela, she is just awful--elderly sounding and harsh. This is the only performance of Carmen I have ever heard in which it is clear why Don Jose left home and remains reluctant to return.



The conducting is, to say the least, uninspired, coming to life only for Gigli and Stignani--and not always for her.



Gigli, even in the wrong language and the wrong style, is always worth five stars, but for the recording as a whole--three stars."

Dated recording...

Chris Leger | NH, USA | 03/22/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This recording was made in the 1940's in Italy, apparently intended as a movie soundtrack (according to liner notes.)As such, it is rather poorly recorded. Plenty of noise, of varying level and intensity, and sounds as though it were recorded through a cellular phone.Avoid."