Georges Bizet - Carmen / Nuria Espert · Zubin Mehta - M. Ewing · L. Lima · L. Vaduva - ROH Covent Garden
Opera videos come essentially in two categories: movies, such as the1984 Carmen, directed by Francesco  Rosi and starring Julia Migenes and Placido Domingo, and opera house productions  filmed for television, such as this 1991Carmenfrom London's Royal Opera  House, Covent Garden.Carmenis the most popular opera of all, and these  two videos are both bestsellers, embodying effectively the values that makeCarmenunique. Choosing between them is not easy. Musically, both are  excellent. Domingo has more name recognition than Luis Lima, and Rosi's film  catches him in top form. But Lima is vocally and visually a precise embodiment  of Don José, the soldier seduced and betrayed by Carmen and finally  driven to murder her. Migenes (in Rosi's film) gives a superb portrayal of the  capricious Gypsy woman, but for my taste Maria Ewing's Carmen is even more  vivid, natural, and subtly nuanced. Leontina Vaduva is exactly right as the  innocent country girl Micaela, and Gino Quilico swaggers convincingly through  the role of the bullfighter Escamillo.The advantage of the film is presence and realism, particularly outdoor  landscapes with plenty of space for the soldiers and smugglers to move around.  Escamillo faces a real bull in a three-dimensional Plaza de Toros, something  necessarily kept offstage in the Covent Garden production. A danger not always  avoided in the film production is overstatement. There is more subtlety in  Covent Garden's staging--there has to be--as well as a higher overall level of  musicianship. And expert camera work gives the Covent Garden scenery a striking  air of three-dimensional realism. If I had to live with only one of theseCarmens, I would choose Ewing and Covent Garden. But I would miss many  striking moments in Rosi's film.--Joe McLellan