Bizet-Carmen "C'est Toi? C'est moi!" Duet-Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley

[Youkali67]

Me encanta el tenor, ella canta bien pero no soporto ver su cara.

[moniayasa]

C'est oi... C'est moi? Pour moi une piece de maitre!! Et MARIA la chante avec une grande sentiment¡¡¡ BRAVO¡¡¡

[SangpourPlaisir]

I have to commend them for their diction. It is so clear, I can undertand everything they are saying no need for subtitles. :)

[Salar73]

GROSSARTIG

[htshoward]

I fell in love with this great opera after watching Maria perform the title role. None other like her in my book.

[cantanteporsiempre]

@htshoward Indeed, for me she is also the best carmen. It comes from her inside it´s a contained and energetic Carmen.

[htshoward]

@cantanteporsiempre Yes, exactly. Most of the other singers I have heard sing Carmen concentrate too hard on making the singing "pretty" and fail to find the heart of Carmen with their singing. Someone recommended I see Maria sing the role, and about 10 minutes into the opera I was hooked. It does come from within with her, and I like the way she is not afraid to compromise beauty of tone in places to accentuate the drama.

[MastersoftheOpera]

Maria Ewing's Carmen is excellent. I don't know who Barry McCauley is but he sings a very fine Don Jose - tormented and driven to madness and desperation. That's really good acting although Jose Carreras & Placido Domingo are better. Ewing enjoyed a double career as mezzo and soprano. Her Salome is out of this world.

[canzonettasullaria]

@MastersoftheOpera

Barry McCauley is much better than many of the Don Joses of nowadays. His voice may not be as beautiful as Carrera`s or Domingo`s, but his acting and singing are very suitable to the role.

[MissJessyeNorman]

@canzonettasullaria I think he's incredible and I agree, he's wonderfully suited to this role. I DO however disagree on one point. I think his voice is GORGEOUS. I think some singers have better press and PR machines. I'm not saying that those with great PR don't deserve the recognition, because usually they do (well, some don't, but that's another story, lol).

[MissJessyeNorman]

@canzonettasullaria ...But, I strongly feel that there are MANY SINGERS who are just as amazing, and who are better in roles that a more famous person has become famous for, and who should be considered jewels in the firmament of operatic history, but because they didn't have the great PR, don't get the recognition they deserve...

[MissJessyeNorman]

@canzonettasullaria ...We buy into what we are told, and don't trust our own instincts. I'm loving him here, and he may beat out those who are more famous, in my mind, in this role (I'd need to watch all three of them again first). Also, I am not saying this is you, because I believe you that you prefer Domingo and Carreras in this role. I'm just saying that often we are cowed into saying and thinking someone is better because we are told they are better...

[canzonettasullaria]

@MissJessyeNorman Sorry for the misunderstanding! I don't by far prefer Domingo, Carreras etc. and there are many singers, which I enjoy very much although they aren't well known and which were diserved to be known better. For example I think of Micheal Spyres and Bülent Bezdüz. Nice greetings!

[MissJessyeNorman]

@canzonettasullaria I would love for people to trust their own instincts more. Also, no singer is going to be amazing in all the roles in his/her fach. I love me some Ghena Dimitrova as Abigaille, but in some of the more lyrical roles, I prefer other sopranos. Does that make her any less of a singer? Hell no! Sometimes it feels like people feel obligated to love a famous singer in every role in his/her fach...

[MissJessyeNorman]

@canzonettasullaria Ok, so I'm long winded! Basically I think we should all listen to more singers in general, and allow ourselves to enjoy and become endeared to great singers in the roles in which they are great, whether they are considered great by the critics or not!

[ALIKJ09]

this is absolutely brilliant!

the tenor really is amazing!

[DottoreJojo]

The tenor is just perfect. Maria looks like she's on drugs... all the time. But she has excellent French and a unique interpretation. He should have stabbed her many more... times.

[chillerbanane]

je dois pleurer si beaucoup!!!

[jedone11]

The best version ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! La meilleure version :-)

[Tenorbravo]

I had the honor of seeing Carmen in London. Maria was Carmen. She was and is A FANTATIC SINGER. The same I can say about Barry..Both make a perfect paid for the Opera Carmen...Thank you for sharing this geme.

[akirren]

she died so quckly! lol.

What beautiful voices.

[BringinSexyBach]

she got stabbed in the side and died in half a second... haha

[jedone11]

J'aime beaucoup :-) Quelle voix!!!!

[jgargano03]

Mr. Mccauley was my voice teacher when I studied at WCC in 1995. He died the same time my son was born. He was a great tenor.. I still have tapes of my lessons with him. One thing you cant tell from the video - he has a lazy eye. RIP Barry.

[melisma909]

Yes, he did have a lazy eye. I knew him for 13 years. I was the music director at his church, and he was always willing to sing solos. It was my idea for him to teach at Westminster Choir College, where I had done my master's degree in church music. He loved teaching, and he told me what a great learning experience it was for him. He was a great tenor and a fine human being.

[cantanteporsiempre]

Ay pero como les gusta criticar gente que no sabe nada, Ewing es una de las grandes Carmen de todos los tiempos, lo que pasa es que esta es una producción un poco oscura y los ademanes economizados, pero por favor no critiquen a los grandes,no les queda.

[Marinausbcn]

es cierto que Maria Ewing es inegablemente una soprano excepcional, pero no da el caracter de Carmen interpretativamente hablando,y eso hace que a veces su forma de cantar tampoco este dentro del estilo, he leido algún comentario al respecto y estoy de acuerdo, pero también un bravo para Maria Ewing.

[Marinausbcn]

Si, este tenor es muy bueno, me ha impresionado, se podrían decir algunas cosas sobre detalles tecnicos, pero es un tenor realmente bueno, la voz es sensacional, y como actor fantastico, por lo tanto esos detalles se pueden olvidar, es un tenor bravo de verdad!!! muy inspirado y entregado, senor Barry McCauley gracias por su interpretación!

[jijahjiah]

i'm an amateur when it comes to judging operas..

but this guy's acting was really good

idk it made me want to cry ahah

[JaRoWi1647]

GREAT scene. GREAT singing. GREAT acting. Thanks.

[operaman20]

I love the tenor amazing!

[silvr94]

The tenor is not that good...

Bzz the

[BariTenoreDram]

kidding or what?

[silvr94]

No! I'm not kidding. Some tones he totally misses. Maybe it's the heavy vibrato or something else, but it doesn't sound good...

[dougiepoynter29]

does anyone know where can i find the song that is before ''c'est toi? c'est moi!''?

[malmelo]

GREAT, WONDERFUL! Thank´s for this video!

And if you had never seen this duet with Maria Ewing and Luis Lima, you have to see it, because Ewing and Lima made at the Covent Garden one of the best duets from Carmen that I´ve seen in my life.

[canzonettasullaria]

Ravishing singing and acting! The best final I´ve ever heard and seen!

[elamigosanti]

you may find her acting good but it has nothing to do with the character carmen is supposed to be. carmen is a spanish, deeply emotional and dramatic person. non of this shows in ewing's acting. even though her singing is really superb! great voice.

[JohnRiemannSoong]

wait, I thought Carmen was supposed to be a gypsy in Spain .... I don't want to be particularly prejudicial but often gypsies tend to be the wandering mystic sort (in common portrayal anyway).

[elamigosanti]

she's a gipsy indeed. that means wild, energetic and furious. her mystic aura is yet more to be shown during the habanera or the following scene where she throws the flower. but this is the final scene, full of desesperation and anger.

[wotanman]

Actually, I consider Maria's itnerpetations to be quite impressive- Ewing displayed more intelligent deep thought in regards to story, role, and backstory than any major Opera star I've seen. Her interpretation from an ACTOR'S perspective in THIS scene made sense-- from the perspective of a Carmen who KNEW that she was going to die by this moment and had resigned herself to this fate. Fear and resignation. Earlier in the production she is much more appropriately brooding, sexual, and "jaded".

[wachtelms]

In performances 90% of singers's efforts relate to tone production. Movies have singers lip sync what it later recorded, yielding far better acting. That's why many, including me, prefer to buy DVD movies than DVD performances. Think of some of the most famed musicals: Natalie Wood was superb in West Side Story; Deborah Kerr was unforgetable in the King and I.

[dbmaira]

this is wonderful