Bizet / Horne / McCracken / Bernstein, 1973: Carmen (Highlights) - Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Highlights from a 1973 Metropolitan Opera performance of Bizet's opera Carmen, featuring Marilyn Horne (Carmen), James McCracken (Don Jose), Tom Krause (Escamillo), Colette Boky (Frasquita), Marcia Baldwin (Mercedes), Donald Gramm (Zuniga), Russell Christopher (Dancaire), and Andrea Velis (Remendado). Leonard Bernstein leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Children's Chorus, and the Manhattan Opera Chorus.

This recording was taken from a cassette I purchased in the early 1970s, issued on the DG label. All images used in this video were taken from the cassette (4:22) and the booklet (11:48) that accompanied it.

(Note: There is for a very brief moment or two some distortion at the very beginning and very end of this recording. The tape at one time got caught up in the little rubber wheel of the tape player and never recovered, unfortunately.)

1. Prelude
2. March and chorus of urchins; "Avec la garde montante nous arrivons" (4:18)
3. Habanera "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" (6:50)
4. Seguidilla - "Près des remparts de Séville" (11:39)
5. Entr'acte II (16:23)
6. Gypsy song "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" (18:06)
7. Toreador song - Couplet "Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre" (22:54)
8. Smugglers' quintet "Nous avons en tete une affaire" (28:29)
9. Flower song "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" (33:00)
10. Card Trio - Trio "Melons! Coupons" (36:49)
11. Entr'acte IV (44:20)
12. Finale (46:45)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bizet
• Carmen
• Marilyn Horne
• James McCracken
• davidhertzberg
• Don Jose
• Tom Krause
• Escamillo
• Leonard Bernstein
• ביזה
• Frasquita
• Леонард Бернстайн
• מרילין הורן
• Mercedes
• Zuniga
• Dancaire
• ג 'יימס מקראקן
• Бизе
• Кармен
• Мэрилин Хорн
• Джеймс Мак-Кракен
• Remendado
• ליאונרד ברנשטיין
• classicvinylbiz
• כרמן

[jeiversen]

Wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to prepare and upload this.

[davidhertzberg]

@jeiversen Thanks for writing, david

[wattever333]

I LOVE the way your organized this clip. I wish more people would do this.

[wattever333]

dov'è micaëla?? celle qui dit que rien ne l'épouvante.

pour une fois qu'on a une micaëla française, qui ne dit pas "dont les artifices maudits ont fini par faire UNE FEMME de celui que j'aimais jadis"

[wattever333]

i love kerschnitts! especially with sauerkraut.

[djefca]

Merci pour ce moment délicieux

[gamishiko]

I have experienced the true power of song and passion.

[iczerman]

I love the swagger that Bernstein puts into the prelude. Too many conductors take it too fast IMHO.

[stevevandien]

This is remarkable lyric singing for a dramatic tenor with a voice as huge as McCracken's. I still have trouble, however, with that ppp high note, which was clearly falsetto. What the hey, if you can't sing it in legit head voice, sing it forte. So many Joses have sung it thus over the years that there's no shame in doing so. AND McCracken is not to be denigrated because he lacked a true high mezza voce. With rare exceptions, no singer has everything --

[PentiumKwok]

love the children's chorus from 4:17