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DVD : Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, DomingoGet all your favorite discounted items here in DVD and Bizet - Carmen / Maazel, Migenes, Domingo! starring: Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, François Le Roux directed by: Francesco Rosi  Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD EAN: 9780767827737 Format: Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 0767827732 Label: Sony Pictures Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Number Of Items: 1 Picture Format: Letterbox Publisher: Sony Pictures Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 28, 1999 Running Time: 155 minutes Studio: Sony Pictures Theatrical Release Date: 1984 Sales Rank: 41003 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Description: All the passion and spectacle of Bizet's Carmen comes to life in this dazzling screen opera starring Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson. In 19th century Seville, the lusty, tempestuous Carmen (Migenes-Johnson) seduces a naive Army corporal, Don Jose (Domingo), newly assigned to the village fortress. Jose abandons his career, his fiancée and even his dying mother for the love of this sultry gypsy. But soon she spurns him in favor of a toreador, Escamillo (Ruggero Raimondi). Crazed with jealousy, Jose begs Carmen to return to him, but her taunting declaration of independence results in tragedy. Shot entirely on location in Andalusian Spain, Bizet's Carmen has been hailed as the definitive version of this classic opera. 155 minutes. Amazon.com: This is the most popular opera production so far on DVD, surpassing even Franco Zeffirelli's lavish, symbol-laden La Traviata. It is an exciting Carmen, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress--even better than Maria Ewing in the competing DVD edition from Covent Garden, though Ewing acts very well and has a more appropriate voice. This movie version was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence hard to achieve in a staged performance shot for television. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes. The opening titles are superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. The changing of the guard in the opening scene, with the boys' chorus playing soldier, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act II, the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout, all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. But the music is, on the whole, more effectively performed in the Covent Garden production, which also handles close-up shots better, perhaps because it was directed with a small screen in mind. The opera house atmosphere will make hard-core opera fans feel more at home. The movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. --Joe McLellan Average Rating:
 Rating:  - OverpricedJulia Migenes is the definitive Carmen. The film is perfect from start to finish and features some of the best operatic singing available. However, A DVD for over $100 is outrageous. Save it for tickets to the real opera and see Julia live. Rating:  - Excellent !Excellent performance by all the actors and opera singers. It was a very good idea to transport the classic opera into a movies version. This adaptation is not new, nevertheless, is a masterpiece for all times. Congratulations ! Rating: - The finest production yetThis is an absolutely must have for any lovers of the opera Carmen. I originally purchased it as a VHS recording and have tried for years to locate it on DVD. The DVD version is rare indeed and the high cost (I paid $134.77) is worth every penny. The sound is highly superior to the VHS version though mine may have been played so long it sound has been affected. It was purchased from a video store. This presentation of the opera is shown as a movie. It contains close-ups not possible in a stage presentation ... Read More Rating:  - Gritty realism juxtaposed with the artifice of operaThis film version of the great Bizet opera aims for gritty realism right from the start - during the opening credits a bull is impaled and killed during a bull-fight - of course this realism goes out the window as soon as the characters open their mouths and begin to sing! This is a well-mounted and well-sung production but the juxtaposition of a realistic setting with the artifice that is opera just doesn't work. The cast are not helped by the obvious lip-synching especially noticable during close ... Read More Rating: - one of the most beautiful versions of Carmen I have seen......This 1983 version of Bizet's Carmen, directed by the great Italian filmmaker, Franco Zeferelli, is wonderfully done. We really don't see enough of the great soprano, Julia Migenes, who is seen here as the title character, opposite the marvelous Placido Domingo, as Don Jose, her jealous lover. This film glows with exhuberance and fire and the cast does a fantastic job. I definitely reccomend this film to those who consider themselves opera fans, as well as those who have never seen an opera before. For starters, ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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