Carmen Blu-ray Review

• 14th Jul 2011

As the Opera for people who don’t like Opera, Bizet’s Carmen has been bandied about everywhere from car adverts to The Aristocats (yes, it’s in there!), not to mention being in performance consistently since it opened at Paris’ Opera-Comique in 1875. Its famous ‘bah bah bah baaaaahm, bah bah bah baaaaahm’ (L’amour est un oiseau rebelle’ for the more informed) is instantly recognizable and its less often hummed tunes like the delightfully flirtatious ‘Près des remparts de Séville’ are gems unto their own.

Francesco Rosi’s 1984 film production of Carmen has been celebrated time and time again as being “one of the best Opera films ever made” (even though technically every film is ‘one of’ the best, you get the idea…) a title which doesn’t come without a great deal of justification. Rosi has taken Carmen back to its earthy Andalucían roots and presented the opera on the big screen in just the way Bizet intended: with sexiness, humanity, god-awful soppiness and a good dose of melodrama. Now it is presented to us visually and audibly re-mastered to an astonishing quality, with the blu-ray picture a far cry away from the grainy film of the ‘80s production.

Taking the lead roles are the sultry, highly erotic and startlingly handsome Julia Migenes – if any woman can kill at ten paces, surely it is she. Supporting her (or rather, not) as Don José is the world famous Placido Domingo, operatic powerhouse, dashing, broad shouldered hunk and in this case, hapless lover. Migenes, as we learn from the intriguing and incredibly watchable documentary which comes with the blu-ray, seems not to have been an A+ student at French before Carmen but delivers the role with such style and (dare I say it) ‘pazazz’ that I have as much difficulty taking my eyes off her as Don José does. Domingo is his usual masterful self, lending just the right balance of masculine strength and equally masculine doe-eyed weakness to Don José to make his character believable, and a character in his own right, rather than simply serving as Carmen’s toy.

The film is stunningly shot by Pasqualino De Santis on location in Andalucía and the warmth of the scenery ebbs off the screen and into the room as the sights and smells of 19^th Century Spain become real again, thanks as well in no small part to Enrico Job’s understated yet rich costume design. Overall the film is opulent and gracious, sparing no detail. Iits heightened sense of drama, thanks to Rosi’s bold directorial decision to open the film with the gore and violence of the Toreador’s pit, climaxes from the onset and never drops below ‘breathtaking’.

This re-release is well worth adding to your collection whether you’re a devout opera fan or simply a fan of a good story and drama which goes a bit beyond the Eastenders realm of ‘you ain’t my mum’ –  ‘yes I am!’ plot pastiche. If you have the capability to watch it on blu, then go for it. If you don’t then get yourself down to Currys and buy a blu-ray player, because the mesmerising beauty, anguish, colour, scenery and most of all, the music are at the top of their field and deserve only to be viewed only at their utmost perfect.

Dani Singer