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Bizet: Carmen / Horne, McCracken, Bernstein

Bizet / Manhattan Chorus / Mauceri / Metropolitan Release Date: 03/10/2015
Label: Pentatone Catalog #: 5186216 Spars Code: DDD
Composer:  Georges Bizet Performer:  Adriana Maliponte ,  Marcia Baldwin ,  Marilyn Horne ,  James McCracken  ...  Conductor:  Leonard Bernstein Orchestra/Ensemble:  Metropolitan Opera Orchestra ,  Manhattan Opera Chorus ,  Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus Number of Discs: 2

"All in all, this is the rare performance that takes Carmen seriously as a music drama rather than a tourist attraction. ... The two central performances are monumental. Marilyn Horne’s Carmen shows how the men in her life define the way she behaves. ... James McCracken, troubled and masculine the whole time, has moments of effective emotional expansion in the duet with Micaela and the flower song, and he rather brilliantly portrays the way in which these events have stirred up the simple country boy. His final scene is suitably pitiful." – William R. Braun, Opera News [8/2015]

Pentatone remasters and re-releases Leonard Bernstein's recording of Bizet’s opera Carmen. In September 1982, The New York Times declared, “a Read more strong vote for Bernstein’s much-debated 1973 recording of Bizet’s Carmen, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the great Marilyn Horne in the title role. Bernstein’s daringly slow tempos, though criticized by some, are revelatory. Ms. Horne’s 'Habanera' is all the more seductive for its reined-in pacing and sultry phrasing.” Many claim that this is by far the best recording of Carmen. Leonard Bernstein’s rendition is as sharp as Marilyn Horne and James McCracken’s performances are stunning.

Digitally remastered on 2 SACDs, this release also features a complete libretto in English and French.
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