Bizet: Carmen [Box set, Limited Edition]

The quick review - This is a very good modern Carmen that will not disappoint. You will need to be very critical indeed to find too much wrong with this set. Perhaps this would be ideally suited to someone who is looking at buying their first Carmen or who just wants the opera to add to a collection. The set comes in a booklet form with card slots in the front and back cover for the two discs. The booklet forms the filler pages and is around 60 pages long. The usual multi-lingual offering with track information, synopsis, some photos etc, just what you would expect.

The slightly longer version - Magdalena Kozená has a beautiful mezzo voice but I thought one that was not quite suited to playing the role of Carmen. How wrong I was, she brings her own magic to this recording and somehow seems to balance out the beautiful rich tones of Kaufmann who in my opinion is even more magnificent in this recording than the 2007 Royal Opera House DVD/Blu-ray. Every recording I hear of him he just seems to get better. I wonder however if his voice will soon be just too much for the role of Don Jose and he will have to leave the role behind.

Kostas Smoriginas's Toreador is believable and quite reasonable but not as good as D'Arcangelo from the 2007 ROH recording. In my opinion the singer that surprised me the most was the Soprano Genia Kuhmeier who's Micaëla has the youthful effervescence I associate with the sublime Mirella Freni, still I think unsurpassed in this role.

Apparently Rattle said that his mission was to present the score in its original `Opera Comique' incarnation rather than as grand opera with spoken dialogue rather than the recitatives which were added later.

The real question for me was would Kozená be any good in the role. The answer is a resounding yes, if you have an preconceptions I would suggest you put them to one side and try this excellent recording. I would have given it 5 stars if D'Arcangelo had been cast as the Toreador, but that maybe just me.

I wonder how this all got started. Magdalena Kozena has enjoyed a successful international career, but how in the world did she land a recording deal to produce a Carmen in Berlin? Is she suddenly our foremost mezzo?

Of course something is suspicious. I wonder if her husband could be behind this. No doubt he was anxious to acquire a birthday present for her that wasn't the usual boring fare. Holding the keys to the most luxurious orchestral environment on earth, why not give her the title role in the classic Bizet opera? She was delighted, no doubt. After all, how many singers get to take a lead role in Berlin? Simon also assured her that he would find a great singer to fill the role of Don Jose: Jonas Kauffman.

The arrangement was admittedly cute, yet the problem is that neither husband nor wife had extensive background in the opera. Rattle is hardly known for opera, and Kozena's soft-contoured voice seems out of touch for feisty, rugged Carmen. So heading into this affair, we have a foreboding feeling that sincerity may not be at its highest.

But considering the team's disadvantage heading into this venture, the result isn't bad at all. By now other reviewers have pointed out the obvious: Kozena doesn't sound novel; she sounds out of touch. Her voice is beautiful, which is the problem--there's never a bratty moment. The singer whose commitment is undivided is Jonas Kauffman, who sings with heartfelt sadness while still sounding big and rich. The rest of the cast is first rate, but none showcase Kauffman's conviction. The Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin is a real joy; we can't complain here.

But I was most curious to see how the man at the podium would fare. First of all, I'm sure everyone wants to know if Rattle is fussy. While he certainly has mannered moments, he seems alert and alive. He doesn't sound particularly operatic, though. In his hands, Carmen veers towards a towering, forward-looking symphony with choirs and singers added. Some listeners will despise such treatment. But he sounds big and daring, with Germanic applications that occasionally makes us wonder if we've wandered over into Wagner. He's blessed with French sensibility, though, which keeps this from being all about bombast. I dare anyone to point to a Carmen where the orchestral accompaniment is half as thrilling.

The problem is that he engrosses himself in the opera's orchestration rather than its plot. Frankly, I don't care, because I'm not an opera fan to begin with. I love the stupendous orchestral playing guided by a conductor who lets every nuance pierce the ear. But most listeners will miss a maestro who makes the story come alive. To summarize Rattle's conducting, it's exuberant and passionate, but not operatic, which can cause it to sound somewhat episodic.

I'm arbitrarily giving this album four stars instead of three because I love the orchestral sound scheme and Rattle's enthusiasm, captured in dazzling sonics by EMI. Listeners will have to decide if it's worth the investment to acquire a Carmen where the lead singer seems uncomfortable and the conductor isn't operatic. If you get this CD, it should be for the vibrant Jonas Kauffman and the otherworldly playing of the Berliners.

A great performance of Carmen should privilege instinct over intellect. Simon Rattle, coming to the score for the first time, has chosen to emphasise the latter. Instead of the brooding tragedy of Abbado's benchmark, Rattle gives us a clipped 'period'-like performance with an all-too-thinking-man's gypsy at its heart. Many of the choices pay dividends - not least when delivered by Rattle's stunning orchestra - but much of this disc feels oddly engineered.

Aside from the Berliner Philharmoniker - you will never hear better solo and ensemble playing in this score - Rattle is gifted the major boon of Jonas Kaufmann. Eschewing crooning for a truly gutsy Don José (the like of which only Domingo has matched), he charts his terrifying journey from propriety to passion with great gusto. Sadly, it only serves to throw other casting elements into relief.

Magdalena Kozená is a surprising choice for the title role. Her cool delivery and often barbed attack - as on her recent recording of Dvořák, Ravel and Mahler with the same forces - is certainly dramatic, but such an ice queen approach inverts the character's trajectory. As Carmen moves from feral pariah to society whore, so Don José gives up rank and regiment in favour of his lover's unbridled fire. Kozená's showpieces are too pre-conceived for such an reflexive creature and, pitted against Kaufmann's lustrous tones, it sounds like she's been sitting sipping cocktails in Escamillo's villa for quite some time. As such, the opera's central tension dissipates.

Although Kostas Smoriginas shows similar vocal promise, the role Escamillo - and specifically when heard opposite Kaufmann - lies similarly out of reach. Don José completely dominates their sparring Act 3 duet, again undermining the drama. While Genia Kühmeier's dulcet Micaëla and Christina Landshamer and Rachel Frenkel's nimble performances as Carmen's sidekicks do much to redress the casting balance, Kaufmann remains in a league of his own.

As if to iron out such dramatic idiosyncrasies, Rattle has chosen the naturalistic version of the opera,a s performed at the Opéra comique with dialogue. Sadly, few of the cast are native French and Kozená's froideur has a far-reaching impact, making the version's innate realism all-too safe. The brooding theme that comes hot on the overture's heels is weirdly stymied and, more often than not, Rattle pushes through a climax where expansiveness would reap rewards.

The Berlin Staatsoper Chorus may be in wonderfully fine voice and their ensembles are thrilling (not least in the party-piece second act) but you can't help feeling that, more idiomatically cast, Kaufmann and the Berliner Philharmoniker's efforts could have truly shone. This a curate's egg performance of a masterpiece and one that, despite Kaufmann's presence, cannot compete with its predecessors.