Bizet: Carmen - DVD & Blu-ray videos

Staged by Calixto Bieito.

Fantastic cast with Roberto Alagna, Erwin Schrott, Marina Poplavskaya, Béatrice Uria-Monzon.

This prestigious 2011 production from the Gran Teatre del Liceu was staged by the world famous and highly controversial stage director Calixto Bieito, admired for his raw and evocative stagings.

Running Time Total: 155 minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Solo Dancers: Maria Kowroski & Martin Harvey

Production: Richard Eyre

Set & Costume Designer: Rob Howell

Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford

Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon

After her triumphant success as Carmen in Riga, London, and Munich, Elîna Garanča, “the Carmen of our day” (News, Austria), took the Met by storm when filmed live in January 2010.

Every generation has its “go to” Carmen. In 2010, the list of definitive gypsy seductresses – glittering with names like Baltsa, Bumbry, Calvé, Farrar, and Stevens – is enriched by the addition of Elîna Garanča.

The Wiener Zeitung said it all when it observed of Garanča’s Carmen that “the role and the singer are perfectly matched”.

This production was also seen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2009 with Garanča and Alagna in the lead roles.

2 DVD Set in 5.1 DTS surround sound.

Subtitles: French (orig. lang.), German, English, Spanish, Chinese

The New Production from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden filmed in high definition.

‘Two dazzling stars’ The Telegraph

‘Physical and sexy’ London Evening Standard

‘Kaufmann and Antonacci are that rare breed: superb singers who can also act with subtlety and passion’ The Guardian

With Anna Caterina Antonacci and Jonas Kaufmann bringing rare erotic intensity to the drama of Carmen and Don Jose, this new Royal Opera production is a darkly passionate reading of one of the world's favourite operas.

Under the baton of Music Director Antonio Pappano, Bizet's irresistible score drives the tragedy forward - powering a landmark staging of a musical masterpiece.

Menus: English . Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese.

Booklet notes in English, French, German

David McVicar’s exhilarating production, with Sofie von Otter in the title role, restores the Opera Comique to Bizet’s masterpiece. Philippe Jordan, in his Glyndebourne debut, conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Chorus and a cast which includes Marcus Haddock, Laurent Naouri and Lisa Milne.

‘Under the shrewd direction of McVicar, Anne Sofie von Otter gave us a gypsy of mercurial temperament, a tease, a dangerous flirt, and a woman intensely conscious of her sexual magnetism and of her public notoriety.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Violent, passionate, superbly played…Glyndebourne’s Carmen is simply gripping’ The Sunday Times

Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players

The New Production from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Filmed in HD

“Two dazzling stars” (Daily Telegraph)

"Physical and sexy" (Evening Standard)

Kaufmann and Antonacci are that rare breed: superb singers who can also act with subtlety and passion (The Guardian)

With Anna Caterina Antonacci and Jonas Kaufmann bringing rare erotic intensity to the drama of Carmen and Don Jose, this new Royal Opera production is a darkly passionate reading of one of the world's favourite operas. Under the baton of Music Director Antonio Pappano, Bizet's irresistible score drives the tragedy forward - powering a landmark staging of a musical masterpiece. Jonas Kaufmann smoulders as Don Jose in this acclaimed production recorded at the Royal Opera House, London in 2007.

Set Design by FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI

Arthaus presents a sensational filmed document from the musical legacy of Carlos Kleiber: The wonderful staging of Carmen by director Franco Zeffirelli in a live recording from the Vienna State Opera in 1978. The meticulous conductor only ever conducted a highly selected repertoire and among his very few audio and video recordings are only seven complete operas.

The Zeffirelli staging is the only premiere that Kleiber ever conducted. In December 1978, the masterly Franco Zeffirelli created a colourful and atmospheric imagery while the musical genius of Kleiber drew from the music a rhythmic vitality and subtle passion that never lost its transparency and lightness.

Carlos Kleiber conducted an extraordinary cast. Plácido Domingo, still the young lyrical tenor, starred as Don Jose, and Elena Obraztsova gave a wonderful natural Carmen, a far cry from the usual she-devil erotic cliché. The cast was completed by the young Isobel Buchanan who stood in at this production at short notice and included Yuri Mazurok who was later to become a high ranking Verdi baritone. The Viennese audience in the opera house hailed the performance as a triumph. “The applause”, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “threatened to last as long as a full-length opera”, and the legend of Carlos Kleiber’s Vienna Carmen was born.

Nearly 35 years has passed since then, and the Vienna State Opera has seen many a performance of the Zeffirelli production of Carmen, with singers who were certainly no less eminent than the first cast – but none of them have achieved the cult status the first night enjoys in the memories of opera- lovers. The reason for it surely lies in the conductor Carlos Kleiber, who directed that première and stamped it with his own personality.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Version), GB, DE, ES, IT

Running Time: 154 mins

FSK: 0

Script, Choreography and Lighting Antonio Gades and Carlos Saura

Stage Setting Antonio Saura

Artistic Director Stella Arauzo

Created by Antonio Gades in collaboration with Carlos Saura, this matchless production shows how the explosive power and intensity of feeling in traditional Spanish flamenco can bring vividly to life the sultry passion, earthy emotion, love and rivalry that is Carmen.

Filmed in High Definition at the Teatro Real, Madrid for the 75th anniversary celebration of Gades’ birth, the ‘Compañía Antonio Gades’ performs Carmen to perfection.

Antonio Gades is one of the most influential figures in Spanish flamenco. He played a decisive role in getting the genre recognized by the contemporary art world. Gades started performing his choreography for Georges Bizet's Carmen in the 1960s, taking it all the way to the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. This was one of his most successful ballets. It was also brought to the big screen by Carlos Saura in 1983, a film that received an Oscar nomination and won the Jury's Award at the Cannes Festival.

Audio DVD/2.0 LPCM/5.1 DTS

Picture format NTSC

Audio BD LPCM stereo and 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio