Brigitte Fassbaender takes no prisoners in this performance of Carmen. From her first line, she is determined to live life to its fullest and run over anyone who gets in her way. Her rich, luscious mezzo is heard in its prime here. Occasionally some of her top notes fly a bit sharp from her exuberance, but no matter. Her Card Song in Act Three is sung with a lieder singer's precision. Conversely her return of Jose's ring in the final scene is devastating: a classic performance.James King shows again how good he was in repertoire outside of Strauss and Wagner. Other tenors bring more finesse to the role, but he shows us a man driven to insanity by his obsession with Carmen. Donath sings Micaela like an angel and Nocker is a sexy Escamillo. The supporting cast is superb. Marianne Seibel sings Frasquita's top line beautifully and if Paskuda doesn't have a great voice, he registers as a powerful Dancairo. Chmura leads a revival of a production first heard in 1969. The version used is a mix of the Guiraud recitatives and much (though not all) of Oeser's odd edition of the score. All of these singers spoke fluent German: why wasn't the dialogue used?The first 5-6 minutes are missing and the disc break is unfortunate (just before the Flower aria), but the voices are always audible over the orchestra (I can't tell whether or not this was a broadcast). Any lovers of Carmen and particularly of Fassbaender should get this!

On the strength of this performance, Brigitte Fassbaender stakes her claim to be the Carmen of her generation. She's a real hellcat, no question, with that uniquely resinous tone allied to a characterization of a case-hardened gypsy unfazed by Fate. Helen Donath sings sweetly as Micaela and James King is an earnest Don Jose. To paraphrase what was once written about another singer's Escamillo, Hans-Günther Noecker is more like Ernest Borgnine at the rodeo. The Remendado's battery-acid tone threatens to dissolve any solid object within hearing, and the Prelude and opening chorus are missing. Also, the performing edition is an odd duck, combining as it does the clunky Guiraud recitatives with some of Fritz Oeser's alternative versions of Bizet's score. Gabriel Chmura does the best he can to maintain stylistic unity. The sound is broadcast mono but tends to overload in places.

Diese Carmen Aufnahme in deutscher Sprache ist sehr gut, leider fehlt der Anfang, trotzdem unbedingt weiterzuempfehlen. Eine echte Rarität.

A tour de Fassbaender indeed--she has her [probably intentional] rough patches, and perhaps sacrifices a bit too much of the lyrical to her harsh dramatics...but you'd not want to have missed it. And, a splendid Jose from James King in the bargain.