Carmen
Opera in 4 acts
Livret de Henri Meilhac et Ludovic Halévy d’aprés Mérimée

Renewing acquaintance with Karajan’s Salzburg Festival Carmen from the 1960s might be described as a déja entendu experience of a very particular kind, at least for a chronicler who had retained a memory of a production that divided public and press in a way that few other productions did during Karajan’s reign.

The production opened the 1966 Salzburg Festival and took place against the background of the most tremendous expectations.

Karajan’s view of Carmen has been preserved for posterity in the form of both sound recordings and videos, but all of these are studio recordings, which the conductor in fact preferred. The present live recording has not been retouched or patched in any shape or form and complements these other recordings in many interesting ways. It is worth adding that the original tape used for this release is one of the first complete stereo recordings of the Salzburg Festival.

(excerpts for the booklet)

---

Live Recording 29. Juli 1967, Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburger Festspiele