Carmen Metropolitan Opera 1938

Metropolitan Opera House
March 19, 1938 Matinee Broadcast


CARMEN  
Carmen..................Bruna Castagna
Don José................René Maison
Micaela.................Susanne Fisher
Escamillo...............John Brownlee
Frasquita...............Thelma Votipka
Mercédès................Helen Olheim
Remendado...............Giordano Paltrinieri
Dancaïre................George Cehanovsky
Zuniga..................Norman Cordon
Moralès.................Wilfred Engelman

Conductor...............Gennaro Papi

Bruna Castagna as Carmen

About 25 minutes of extracts from Acts 1 and 2 exist from this broadcast, apparently recorded off-air for Norman Cordon. They capture something of the Carmen of Italian Mezzo Bruna Castagna. Castanga was perhaps the leading mezzo at the Met between 1934 and 1945, singing all the major leading roles (Carmen, Dalilah and Amneris) as well as the key supporting roles in operas such as Norma, Ballo in Maschera and Trovatore. I don't think any other live recordings exist of her as Carmen, and one contemporary review described her Carmen as "potentially charming. She has both temperament and artistic tact. She has a remarkable voice, sensuously beautiful, voluptuous, richly expressive: and last night she made it serve again and again the purposes of the music and the play. She is already a better Carmen than Miss Ponselle; and, if she takes herself in hand and passes the pastry shops with a stonily averted face, she may easily become irresistible."




https://rapidshare.com/files/4097306837/1938Carmen.mp3