Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

An in your face operatic experience.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2012

Georges Bizet is often derides as a flashy, colorful composer who provides undeniable melody and orchestral brilliance, but who fails to offer much actual musical substance. That assessment is highly debatable, to say the least, but some might be prone to say the same thing about Carmen in 3D, a rather odd choice for a RealD presentation in a market that typically tends to favor over the top special effects laden fare for this still developing format. Carmen is one of the most beloved operas in the entire operatic repertoire, and there have already been several releases of the venerable work on Blu-ray, including this one, this one, this one, and this feature film. Do we really need a 3D Carmen? If we’re being honest, the answer is “probably not”, but that doesn’t mean that Director Julian Napier should be automatically lambasted for trying. Napier has a long history in both musical film (or short) direction, and has been at the forefront of the burgeoning 3D technology, having contributed 3D elements for the American touring company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “train” musical Starlight Express. Napier is also responsible for the permanent 4D installation at The London Eye (that huge ferris wheel like contraption overlooking the River Thames), and is a consultant for Sky Television’s new 3D channel. Does he invest this Carmen with some unabashed gimmickry to exploit the 3D format? Absolutely. Does that add to or detract from the “traditional” Carmen experience? That will probably be up to each individual viewer to decide for themselves.

The story of Carmen is one of those plots that, like La Boheme for example, seems to have penetrated into the public consciousness at large, becoming imprinted even on those who really couldn’t care less about opera. Carmen (Christine Rice) is an amorous gypsy woman who is also involved in some surreptitious smuggling activity. She initially woos Don Jose (Bryan Hymel), although he has eyes for a more naïve and patently “good” girl, Micaela (Maija Kovalevska). Don Jose ultimately can’t resist Carmen’s electric charms, though by the time he gives in to her wiles, she’s moved on to a dashing bullfighter named Escamillo (Aris Argiris). Thus is the stage set for tempestuous passions and one of the most thrillingly desperate and tragic denouements in all opera.

So does this Carmen have anything to offer other than its 3D gimmickry? Well, this is an extremely handsome production, one which is very well staged by director Francesca Zambella. Zambella’s staging is further enhanced by the very smart coverage 3D video director Julian Napier adds to the proceedings. Do we actually need things like acrobats, seemingly ported over from the Broadway version of Newsies, leaping directly into the camera for added dimensionality? Probably not, but this is a big, colorful production that makes the most of the opera’s exoticism. The stage is often teeming with ensemble members in various planes, which helps to establish the depth that this 3D outing is so eager to exploit.

On other terms, however, this is a strangely pallid Carmen. Christine Rice sings well enough, but she simply doesn’t have the seductive animal magnetism the role demands. Much better is Bryan Hymel as Don Jose. He sings with authority and a beautiful tone and his able to capture Jose’s increasing desperation as he throws his life away for what turns out to be a fever dream. The final showdown between Carmen and Jose is a nice moment, but otherwise this Carmen relies on a lot of pomp and pageantry to create the interest that is lacking in the opera’s central human story.

And so we return to the single most salient question surrounding this admittedly kind of weird 3D offering: does the 3D angle (no pun intended) add anything significant to this opera? The simple truth is, probably not all that much. Yes, it’s fun to watch, and there are several standout little moments where the action seemingly jumps from the screen and lands in the viewers’ figurative laps. But that points out the very shortcomings of this production: the actual passionate core of this rendering is strangely flat.

Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Because Carmen in 3D contains only a RealD version of the opera on the Blu-ray disc, no traditional screencaps could be included with this review.

Carmen in 3D is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Opus Arte with an MVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally an extremely sharp and often quite nicely dimensional outing, though at times about the only illusion of depth comes from the subtitles which are distinctly out in front of the rest of the action. Napier has spared no effort in capturing the action from a variety of cameras and angles (as detailed in one of the brief supplements included on this Blu-ray). That means that there is on stage filming (from a 3D Steadicam) that literally gets up close and personal with the ensemble. There are kind of silly moments here, like the urchins reaching out and pointing toward the audience, but often the most effective moments in terms of the 3D are more subtle, as in the entrance of the bullfighters when a shower of rose petals rains down from above and several individual petals seems to float out seemingly into the viewer's veritable lap. There are some occasional minor crosstalk issues which crop up here, typically in pans (you'll see one very clear one right at the beginning as the camera pans across the orchestra). Colors remain rather strong and vibrant here, though the production design doesn't really exploit any bright primaries and instead tends to favor burnished browns and oranges. Midrange shots can be a bit on the fuzzy side, but overall the general look of Carmen in 3D is quite sharp and well detailed.

Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two three dimensional steps forward, one big three dimensional step back. Whose bright idea was it to take all the time, money and effort to film an opera in 3D and then release it on Blu-ray with a frankly substandard sounding Dolby Digital 5.1 track? That's right—no lossless audio here of any kind, and even worse this is one of the most strangely mixed opera tracks I've personally experienced in my years of reviewing classical music titles. Is it possible that the RealD technology prevented this piece from being adequately mic'd? The hall reverb on this piece is absolutely overwhelming, exacerbated by the fact that the mix regularly favors the orchestra (which does sound great) over the singers. Whole swaths of Bizet's vocal lines are simply eradicated by the orchestra. You can see the singers' mouths moving and can hear faint whispers of something being sung, but often not very well or indeed even at all. Several times throughout the opera large bangs or clunks also occur as if some errant microphone is picking up some backstage action that really shouldn't be part of the proceedings. This is a real shame and a major detriment to this release.

Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Have your RealD glasses handy to take on and off as you access the supplements. While the menu is in 3D, the actual supplements are in standard 2D HD. They include:

• Carmen in 3D: Opera and RealD (HD; 2:31) is a brief look at some of the technical issues faced by the filmmakers. This does include a good look at the RealD camera setup for the filming of the opera.


• Adding Depth to Opera (HD; 2:28). Why this was separated from the first featurette is anyone's guess, for it simply is a continuation of the same subject matter, including more comments from the same set of interview subjects, with the addition of stage director Francesca Zambello.


• Carmen The Opera (HD; 2:33) features various cast and crew talking about this iconic piece.

Bizet: Carmen in 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Carmen in 3D reminds me in a way of the hoopla that accompanied the first 3D craze in the early fifties (not that I was around to experience it, mind you, but from what I've read). The quick death of that format was due to the fact that, aside from the technological issues, too many of the films simply used 3D for its gimmickry and didn't need the technique for any other reason than that very gimmick. Much the same issue attends this production. On the plus side, the 3D camerawork is often outstanding, even if, again, it smacks of gimmickry on several occasions. And this production features a really appealing production design, as well as strong stage and video direction. But I was singularly unmoved by Christine Rice as Carmen, and this release is further hampered by one of the most substandard audio mixes in recent memory. This might be a fun outing for those who are sick of the standard SFX laden 3D releases, but it comes with a lot of baggage.