Carmen

Carmen is the great "what if" of the Callas discography. She never sang Bizet's gypsy on any stage — yet her 1964 studio recording, made in Paris with Georges Prêtre conducting, became one of the best-loved Carmens on record, and for many listeners the proof that the role had been waiting for her all along.

Her Carmen is neither coquette nor caricature: she is intelligent, fatalistic, free — a woman who reads her own cards without flinching. The Habanera, in her voice, is not a seduction number but a warning delivered with a smile. Sung in French, the language of her Paris years, the recording belongs to the final chapter of her art: the voice leaner than in the great stage decade, the interpretive authority absolute.

That the conductor was Georges Prêtre — later the honorary president and co-founder of this Foundation — gives the recording a particular place in the Foundation's own story.

In the Foundation's collection

Photographs and documents of Callas's Paris years, when Carmen was recorded, are preserved in the Foundation's collection. Explore the collection · Licensing

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