Carmen's Habanera | Opera Singer REACTS | *SPOILERS*

[@janellelee3305]

Please keep on doing this!! Im learning so much from your videos. Love from an aspiring opera singer in Malaysia

[@operaanna]

Thank you so much! Ill keep them coming ❤️

[@luboscerveny6256]

I love Elena Obraztsova singing any dramatic mezo role. But when she uses her dark, cavernous chest voice to sing Carmen, I was blown to another dimension :)

[@janosvas8597]

absolutely I remember her in Vienna

[@elcasettedelosmelofilos6652]

My favorite version HAS to be obviously the one with Maria Callas from 1964 in Paris. Her rendition of Carmen was absolutely GORGEOUS. Since I first heard her voice I started getting shivers down my spine and she just made me cry of surprise and joy. Her voice was ethereal and just tremendously famous all around the globe.

[@operaanna]

Yup! Same she never sang it, although obviously it wasn't her Fach.

[@TiSofocaIlSangue]

Anna, I can't help but hearing this"But is it true that Maria had three voices?... I said, you all wrong, Maria had three hundred voices. Maria could really sound like a mezzo, like a contralto... if she chosed to, and still sing high E flats... "

[@pauladesjardins8705]

Our then almost three year old son started to cry every single time the Sesame Street orange began to sing. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@pauladesjardins8705]

About the orange. No wonder he cried! I just heard her sing. Somehow he understood how awful she was.

[@operaanna]

Hahaha oh no!! Poor boy, but yeah it is really terrible. He's intuitive!

[@houstonchar7434]

I’d love to hear you sing this role!

[@ludovico6890]

Carmen was the very first operatic experience I ever had and it's what got me into it. My dad had bought a record of the whole opera (the Jose Careras and Agnes Baltsa version you showed in your video actually), I remember him bringing home that big box full of vinyls (this was the mid or late 80s). He put it on and I asked what it was. He told me opera. I was hooked. To this day, Carmen has a special place in my heart. (On a side note, you pronounce Georges pretty much the same way you pronounce George. In French the s is silent.)

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

That Sevilla is chosen is a theatrical convention and represent the rural, as much as Paris (Parigi) is the decadent and sinfull magnet of power. If You ever get to Die Lustige Witve by Lehar - I'll fill You in with some background, You can't get anywhere else. Count Danilo was real enough, but not under that name, and it isn't Paris, but Vienna.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

But when the time comes to Die Lustige Witwe, then contact me! As Elisabeth Schwarzkopf once said: "Die leichte Muse ist NICHT LEICHT!" Such an old battleax!

[@alejandrobonfil2818]

Great video! One of my favorite Arias!

[@operaanna]

Thank you!! I love it as well, but just wish I could sing it as convincingly as these ladies!

[@jnieuwerf]

Great video (comme d'habitude, comme d'Habanera).

[@nickpancost6858]

I've heard it especially in Baby Einstein's Baby Noah: Animal Expedition (2004), Sonny With A Chance: High School Miserable, Disney/Pixar's Up, Carmen Sandiego: The Opera In The Outback Caper, just to name a few.

[@operaanna]

It's EVERYWHERE!

[@ganson560]

Love this! When are you singing this?!?

[@migwigpee0796]

Omg that Sesame Street clip will give me nightmares 🤣 that was so creepy

[@meljackson1985]

Yes, Agnes!

[@INOBT100]

My Top 10 Carmens: 1. Tatiana Troyannos. 2. Julia Migenes. 3. Angela Gheorghiu. 4. Marianne Crebassa. 5. Karine Deshayes. 6. Agnes Baltsa. 7. Jennifer Larmore. 8. Keren Hadar. 9. Maria Callas. 10. Ginger Costa-Jackson.

[@maaria4852]

Really i like your videos ❣

[@operaanna]

Thank you!! ❤️

[@meljackson1985]

love is a gypsy child...wow

[@operaanna]

I know...not my translation

[@janosvas8597]

And this music in background? Why NOT from Carmen?

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

The clip was with José Carreras and Agnes Baltsa. Hmm... there is one backstage thing to consider: Baltsa and Carreras were lovers and parted on somewhat iffy terms. Are You in doubt? I will prove it to You: This is from Carreras come back concert after his struggle with cancer. In such cases you back up your collegue - weather you have been in bed with him or not. In this case Katia Ricciarelli is also a former lover. Katia would not give up her karrier - so they did not get married. Which she admitted in an interview. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYuTc3itqZmhi68 Now Raimondi doesn't know the text - and ask Baltsa for help - she doesn't know. And whispers to Ricciarelli. She in turn - with perfect timing - tells Carreras. Carreras cracks up. Now Baltsa KNOWS Carreras in every meaning of the term, and he has some years before done the precise same thing to her (You should be able to find a concert video with Carreras and Baltsa. Schedule is arranged years in advance, so a tiff is no reason for breach of contract. Then Baltsa breaks in - much to the confusion of the conductor - (is not her part), but Raimondi will not let Carreras die in the sin. So he goes la-la-la. Katia decides to appeal to the audience: "We need all the help, we can get!" The management of the concert richly deserves being put in place for the lettuce horseshoe given to the men - why should the florist suffer from managements budget problem? The conductor is FURIOUS - and Baltsa again steps into the breach: "This is not the time to pout!" She has registered the audience is in on that "something" has happened. And when they go off stage Raimodi gets the biggest applause while trying to look shamefull - doesn't really succeed with that. The audience is enthusiastic - which was really the point of the concert?

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

I will not cheat You of about the best "projector" in the business: Cecilia Bartoli. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fn2Qh2OBnNeih8k The video is shit, but don't let that affect You. The orchester starts tuning up. They know she is about the sharpest ear. If you drop a pin - that pin better be in tune! She walks in with the clarinette, who could be her son - vom Alter her. He has the RIGHT clarinette - a basset clarinette. And he is scared to death - there is nowhere to hide, and he might overblow - which will crack the note - big time. I whish I was in the wing, when they went in. Cecilia has said something like: Let's go and kick some serious ass. Notice how she holds the clarinette firmly in her hands. She is the soloist and she is in control - the conductor is there to hold the riff raff in the strings under control. Then the two of them blast the room. With the right clarinette she can sing full voice. He is precise without waver. The conductor is not bad, but unused to the panache of Cecilia. She in mens leather boots - and with her big tits, she is impossible in travesti. All men have noticed that. Afterward the orchester tunes up again: "What the Hell happened here - I could not hear myself!" They were in tune all right, but when that massive voice is supported by the right instrument - everything else doesn't matter. Trust me that got over the ramp. As a mezzo You should allways insist on a basset - the will try and pawn you off with an A or B flat: They are wrong for Mozarts late operas - starting with Nozze di Figaro. It is not written that basset clarinet is obligato because when Mozart lived there was no other clarinettes than basset clarinet and basset horn, and there were only Gebrüder Stadler that played them. It is left to Haydn to pick up those pieces after Mozarts death. Notice how Haydn changes after 99th symphony. Mozart never wrote a concert for brass (except the horn), why: Because the trumpet wasn't cromatic before his passing.

[@thomasborgsmidt9801]

The best Carmen I have seen is Elina Garanca. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWPWn4ehlqlparc She has the right slutty expression - and the looks to carry it off. Her promiscuity is part of her psychopatic personality - Carmens that is.....

[@PlugInKali]

It's Habanera, not HabaÑera. It means "from La Habana" (Havana, La Havane). There's no Ñ involved anywhere, neither in Spanish, nor in French nor in English. Also, the H is silent both in Spanish and French.

[@operaanna]

🤯 I didn't realize that it wasn't an ñ! I've definitely seen it used in multiple occasions, also while preparing this, so thank you so much! But you mean, there's no ñ involved in this word in Spanish, right? Not in general 😅 The pronunciation of the 'H' is simply an English version of it.

[@jessicaesther74]

Preach!!! (Gracias)

[@angelicamonjetorrez6392]

Yup this is so sad many “academic” people write this and it drives me nuts

[@dopico87]

@@operaanna She is a spaniard worker in the tobacco factor my of Sevilla, right? Then habanera is the song but also a girl who makes or sell habanos (cigars). Anyway, nobody cares 3 years after.

[@arnaldocarpio8842]

Great video, but, Garanca is a terrible Carmen, too dark in all the wrong places, and that force acting doesn’t make up for the fact that her voice is not expressive, Agnes is perfection gor this role and Callas there’s no need to say anything but her name, and one more thing It’s not Habañera, is Habanera, with a N not a Ñ.

[@operaanna]

Lots of people love Garanca...I love Callas, although of course she never sang the role fully, which is just a continuous shame! I don't know what came over me putting an ñ in the word... maybe i'd just had some peppers.

[@markdarenvillanueva7740]

​@@operaannathere exist a full opera recording of Carmen by Callas. Though she never san this on stage

[@eduardomartinez-rancano6403]

I beg to differ. Ms Garanča, a Mezzo, is a great Carmen. 'Habanera' is Spanish for a musical composition and dance coming to mainland Spain from Cuba and particularly La Habana (oddly enough, Havana in English).

[@Ziad3195]

Was enjoying this beautiful video until rhe very last minute; when you said "do men ruin everything? Yes.". I find it really strange you said that in the context of Carmen as well.. If anything, Carmen is the devil here. And don't you think there is enough men hate in real life already?

[@operaanna]

I'm sorry that I didn't make it more clear that my comment was a joke. That being said, I think the reason why Carmen was so controversial when it premiered and is still so popular today is exactly this difference in how she is perceived. Some see her as a manipulator and a devil, and others, like myself, see her as a woman who knows what she wants and doesn't make any compromises on it. Her love goes only so far in that she feels loved, and Don José loses her when he won't leave the army for her. A fair decision on his part I admit, but in that way I think their relationship was doomed from the start. She is a rule breaker, traveling from place to place, and Don José is the opposite. They attract each other but inevitably cannot come together. She makes it very clear to him what she wants as well as later stating that there is no future, and Don José can't handle that. So in my opinion, such a statement, perhaps a bit rude on my part, is not out of place in the context of Carmen.

[@Ziad3195]

@@operaanna José and Michaela are the real victims. I don't think chasing what you want exempt you from being a manipulator. Carmen is an example of the worst behaviour.

[@unclelouie3828]

How annoying.

[@operaanna]

Thanks!