Czech soprano Emmy Destinn’s stature as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century’s first decades could hardly be more substantiated than by her portrayal of Carmen in the popular opera’s very first recording, made in 1908. Sung in German, the slightly cut performance was issued on 18 78-rpm discs, all of which were sold separately rather than as a unit. Destinn stands out from the rest of the cast for her vibrant, dramatically involved, and superbly vocalized traversal of the title role. She takes lots of liberties, stretching a phrase past the point of contextual logic, or interpolating traditional yet unwritten note alterations (the octave displacements in the second strain of the “Gypsy Song”, for instance). But it doesn’t matter.
What matters more are her less distinguished colleagues. Karl Jorn’s squeezed out Don Jose redefines lachrymose, most irritatingly so in the fourth act denouement. Hermann Bachmann is an exciting but monochrome Escamillo, and Minnie Nast’s Micaëla, though pleasantly sung, is nothing special. Bruno Seidler-Winkler wields an enthusiastic baton, and you can hear more detail from his so-called “Grammophone Orchestra” than what one usually surmises from acoustic orchestral recordings. Specialists will want to know that Ward Marston’s transfers are clearer than the ones effected in Supraphon’s “Complete Destinn” boxed set, and are pitched to painstaking correctness. Harold Bruder’s booklet notes are up to Marston’s usual high standards.
