Risë Stevens' First 'Carmen'

Opera star Risë Stevens has appeared here twice in cross-over repertoire - once in a selection of love songs, the other in a collection of Victor Herbert operetta arias. Today she makes her operatic debut in her most noted role, Carmen, from Bizet's famous work of the same name.

These 1945-46 Columbia excerpts were Stevens' first recording of Carmen. After switching to RCA Victor in 1951, that company quickly had her in the studios with Jan Peerce, Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill and Fritz Reiner for a complete recording, one that seldom if ever has been out of the catalog. There also have been bootleg issues of a Met performance with Mario Del Monaco and Dimitri Mitropoulos. But to my knowledge the Columbia material has not been reissued since a 1973 Odyssey budget pressing.

Georges Sébastian

For the Columbia recordings, originally issued in a 78 set, Stevens was partnered by Raoul Jobin as Don José, Robert Weede as Escamillo and Nadine Conner as Micaela. Leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus was the Hungarian-French conductor Georges Sébastian, then resident in the US. Sébastian recorded extensively, but mainly for small labels. His work here is very good, as are the vocal performances.

Beside Stevens, all the other cast members did crossover work, which was far more common back then - probably because operatic performers were more prominent in the public eye. Stevens, as one of the most famous American opera stars of the time, had many commercial endorsements (see, for example, the cigarette ad below). I also recently came across a two-page magazine ad she did for the long-vanished Henry J automobile, and have included other ads in my previous uploads of her work.

1948 ad

Jobin has appeared on this blog in a Christmas LP from his native Québec, and Conner partnered Lauritz Melchior in one of the numbers from his film Two Sisters from Boston. Weede has not previously shown up on this site, but he was perhaps one of the most notable crossover successes, becoming a Broadway star years later in Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella and Jerry Herman's Milk and Honey.

The first two LP covers

The Carmen excerpts featured today come from one of Columbia's first classical LPs, encased in the strange "tombstone" cover that the company applied to its early rush releases in the new format. Columbia later marketed the record with a cover photo of Stevens in costume. (Covers are at right.) My guess is that the second cover was issued to combat the RCA Victor release, which had a smoldering photo of the artist-as-gypsy.

The sound has come up very well, although Columbia's LP transfer, perhaps rushed to meet the deadline for the new format's release, was none too good, being pitched flat and with a peculiar frequency response, which I have done my best to rectify.

I transferred this record as the result of a request on another site, but thought some of you might enjoy it. By the way, the Victor Herbert set mentioned in the first paragraph has been newly remastered and is entirely charming, as is the love songs album.