I had the pleasure of listening to a few of Georges Bizet’s suites from his masterpiece, Carmen, on Chicago’s WFMT 98.7 FM during my drive to work this morning. Carmen is one of my favorite classical music pieces partially because I remember my mom playing it when we were kids and I also studied the opera in Humanities 101 in college. (Remember that, Mark?)
The selection I listened to was performed by Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski. Minkie (as those industry like to call him) relishes Bizet’s “rich sonorities and glorious melodies, while at the same time investing them with a serious-minded sensitivity,” — Gramophone [6/2008].
Word on the street is that this is the “finest disc of Carmen and L’Arl
sienne suites since Markevitch with the Lamoureux Orchestra,” –David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com. Wow! The best since Markevitch’s triumphant lead of the Lamoureux’s gallant performance. Now that’s saying something. Wham, bam, thanka ma’am.
cd available for purchase here. smashing.
I do remember studying it in that Humanities class. I vividly remember watching the movie “Carmen” in Sheehan Library. I sat off to the right of the checkout desk on the main floor. They had a small TV set up in one of those little nooks with a hard wooden chair. I also remember that class being one of the easiest I ever took at IWU. It would have been really hard to get anything less than a “B” in that class. Or maybe it just seemed easier because I had that “Survey of Western Art” class immediately before the… Read more »