OP0738. CARMEN, Live Performance, 13 Dec., 1975, w.Henry Lewis Cond. R�gine Crespin, William Lewis, Katia Ricciarelli, Jos� van Dam, etc.; R�gine Crespin: Excerpts from Lohengrin, 1 Feb., 1964, w.K�nya; Rosenstock Cond.; Die Walk�re, 1 March, 1969, w.Vickers; von Karajan Cond.; Tosca, 17 April, 1965, w.K�nya; Cleva Cond. (Germany) 3�Bella Voce 107.407. Long out-of-print, final copy! - 8712177038039

CRITIC REVIEWS:

“José van Dam all but walks away with the afternoon’s honors – vocal and artistic. The Belgian bass rehabilitates Escamillo, converting the toreador from a macho poster boy into an elegant aristocrat of the arena….Though Belgian by birth, French is his ‘mother tongue’, as is evident in his every utterance on this afternoon….A singer who can remove the curse of overexposure from a warhorse is gifted with genius….With Crespin, language and its messenger, diction, are of paramount importance. The soprano’s courting of her native tongue, whether in song of spoken dialogue, gives immense pleasure….Miss Crespin has not only returned [to the Met] in triumph, she has done us the favor of allowing Carmen to live, again, fascinating us in a way we had almost forgotten she could.”

- Paul Jackson, START-UP AT THE NEW MET, pp.512-13



"Crespin was the greatest singer to come out of France in the past half century�.She expressed herself through words rather than through obvious histrionic gestures, and few artists enunciated so clearly, in any language � English and German included. Her French, of course, was perfect, so lucidly projected that the soprano had every right to expect her listeners to understand her. She never felt the need to exaggerate�.Flickers of nuance are always sufficient for the intelligent operagoer."

- Ralph V. Lucano, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, Sept./Oct., 2007



"[Crespin] was surely one of the greatest French singers of the 20th Century; in fact�one of the great singers on records, one whose art goes well beyond the merely vocal�.Beyond its size, [her voice] had a beautiful shimmer about it, a glowing quality present in all registers."

- Henry Fogel, FANFARE, March/April, 2005