In this 1966 live recording conductor Lorin Maazel adopts some rather extreme tempi, for instance rather stately in the introduction to the Toreador's song, but elsewhere seeming a bit rushed. As the evening progresses, however, the performance gains considerably in dramatic fervour.
Christa Ludwig was fond of the title-role; she made a complete recording of it in German for EMI, conducted by Horst Stein, but as she explained in her autobiography: 'I'm personally the exact opposite of Carmen…I made her shameless, fearless, amoral and high-spirited.' Hers is a gypsy in the Viennese tradition of Maria Jeritza; in Acts 1 and 2 it's very much a star turn, but once things turn nasty in Act 3, Ludwig rises to the challenge and makes a tragic, proud figure.
Her French is pretty good, although she has a bit of trouble with 'tu' and 'tout'.
James King recorded very little outside the German repertory for which he was best known.
He overdoes the emotion a bit at the end of Act 1, but this is a valuable souvenir of this great trouper in one of his favourite parts. Jeanette Pilou was a lovely soprano, not well enough represented on disc, although she also made a studio recording as Micaëla under Jean Martinon.
Lucia Popp is luxury casting as Frasquita, her unmistakable voice riding over the quintet, with Erich Kunz, no less, as Le Dancaïre. Eberhard Waechter must have cut a glamorous figure as Escamillo, and he too is impressive in his command of the original language. As Gottfried Kraus explains in the booklet, until this production by Otto Schenk the opera had often been given in polyglot performances, principals singing in French or Italian, chorus and comprimarios in German! The mono sound is adequate, the stage noises atmospheric rather than distracting, and at the centre a pair of great singers, Ludwig and King, inhabiting their roles, aided by the dynamic leadership provided by Maazel: a heady dose of nostalgia.

The mono sound is adequate… at the centre a pair of great singers, Ludwig and King, inhabiting their roles, aided by the dynamic leadership provided by Maazel: a heady dose of nostalgia.

There are too many peripheral drawbacks to make [this recording] a first-choice recommendation for the work itself: grand-manner conducting from Lorin Maazel; an irritatingly girlie Micaela from Jeanette Pilou; and an Escamillo (Eberhard Waechter) who is both past his best and hopelessly miscast. Ludwig, however, is mesmerising as Carmen, and years ahead of her time in presenting Bizet's heroine as a self-assured, assertive woman, determined to maintain her sexual integrity in a predatory male world. Her Don José is James King. His singing is big, beefy and sometimes raw - but the man's allure is there in spades. Flawed, yet absolutely unforgettable.