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| Carmen |
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| Don José |
| Dramatic tenor role. A soldier, he is seduced by Carmen to lead a life of crime. |
| Year |
| Artist |
| 1927 |
| 1928 |
| Armand Tokatyan |
| 1931 |
| 1934 |
| Mario Chamlee |
| 1936 |
| 1940/ 1941 |
| Raoul Jobin |
| 1942/ 1943 |
| 1959 |
| Jon Vickers |
| 1944/ 1945 |
| 1960 |
| Jon Vickers |
| 1946 |
| 1948 |
| 1951 |
| 1953 |
| David Poleri |
| 1955 |
| Richard Lewis |
| 1962 |
| Mario Del Monaco |
| 1964 |
| Richard Martell |
| 2001-2002 |
| Richard Berkeley-Steele |
| 1966 |
| Jon Vickers |
| 1970 |
| Guy Chauvet |
| 1981 |
| Franco Bonisolli |
| 1991 |
| Placido Domingo |
| 1996-1997 |
| Don Jose |
| 1998 sum |
| Walter Fraccaro |
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| San Francisco Opera Don José History |
| 1949 * Ramon Vinay, the dark-voiced Chilean, made his company debut as Don Jose in Carmen. His acting had a conviction above average, and his Rembrandtian tone quality was strikingly put forth, if not always with maximum freedom. |
| * Reviews from Arthur Bloomfield's 1922-1978 The San Francisco Opera. |
| 1955 * Worst of all was Lewis’ tiptoeing vocalism as Don Jose. One could be thankful for a tastefully quiet conclusion to the Flower Song, but too often the lack of full weight of tone color was extremely tantalizing. |
| 1959 * The sets provided a rather fantastic counterpart to the action. The effect was extremely brilliant in the first act with its tall clock tower, somewhat questionable in the last with its arena taking off like a slow rocket. Possibly this leave taking was designed to heighten Don Jose’s derangement, but Jon Vickers, the Jose in this production, did not emphasize derangement. He remained quite stalwart to the end. |
| 1962 * Del Monaco, the Don Jose, wandered through the sets showing only remote identification with the proceedings. His acting only improved with a convincing desperate final scene. Poor Bizet’s careful indications of loud and soft went out the tavern window in an outrageously bellowed Flower Song. |
| Raoul Jobin |
| Raoul Jobin |
| 1948 |
| Raoul Jobin |
| 1949 |
| 1981 |
| Barry McCauley |
| Giuliano Ciannella |
| 1984 |
| Luis Lima |
| 1984 |
| 1991 |
| José Cura |
| 1996-1997 |
| 1998 sum |
| Carl Tanner |
| 2001-2002 |
| Randolph Locke |
| Act Two: La fleur que tu m'avais jetée. |
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| To play scores on a piano and hear it in play back - open Classical Music Search in a new page. Play notes on piano and press the play button when finished. Using the search button will bring up any symphonic music that has the same notes. |
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| Aria Data Base for Don José |
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| entire aria |
| 2005-2006 |
| 2005-2006 |
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| 2002- Berkeley-Steele most clarion tones to render Don Jose's downfall./ Review |
| 2006-Tenor Marco Berti was a dramatically impassive Don José, but he compensated with a muscular, full-throated vocal performance that sketched the besotted soldier's plight in musical terms./ Review 2006 |
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| Marco Berti, the Don José, impressed with his consistently excellent singing. He is a master at the old school style — carefully massaged phrases, subtle coloration, heroic timbre, and majestically turned high notes. His portrayal was authentic, and without extravagance./ Review 2006 |
| 1981-Placido Domingo |
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| His singing was both heroic and lyrical, marked by ringing top notes that emerged with an unforced sweetness, and he crisply charted José's descent into murderous jealousy. The Act 2 "Flower Song," where so many tenors come to grief, sounded exquisite. / Review 2006 |
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| Mario Chamlee |