The opera is set in Seviile and in the mountains round about the city, so the setting is certainly Spanish. Music and words are of French authorship, on the other hand, so it makes good sense to claim Carmen as one of the best known of French operas, if not the best known. It must be the world's most-performed operatic work.

The present release is a live recording of 1942 from the opera house of the State Theatre of Saxony, the Semperoper, destroyed by bombing three years later and finally reopened in 1985. The opera chorus and orchestra are to be heard performing alongside an outstanding ensemble of soloists under the musical direction of Karl Böhm, then principal conductor in Dresden.

The complete Carmen recording of 1942 presented here is a pioneering document of magnetic tape recording from the early stages of the forward-looking new technique in German radio broadcasting. Starting in 1942, the technical development of tape recording machines was far enough advanced to make them eminently suitable for broadcasting purposes.

Cast:
- Carmen: Elisabeth Höngen (alto)
- Don José: Torsten Ralf (tenor)
- Escamillo: Josef Herrmann (baritone)
- Zuniga: Kurt Böhme (bass)
- Micaëla: Elfriede Weidlich (soprano)
- Dancaïro: Karl Wessely (tenor)
- Remendado: Heinrich Tessmer (tenor)
- Frasquita: Elfride Trötschel (soprano)
- Mercédès: Helena Rott (alto)
- Lilas Pastia: Robert Büssel (baritone)
- Moralès: Jan Rittel (baritone)

Bonus CD: Arias and Duets in recordings from 1905-1949
- Eva von der Osten, Elisabeth Rethberg, Richard Tauber, Robert Burg, Tino Pattiera, Maria Cebotari, Elfride Trötschel, Heinz Sauerbaum