Towards the end of Callas's career, there were many rumours that she was planning to perform Carmen on stage. This was never to be, but Carmen became her penultimate complete recording of an opera - and her only complete recording of a French opera. With Georges Pretre, one of her favoured conductors, and the ever-stylish Nicolai Gedda as her Don Jose, she captured every facet of the role. As Gramophone said when the set was first released: 'Hers is a Carmen to haunt you.'