TWO `CARMENS' TO CHOOSE.

Byline: John Farrell  Correspondent

A TESTAMENT to the popularity of Georges Bizet's ``Carmen'' is the fact that Los Angeles Opera is presenting 12 performances of the work this month and into November, featuring two different casts and two different conductors.

``Carmen'' opened last Friday and Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with alternating principal casts in a production brought from the Teatro Real in Madrid. With two casts and conductors, the Los Angeles Opera Chorus and the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, the forces gathered seemed sure to produce something like a spectacular production. The results on both nights suggest that it takes more than an army to make an opera a success.

Both Friday's opening with LAO general director Placido Domingo in the pit and Saturday's with Nicola Luisotti wielding the baton were effective enough, but neither had the kind of magic that brings a work to life.

``Carmen'' doesn't really need that magic to please audiences. It is so rich with memorable tunes and famous arias that in competent hands and with competent performers you can easily ignore dramatic cohesion. Just close your eyes and listen to the ``Habanera'' (the famous children's chorus), or any of a half-dozen other wonderful musical moments and you'll find great pleasure. There was plenty of that available with both casts. But there was also plenty that kept these performances from being convincing.

It is hard to choose between the two Carmens, Milena Kitic on Friday and Catherine Malfitano on Saturday. Kitic sang with fire but also seemed a bit short of breath in some of her phrasing. There was a brittle, sharp energy to her voice. Malfitano's voice has a richer, darker timber, and her Carmen was also the more believable.

Richard Leech was Don Jose to Kitic, singing with a soft-edged eloquence that was a combination of brilliant technique and understated passion. Mario Malagnini, singing Jose to Malfitano, was an altogether different creature, taking chances vocally and emotionally, edgy and tense and not quite brittle. It was a bravura turn, wonderful in its passion and poignancy.

These two casts are not in competition, but if they were, Erwin Schrott's toreador Escamillo would be the winner. On Friday, he dominated every scene he was in with the same kind of animal magnetism that Escamillo, as a great bullfighter, would have had. And Schrott's powerful voice could easily be heard over the heated orchestra and choruses. Franco Pomponi's toreador was effective enough vocally but hardly the dashing figure Escamillo must be.

Carmen Giannattasio (on Friday) and Angela Marambio (on Saturday) are the last pair to share roles, as Micaela, the young girl who Jose loves and leaves at home. Giannattasio is a slight slip of a girl, but her voice is a powerful one, full of the purity and compassion that is the single feature of Micaela's character, but she seems lost in the world that Carmen inhabits. Marambio sings with a sure touch and deep, resonant passion, and she seems tough enough to face Jose and demand he return to his dying mother.

Both conductors seem to have decided that Bizet's music needs to be loud, fast and extroverted, even when that interferes with the story. Luisotti seemed determined in some places, especially the second-act quintet, to turn the music into a race. Domingo was more supportive of his singers, but a gentler tempo would not have hurt either production.

CARMEN - Two and one half stars

What: Bizet's opera is performed by two alternating casts.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: Last Friday's cast appears Wednesday, Saturday, Nov. 3 and Nov. 6. Last Saturday's cast appears tonight, Friday, Sunday, Nov. 5 and Nov. 7.

Tickets: $25 to $190. [phone] or laopera.com.

In a nutshell: The Saturday cast's Carmen and Jose excel in their roles, but Friday's Escamillo boosts that cast's energy considerably.