Franco Corelli: The alternative repertoire 1956-1972
Urania Records
CD
$29.99Apr 17, 2026
Franco Corelli, along with Mario Del Monaco and Carlo Bergonzi, is universally recognized as the greatest Italian tenor of the last century. This edition of his performances is based primarily on the early recordings he made for the Italian Cetra and includes a selection of great scenes from his repertoire, including a crucial, high-quality live version of Don Carlo, which Corelli never recorded in a studio.
Despite being a work of great importance for the history of Italian opera, Nerone has almost no discography, except for the late Hungaroton edition (with Hungarian interpreters). Fortunately, in 1975, the Italian Rai of Torino produced this precious live edition under the Gavazzeni conduction, without any noise from the audience and with a perfect stereophonic recording. This is the best available performance of an opera that deserves the utmost attention, and which for years has not been available until today, thanks to the restoration by Urania Records.
Arrigo Boito is remembered today for his only completed opera Mefistofele. The score for Nerone was left unfinished at the composer's death - a performing version was completed by the composers Vincenzo Tommasini and Antonio Smareglia, along with Arturo Toscanini who conducted the world premiere at Teatro alla Scala in 1924. The narrative focuses on Emperor Nero during a time of conflict between beliefs in Imperial Roman gods and Christianity, and ends with tragic dramas amidst the Great Fire of Rome. With influences that include Wagner and Sibelius, Boito's rarely performed Nerone uses a truly exciting harmonic palette delivered through a masterly handling of huge orchestral forces.
A century after it's world premiere at Teatro all Scala under Arturo Toscanini, conductor Francesco Cilluffo opened the 2024 season of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari with this acclaimed production of Arrigo Boito's rarely performed Nerone. Set in Rome and focusing on Nero during a time of conflict between belief in Roman Gods and Christianity, Boito's opera displays a forward-looking harmonic palette with an eloquent and masterly handling of large orchestral forces.
A century after it's world premiere at Teatro all Scala under Arturo Toscanini, conductor Francesco Cilluffo opened the 2024 season of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari with this acclaimed production of Arrigo Boito's rarely performed Nerone. Set in Rome and focusing on Nero during a time of conflict between belief in Roman Gods and Christianity, Boito's opera displays a forward-looking harmonic palette with an eloquent and masterly handling of large orchestral forces.
The Italian tenor sings the world’s greatest Italian tenor arias, including the hit “Nessun dorma” – without question the most famous opera arias.
Verissimo meaning “very true” in Italian and is a play on the word “Verismo” – the late 19th century opera style from which these featured operas are taken. The style is known for its big passions, dramatic lyricism, lush orchestral sound and storylines about normal people in the throes of love, death, betrayal and revenge. Key composers of this style include Puccini, Mascagni, Cilea and Leoncavallo.
Where Is My Beloved? / Siurina, Orbelian, Kaunas City Symphony
Delos
CD
$18.99Sep 22, 2023
One of the leading sopranos of her generation, Ekaterina Siurina enjoys an international career that takes her to the top opera houses in Europe and America. Siurina’s thrilling renditions of famous arias on this recording bring new life to operatic favorites such as “Un bel di, vedremo” from Madama Butterfly, “In quelle trine morbide” from Manon Lescaut, and “Tatiana’s Letter Scene” from Eugene Onegin.
REVIEW:
She can surmount the vocal challenges of Madama Butterfly’s hopeful Un bel di, vedremo and the anguished Tu? Tu? Piccolo iddio! and she can also spin out a legato line to die for and she can cap the end of Senza Mamma with an ethereal pianissimo.
Ms. Siurina can do it all when it comes to the lyric soprano repertoire, be it the other-worldly Rusalka or the girlish Tatiana or the intact Amelia of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra or the distraught Marguerita of Boito’s Mefistofele
It has been three years since I first heard Ekaterina Siurina in Amour Eternelle, her first album for DELOS. In this, her second album for DELOS, Siurina reinforces her great reputation, accompanied by the superb American conductor Constantine Orbelian, who leads the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra offering minute by minute support to the soloist.
Remembering Tebaldi / Moore, Foster, Transylvania State Philharmonic
PENTATONE
SACD
$21.99Aug 18, 2023
Melody Moore pays tribute to the legendary soprano Renata Tebaldi, presenting a selection of arias and scenes by Rossini, Verdi, Boito, Catalani, Puccini, Mascagni, Giordano, Cilea and Alessandro Scarlatti, documenting the most important stages in the career of “la voce d’angelo”. Moore performs these pieces together with the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra under the baton of Lawrence Foster. Melody Moore and Lawrence Foster both have a vast Pentatone discography, including collective complete recordings of Verdi’s Otello (2017) and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and La Fanciulla del West (both 2021). The latter album was also the Pentatone debut of the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra.
REVIEW:
Does Moore sound like Tebaldi? Not exactly: a track-by-track comparison reveals subtle differences in timbre and interpretation. But this is an act of homage, not impersonation, and Tebaldi’s repertoire certainly suits Moore’s voice and showcases her versatility, as she differentiates each heroine from the next.
Best-known today as the librettist of Verdi’s final Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, the multitalented Arrigo Boito was also a fine composer in his own right. Hugely ambitious in scope, and some 20 years in the making, his first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, sets out to encompass nothing less than the whole of Goethe’s vast poetic drama Faust (parts I and II), and is considered the very central work of his phase between Verdi and Puccini. Making his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, director Roland Schwab (a protégé of the legendary Ruth Berghaus) plays devil’s advocate by setting the opera in a nightmarish atmosphere. The exceptional cast features Rene Pape, Joseph Calleja, Kristine Opolais, and Karine Babajanyan. “[Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais’s Margherita] shines with understated Grace Kelly elegance” (Opera Today). “[Conductor Omer Meir Wellber “holds all the musical textures together with admirable control” (BR Klassik).
Boito: Mefistofele / Ramey, Muti, Teatro alla Scala
Sony Masterworks
CD
$16.98Aug 26, 2016
Arrigo Boito, Verdi’s greatest librettist, was also a noted composer, best known for his Italian operatic treatment of Goethe’s tragedy Faust. His Mefistofele is much closer in spirit and letter to the original source than Gounod’s French version of a decade or so earlier. Boito seems to have been more fascinated by Mephistopheles than by the title character (he also augmented the role of another famous villain, Iago, in adapting Shakespeare’s Othello for Verdi). There are numerous complete versions of recordings of Mefistofele on disc, but BBC Music Magazine gave its highest rating to this 1995 live recording from La Scala, conducted by Riccardo Muti: “It is Samuel Ramey who dominates this new recording. Ramey was already a splendid Mefistofele on a 1991 recording, but here he is even more in command of the role, and has the advantage of Muti’s masterly conducting. Michele Crider is an affecting Margherita and Vincenzo La Scola a mellifluous Faust.”
Boito's Mefistofele is an uneven work, dramatically fragmented, episodic almost to a fault. But at the same time it is so perfectly an echt-Italian opera of its era that its melodies, situations, and choruses stir the blood in a manner not unlike Verdi and Ponchielli, and a good performance can leave the audience breathless. There are juicy parts for soprano, tenor, bass, and chorus, and a good design and directorial team can make something terrific out of it. This current DVD records the opening production of Palermo's Teatro Massimo's 2008 season, and there's something for everybody.
Director Giancarlo del Monaco, set designer Carlo Centolavigna, and costumer Maria Filippi start out superbly with the Prologue, set in heaven: a long, blue-lit tunnel with a white light at the end (much the look of how people describe near-death experiences) finds Mefistofele in starched, white tuxedo shirt-front and trousers, preening arrogantly while the heavenly voices come from behind the scenes. Video director Matteo Ricchetti scores big with a close-up blur of Mefistofele writhing under the celestial sounds.
The Easter Scene is a brightly lit carnival set in the 1930s; the costumes are colorful period pieces, although why Mefistofele is wearing campy feathers and huge, satin horns is beyond me. An eerie carousel adds to the atmosphere. The scene changes to bare gray walls and doorways and the "garden" has one tree in its center, also gray. Margherita is drearily dressed, hausfrau style.
The Sabbath is your garden-variety, half-naked thrashing around, with our devil in drag. Still, so far, so good, but for the Night of the Classical Sabbath, we're given Las Vegas, with showgirls, plenty of neon lights, the Hotel Troy, and Venus, with Elena and Pantalis embracing in a huge clam shell. Faust is in a vulgar pink, red, and blue shirt and Panama hat; Mefistofele is dressed as either a doorman or an MC. Whatever, it's ugly and doesn't click. Back to the tunnel and light for the Epilogue and a stunning finale. So, physically and directorially (sometimes actions do not match text), this is a mixed bag.
Vocally, things are more solid. Ferruccio Furlanetto, acting and singing Mefistofele as a combination of cowering self-loathing and despicable, is still in fine voice after 30 years on stage, and he rightly dominates the proceedings--a brilliant performance. Tenor Giuseppe Filanoti manages a physically credible Faust and sings fearlessly and intelligently. His handsome tenor has real ring to it, and he sings off the text. Soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, looking dowdy as Margherita and poorly costumed as Elena, still manages to be moving as the first character and alluring as the second. "L'altra notte" is fine, if a bit miniaturized; she and Filanoti sing "Lontano, lontano" beautifully, and she manages Helen's odd tessitura with aplomb. The voice itself is one of quality and she uses it with class and style. The other soloists are good.
Conductor Stefano Ranzani pulls out all the stops for the big moments and offers tender accompaniments in Margherita's and Faust's intimate moments, with orchestra responding superbly. The woodwinds in the Prologue are spicy and vital; the brasses ring out. The chorus is excellent in the Prologue and Epiliogue but a bit ragged in between. The picture and sound are first-rate. This set's only competition is a 1989 performance from San Francisco starring Samuel Ramey at his peak in an otherwise unimaginative production and with sound and image less sharp than this new one. Even with its design and directorial oddities, this is highly recommended.
