Classical Music

Delo’s first-ever complete Italian opera on CD, this exciting and accomplished studio recording features a seldom-recorded Verdi masterpiece as performed by an all-star array of revered and critically acclaimed global A-list opera greats–in collaboration with Constantine Orbelian at the helm of an emerging Lithuanian orchestra. The remarkable beauty of singing and playing alike, as well as the interpretive chemistry between the performers, promise to make this a memorable and must-have recording.

'Sir Colin Davis conducts the Requiem with a judicious mix of fire and meditative calm' (Gramophone) 'a strong set of soloists... Every note fills me with affection and wonder, and that's rare... his performance really feels like a live one as if we're hearing this glorious score straight out of the crucible in which it was forged... From the Domine Jesu Christe onwards everyone seems gripped by the unfolding drama, prompting them to give of their individual and collective best... there's a tension in the orchestra a sense of approaching finality... that dark, tolling figure in the Lux Aeterna is unforgettable, the soloists singing with a liberating loveliness that's equally memorable... Dies irae is (another) case in point... Sir Colin's performance�is in another league entirely' (MusicWeb)

Among the more attractive obligations and at the same time the greatest artistic risks facing a leading company like the Vienna State Opera are new productions of the core repertory. By 1971, when a new production of Verdi's La traviata was staged under the musical direction of Josef Krips, the house could already look back on more than two hundred performances of the work since the end of the Second World War. Krips himself had already conducted the opera, including a performance in the company's temporary home at the Theater an der Wien, but none of the three principals had previously appeared in their roles in Vienna. For the protagonist, Ileana Cotrubas, the first night also marked a huge step forward on the road to an international career. Few young sopranos - especially in a performance captured live on the radio - have been as successful in achieving so convincing and touching a balance between the vocal agility needed in the opening act and the lyricism and expressive depth of the following acts of the opera. During the years that followed, Violetta became a role that Ileana Cotrubas was often invited to sing in Vienna and with which she was closely associated not only there but elsewhere too, including appearances at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Both in New York and in Vienna it was Cornell MacNeil who as Giorgio Germont had the task of persuading her to renounce her love of Alfredo, which he did with his powerful Heldenbariton voice - it was not entirely unexpected when only a year later he appeared in Vienna as Wagner's Flying Dutchman. Alfredo himself was sung by Nicolai Gedda, who found in the part a particularly congenial Italian role to set alongside so many others in a repertory of almost unimaginable breadth. His phrasing was wonderfully simple and yet precisely adapted to his partners' needs. Not for a moment did he force his voice, and yet the top C at the end of his second-act aria could not have been more perfectly focused. Add to this the clear dramatic accents that he brought to the role, and no one in the audience could have wished for a better performance of the figure of the young lover. The rest of the ensemble, which included a young Edita Gruberova as Flora Bervoix, was admirably attuned to the flexible nature of Krips's Italianate style of conducting. If only all the classics of the repertory could always be presented on this same high level...

The only recording of an Italian opera by this conductor whose star shines ever more brightly: a legendary performance with the greatest Otello of his day (and since), restored to full sound using the newest recording techniques.

There are arguments to be made in favor of both versions of Don Carlo, in four or five acts (never mind French or Italian), although either way it remains a very long opera. Karajan’s EMI recording of the four-act edition, with a very similar cast to this one, remains one of his greatest Verdi outings. However, this new release of a live performance from the Vienna State Opera in 1979 displaces all other recordings of the four-act version, including Karajan’s earlier one. It is very well and naturally recorded, although the overall perspectives are somewhat low-level. Turn up the volume, however, and the performance snaps nicely into focus. The audience behaves well, with the not-distractingly-audible evidence of its presence adding to the sense of occasion.

Better still, many of the exaggerations and eccentricities on that 1978 studio performance–very loud passages followed by almost inaudible ones, odd ritards, etc.–are gone from this reading, but the nobility remains. It’s still on the slow side (Eboli’s “O don fatale” is amazingly slow, but brilliantly performed, with true grief, by Agnes Baltsa (sound clip) who handles every long breath and every high note as if the aria were easy) and there’s still the occasional weird cut (part of Elisabetta’s farewell to her Countess friend, the second verse of the Veil song). However, the Philip and Grand Inquisitor–Ruggero Raimondi and Matti Salminen–are breathtaking here. Freni is just as good; Baltsa is better, and Carreras is still the Don Carlo to hear in the 1970s–a just-about-perfect performance. Piero Cappuccilli’s Posa is warmer than before but just as full voiced. This is a must have, even if the libretto is not included.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

RCA RED SEAL CENTURY - VOCALIS

This thrilling live performance, taped on September 23, 1960 in excellent stereo sound at the Vienna State Opera, owes most of its success to conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. This somewhat ramshackle opera can all too often seem like a series of unconnected scenes, but somehow Mitropoulos manages to create a dramatically appropriate arc and keep the action flowing. The orchestra, of course, plays gorgeously for him, with lush string tone and bright brass, and the ensemble work implies many rehearsals. In addition, he gets the most from the Italians in the cast.

Giuseppe di Stefano's voice is at its most free and beautiful and Mitropoulos keeps his bad habits under control, eliciting from him one of his finest performances on disc. He offers a true pianissimo A-flat on "seno" in his big aria, sensitive phrasing throughout, and ardor that is unmatchable, without bluster or exaggeration. Antonietta Stella also is at her best. As good as she always was, you'd find yourself wishing Callas, Gencer, or Tebaldi had been in her stead, but she's memorable here. Despite a few top notes that spread, her singing is first rate, with a hushed duet with Guardiano and excitement elsewhere. But truth to tell, I wish she were someone else.

Ettore Bastianini, with a baritone voice as gorgeous as di Stefano's tenor, is ravishing once past the Inn Scene, which he sleeps through. His duets with the tenor are riveting and his legato is ravishing (it's a pity that their second duet, "Sleale", is cut). "Urna fatale" brings down the house. The feared Preziosilla/military scenes are enlivened and made tolerable by the wonderful Giulietta Simionato and Mitropoulos' lively beat.

The non-Italians are more problematic: the Guardiano of Walter Kreppel is not interesting and he wanders from pitch; Ludwig Welter's Marchese is killed just in time; Karl Dönch's Melitone is bland. But the performance is dramatically ravishing, and by the time the final trio comes around, we are in the presence of absolute greatness; I've never heard it so beautifully sung, played, and led. Highly recommended.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Vienna’s top trio of Verdians makes this Ballo one for keeps.

Initially composed for the 1857-58 Carnival Season at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, this opera about the murderer of Swedish King Gustav III was rejected by Neapolitan censors, and so were its revisions. The premiere performance of Un ballo in maschera took place only on 17 Feb 1859 at the Teatro Apollo in Rome – and also only after revisions enforced by the pontifical censors: first and foremost, the setting was transferred from Sweden to colonial North America, and not a king, but Riccardo, the governor of Boston, was to be the murder victim. Despite these changes, the melodrama was very well received by the audience, and up until today Un ballo in maschera is one of Verdi’s most popular stage works. Like most modern performances, this recording is based on the Swedish version of the opera. Its first performance at the Vienna Opera House on the Ring was given in 1870 (exactly one year after the opening), and has since enjoyed well over 500 performances in this house. The star-studded cast includes Pjotr Beczala as Gustav III, Dmitry Hvorostovky as Renato and Krassimira Stoyanova as Emilia, Nadja Krasteva, Hila Fahima, Alexandru Moisiuc, Sorin Coliban, Igor Onishchenko and Thomas Ebenstein, peforming under the baton of Jesús López Cobos. Live recording April 2016.

REVIEWS:

Orfeo’s live recording hails from 2016 at the Vienna Staatsoper and like most on disc it is based on the Swedish rather than the curious American version of the opera forced on Verdi by political censors.

Piotr Beczała is probably the finest Gustavo III of his generation, singing with just the right degree of swagger, a winning touch of irony, and plenty of romantic passion when called for. His tone is bright and Italianate, just a little pushed when required to pop out a passing top note but rock solid when given plenty of time to get up there. Krassimira Stoyanova is the Emilia, her robust yet creamy soprano is ideal, especially from meaty middle register to gleaming top. Teeming with passion, she’s deeply involved from start to finish and the long central duet with Beczała is perfectly balanced. Her desperate Act III plea to see her child is heart-breaking.

The set’s eye-catching name will likely be Dmitry Hvorostovky as Renato. The popular Russian baritone retired from the stage at the end of 2016 due to physical difficulties arising from the brain tumor that would lead to his tragically early death the following year. Here he’s on excellent form, just occasionally effortful, but singing with consummate style and firmness of tone.

The supporting cast are all splendid with Nadja Krasteva a commanding, sometimes terrifying Ulrica, and Hila Fahima’s light lyric soprano appealing as Oscar. As Horn and Warting, Alexandru Moisiuc and Sorin Coliban make a suitably gruff pair of guffawing villains.

Leading the Staatsoper Orchestra is the then 76-year-old Jesús López Cobos, a conductor with this music in his DNA. His reading is flexible with plenty of heft and you sense a rapport with the singers on stage. The tightly disciplined chorus is well caught.

The orchestral sound on disc is a just a little recessive, and there’s the odd bit of stage noise or cough, but nothing too excessive.

This is a recording that grabs the attention thanks to the dramatic involvement of all involved and one worthy to be added to that distinguished roster of the past.

Classical Music

This is the kind of record that you want to be sent for review as often as possible, to go back to play from the beginning once you've reached the end, to send to any aspiring singer who wants to learn about the first principles of singing. Ileana Cotrubas teaches you anew the importance of legato, of words, of evenly produced tone, of attention to detail, and of how to wed the four together into intelligent interpretations. Indeed each of these performances is at once an example of superb singing qua singing, but at the same time an account of the aria in hand that reveals the character's situation, while encompassing the particular style needed for a particular composer.

Over and above that is Cotrubas's peculiarly individual utterance... It makes her Gilda in Rigoletto touching and vulnerable. Note, too, how the coloratura is here part of the expression of Gilda's joy... The Leonora of Forza del destino finds Cotrubas striking out into new territory, and securely occupying it. Again she has the measure of a character's situation, the cry of "Fatalita" more desperate at each repeat.

-- Gramophone [6/1977, reviewing the Cotrubas selections]

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This is the second of two recitals which mark the welcome return of Renata Scotto to the recording studios. Her strong and touching performance as Ciô-Ciô-Sàn in Barbirolli's Madarna Butterfly (HMV Angel SLS927, 9/67) is now nine years old, and since then she has been rather lost to view by the record-buying public. She was unlucky to come upon the scene at a time when EMI were casting Callas, and Decca Tebaldi, in roles which Scotto might have taken, some of which she did in fact sing for DG in recordings that never quite achieved comparable popularity in this country. Then in the last ten years it has been the fresh, bright tones of Mirella Freni and the velvety ones of Montserrat Caballé that have taken the attention. But all the time Scotto has been giving great pleasure in the opera houses, developing from a singer whose charm and accomplishments were evident when we first heard her, over twenty years ago, into a mature, highly expressive artist of real distinction.

The previous record (CBS 76407, 11/75) presented her in arias of the verismo school, and in these she gave performances sufficiently heartfelt yet nobly restrained to call to mind a great predecessor, Claudia Muzio. This is so again in the present Verdi recital, which contains an intensely moving account of "Addio del passato" from La Traviata, the aria associated most of all with Muzio. The first of the arias from I Vespri Siciliani recalls her also, with its expressive breathing and its slow chromatic scale falling like a sigh. We know from the start of this recital, too, that it is a mature and genuine artist whom we are about to hear, one able to convey the underlying strength of feeling in the lively cabaletta of the extract from La Battaglia di Legnano. With the Nabucco aria it is a new, formidable character that we hear, startlingly vivid as she exclaims with cunning pride how little they know of Abigail's heart. And then, how much we know of Desdemona's when such anxiety overshadows her phrases as in Scotto's performance of the great scene from Otello.

Faults of course there are in this recital, particularly in the rather hard tone of several of the high notes. I still wouldn't be without it!

-- Gramophone [8/1976, reviewing the Scotto selections]

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

From Tutto Verdi: The Complete Operas, three hardcover slipcase boxes representing Verdi's early, middle and late operas are now available. Tutto Verdi: The Operas Vol. 2 includes the operas from 1847-1853.