Verdi Il Trovatore
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giuseppe Verdi
Genre:
Opera
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 12/1987
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: EX749347-4
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Il) trovatore |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Fedora Barbieri, Azucena, Mezzo soprano Giulio Mauri, Old Gypsy, Bass Giuseppe di Stefano, Manrico, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Herbert von Karajan, Conductor Luisa Villa, Ines, Soprano Maria Callas, Leonora, Soprano Milan La Scala Chorus Milan La Scala Orchestra Nicola Zaccaria, Ferrando, Bass Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Rolando Panerai, Count di Luna, Baritone |
Composer or Director: Giuseppe Verdi
Genre:
Opera
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 12/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 129
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 749347-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Il) trovatore |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Fedora Barbieri, Azucena, Mezzo soprano Giulio Mauri, Old Gypsy, Bass Giuseppe di Stefano, Manrico, Tenor Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Herbert von Karajan, Conductor Luisa Villa, Ines, Soprano Maria Callas, Leonora, Soprano Milan La Scala Chorus Milan La Scala Orchestra Nicola Zaccaria, Ferrando, Bass Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Ruiz, Tenor Renato Ercolani, Messenger, Tenor Rolando Panerai, Count di Luna, Baritone |
Author: Richard Osborne
I grew up with the highlights record of this set and so its every inflexion is engraved in my memory as is any recording that, as the very latest acquisition, any schoolboy plays day and night for weeks on end. (I later graduated to the complete set after William Mann pointed out in Gramophone that Il trovatore is all highlights.) I would now, in my more sober moments, have to admit that some of the comprimarios whom I uncritically reverenced have powerful rivals on other recordings, as indeed to Barbieri and di Stefano, variably splendid, and even the wonderful Rolando Panerai. But to say this is to reckon without Callas and Karajan, that charismatic duo whose rare acts of co-operation—the Berlin Lucias, the EMI Madama Butterfly (EX291265-3; CD CDS7 47959-8, 10/87), and this Il trovatore—took the world by the ears in the 1950s.
Leonora was one of Callas's finest stage roles and this recording is wonderfully intense, with a dark concentrated loveliness of sound in the principal arias that puts one in mind of Muzio or Ponselle at their best. Walter Legge always managed to team Callas with the right conductor for the work in question. Often it was Serafin, but Karajan in Il trovatore is as compelling a prospect as de Sabata in Tosca (EMI CD CDS7 47175-8, 9/85). This opera, like Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, is one of music's great essays in sustained rhythmic intensity; dramatically it deals powerfully in human archetypes. All this is realized by the young Karajan with that almost insolent mastery of score and orchestra which made him such a phenomenon at this period of his career.
There are some cuts, but, equally, some welcome inclusions (such as the second verse of ''Di quella pira'', sung by di Stefano with his own unique kind of slancio). Giulini's DG version is complete and is perhaps the better all-round performance with Domingo's Manrico and the remarkable Azucena of Brigitte Fassbaender. But the EMI is offered on just two LPs, CDs, or cassettes and the sound is very good. One or two climaxes suggest that in the heat of the moment, the engineer, Robert Beckett, let the needle run into the red and you might care to play even the CDs in mono to restore that peculiar clarity and homogeneity of sound which are the mark of Legge's finest productions of the mono era. But whatever you do don't miss this set.'
Leonora was one of Callas's finest stage roles and this recording is wonderfully intense, with a dark concentrated loveliness of sound in the principal arias that puts one in mind of Muzio or Ponselle at their best. Walter Legge always managed to team Callas with the right conductor for the work in question. Often it was Serafin, but Karajan in Il trovatore is as compelling a prospect as de Sabata in Tosca (EMI CD CDS7 47175-8, 9/85). This opera, like Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, is one of music's great essays in sustained rhythmic intensity; dramatically it deals powerfully in human archetypes. All this is realized by the young Karajan with that almost insolent mastery of score and orchestra which made him such a phenomenon at this period of his career.
There are some cuts, but, equally, some welcome inclusions (such as the second verse of ''Di quella pira'', sung by di Stefano with his own unique kind of slancio). Giulini's DG version is complete and is perhaps the better all-round performance with Domingo's Manrico and the remarkable Azucena of Brigitte Fassbaender. But the EMI is offered on just two LPs, CDs, or cassettes and the sound is very good. One or two climaxes suggest that in the heat of the moment, the engineer, Robert Beckett, let the needle run into the red and you might care to play even the CDs in mono to restore that peculiar clarity and homogeneity of sound which are the mark of Legge's finest productions of the mono era. But whatever you do don't miss this set.'
Verdi Il Trovatore
Verdi Il Trovatore
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