VERDI King of Italian Opera

[Sarastro]

Callas still makes much more of the Nile scene

Where? There are at least 4 Aida's with Callas. I heard the Serafin version with Tucker and Barbieri, which was fine, but not particularly gripping. I was said that the live performance from Mexico with del Monaco, Taddei and Dominguez was the landmark. This landmark is available on Amazon.

As for Price, I do not contest her sublime rendition of Aida, but am just curious if her being black played any role at all.

[knight66]

Do you mean because she was black we might think she is more suitable to the part of an Ethiopian? Not exactly relevent to me when I am listening to CDs.

Mike

[Sarastro]

Well, some people do believe that the Ethiopians are black. It's funny, but many people do like a good image, or just cute aura around it. I heard a story about a Callas fan, who died, and the person who took care of his collection found many recordings, sometimes doubled and tripled, i.e. same recordings recurred two or three times. There were recitals...literally, everything that was issued with Callas. But none of the boxes were unpacked. A nice illustration to the person who loves just the image, not the singing. Pretty much the same trend is about Netrebko's fans...but anyway, it is off topic. So yeah, I was just curious if there were people who might think Price is more suitable to the part because she was black.

Not to be off topic, I suggest to discuss Caballe's Aida, 1974. I do not always like Caballe, but her rendition is so tender and deep in this recording. I wonder if she was particularly inspired in 1974 - all her recordings from that time are simply fantastic: Norma from the Orange festival, I Masnadieri, Il Corsaro (1975), I vespri siciliani. Back to Aida, their pianos in final duet with Domingo simply dissolve in the air when you listen to them.

[Sarastro]

but her rendition is so tender and deep in this recording.

As opposed to Nilsson, whose Aida is heroic and strong-willed. Nilsson sounds even dangerous in a way, she pierces Radames' heart with her voice. 0:) I think other good Aida's are Milanov and Tebaldi; Freni, Ricciarelli, Gallardo-Domâs (just a recent discovery), even Caniglia on my taste are not as good. As for Amneris, my personal favorite is Simionato, and for Radames - Bergonzi, though many people like to accuse him of being not passionate enough for the role.

[Tsaraslondon]

Where? There are at least 4 Aida's with Callas. I heard the Serafin version with Tucker and Barbieri, which was fine, but not particularly gripping. I was said that the live performance from Mexico with del Monaco, Taddei and Dominguez was the landmark. This landmark is available on Amazon.

I have three of them. From Mexico with Del Monaco, Taddei and Dominquez. I'd hardly call this a landmark performance. It is undeniably exciting (and it does have that incredible Eb at the end of the Triumphal Scene http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PsHNcK27X4Q), but too much of the singing is competitive in the extreme, as if they were all trying to outdo each other. Indeed Del Monaco hurls out his farewell to the earth with such vehemence, that Callas has no option other than to follow suit and do the same.
I also have the Covent Garden performance, conducted by Barbirolli, with Simionato, Baum and Jess Walters. This is much better, and much subtler, though, even here, Callas never convinces me that Aida was the right role for her.
By 1955, when she came to record it for EMI, it was no longer in her repertoire, and she is in much more precarious voice, but I have never heard the Nile Scene, particularly the duet with Gobbi, sound so searingly dramatic. Callas's singing of Oh patria, patria quanto mi costi is agonisingly moving, and she is superbly aided here by Serafin's conducting, as he builds those sobbing violin phrases to the climax.

[Sarastro]

I should re-listen to this recording again. Yet, I'd like to hear (if any) opinions on Caballe. In the opera Radames calls Aida "dolce, celeste", and I think Caballe's singing in this particular recording has the most of the two.

[Tsaraslondon]

I should re-listen to this recording again. Yet, I'd like to hear (if any) opinions on Caballe. In the opera Radames calls Aida "dolce, celeste", and I think Caballe's singing in this particular recording has the most of the two.

Caballe is indeed all that you say, and for many this Muti recording would be a first choice for Aida. In fact, this is the recording I would always recommend as the safest bet, when I worked in a record shop. I'm not sure that she is the all round Aida though. There are times, as there often are with Caballe, where I feel she lays out the voice for admiring display, making sure we hear plenty of those fabulous pianissimi, even when they are not called for in the score. But dolce and celeste definitely.

[Sarastro]

There are times, as there often are with Caballe, where I feel she lays out the voice for admiring display, making sure we hear plenty of those fabulous pianissimi, even when they are not called for in the score.

This is very true. I can't disagree here, although I honestly miss this habit of some singers of the past to "lay out the voice for admiring display". I know that is very controversial, but I think that when they enjoy their singing, we will enjoy it as well.

[T-C]

Although as I have written before, I have a special affection for L. Price rendition of the title role in the Solti recording, my first recommendation for an Aida recording is the Muti with Caballe. This was one of the first opera recordings I bought, so maybe there is some nostalgia in this choice. I think it is a wonderful recording from every point of view, musical and technical.

If I am not wrong, Domingo recorded Radames in studio four times (Leinsdorf, Muti, Abbado and Levine), but I think that his performance with Muti is the best of the four, although, for my taste, his best Celeste Aida is included in his wonderful opera arias CD that he recorded in the beginning of the eighties with the L.A. Philharmonic and Carlo Maria Guilini. 

[Tsaraslondon]

As we seem to be discussing Aida at the moment, let me then go on to a short appraisal of the opera itself, as I did with Falstaff and Otello. I have four recordings in my collection (Freni/Carreras/Baltsa/Cappuccilli/Karajan; Callas/Tucker/Barbieri/Gobbi/Serafin; Callas/Baum/Simionato/Walters/Barbirolli; and Callas/Del Monaco/Dominguez/Taddei/De Fabritiis), though I have heard many more, and seen it in the theatre quite a few times.
Let me say straight away that of all Verdi's masterpieces, I find Aida the least moving and involving; it is an opera I have come to admire, rather than to love, and I can never quite put my finger on the reason. Though it has come to be regarded as the quintessential grand opera, this has more to do with one scene (the epic Triumphal Scene), than the rest of the opera, which is often on quite an intimate scale, with many moments of repose, exquisitely scored. Part of its miracle is that Verdi has created his own Egyptian sound world, without once using anything specifically Egyptian. Can anyone imagine anything more evocative of a hot, shimmering moonlit night than the prelude to Act III? This is one of a thousand felicitous touches, in a score that teams with arrestingly original touches.
But, however well sung, I often find the characters somewhat two dimensional, and this could be the reason I respond less to this opera than to many of Verdi's others. Callas is, as usual, an exception to this rule, but the role confounds even her dramatic gifts, and at no time in her career did she sound as comfortable in it as she did in, say, that of Violetta or even Gilda. That said, the Nile Scene, once past a somewhat bumpy O patria mia, bristles with drama, especially in the studio recording, where she is immeasurably helped by Gobbi's Amonasro and Serafin's masterful conducting. I have never heard those sobbing violin phrases at the end of their duet sound as eloquently moving as they do here. Karajan, too, has a marvellous feel for the score, and is more outwardly dramatic here than he was in his earlier recording with Tebaldi. The voices might be thought to be a little lightweight for their task, but, for my part, I tend to prefer this to the barnstorming approach we often get. Indeed Baltsa makes more of Amneris than most mezzos. For once she sounds like a young Princess, a believable rival to Aida, spoiled and used to getting her own way, and genuinely repentant by the end. Radames was of course too heavy a role for Carreras, as Aida was for Freni, but both sing intelligently, and the lyricism of much of their singing is very welcome.

[knight66]

Nice to have access to the old forum, her is my post from 2006 on Aida. I still go along with my initial thoughts. I cannot really agree that the piece is insufficiently moving; I think it is extremely successful in its blend of public and private events, the core of the private being The Nile Scene. TL, we were discussing it betwen us even then!

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This piece acts as a hinge between the revised Don Carlos and the final written-through scores of Otello and Falstaff. Long past the galley years, Verdi was by this time picking and choosing carefully. A commission to write an opera for the opening of the Suez Canal was not an everyday kind of request. Being premiered in the Cairo Opera house, well...what sort of plot would it be other than an evocation of ancient Egypt?

Someone recently posted an item here suggesting that apart from Wagner, all other opera is not greatly damaged by being accompanied by the piano. Well, here the brass plays a vital role in setting up the hieratic scenes which interweave with the intimate scenes. This turning from public spectacle to private interaction is such a strength of Verdi's. He was careful to ensure the characters do not get swamped by the spectacle. Verdi also evokes the hot desert nights wonderfully and the ballet music is exotic with use of flutes.

It is the grandest of grand operas: difficult to bring off due to the sheer expense of mounting it. I read recently about a production where the triumph scene was reduced to back projection of troops marching about. When it gets to this kind of paucity you might as well just do it as a concert. The last time I saw it, a travelling East European company had cardboard sets that not merely wobbled, but in the final tomb scene, fell on the tenor who had to spend the final 10 minutes holding a piece of scenery upright. I assume this kind of first aid was in his contract.

There is also the famous Video production with Pavarotti and Chiara standing 30 feet apart on a vast stage looking like two immobile stuffed armchairs.  Even their size they were overwhelmed by the scale of the sets. I can recommend this DVD, it has believable looking lovers in good sets in a small theatre.
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005QJGB.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
No famous singers, but for once Zefferelli takes an absolutely appropriate approach.

Although I have seen it live several times, never with singers who were up to it. For many years I have been wedded to my Solti recording with Leontine Price and Jon Vickers. I have Mehta, but it is the singing of Nilsson and Corelli that keep me with it, Mehta's approach is pedestrian.

I have just got hold of the Chandos version in English. What prompted me was the memory of the crit that suggested that this recording should be renamed 'Amneris'.

It all works very well, I will get to Amneris, but to me what I most enjoyed was the sheer spectacular sound, the pacing of the opera by David Perry and the dramatic thrust so well supported by the Philharmonia. But...in English? It is a very singable translation and not for a moment does it reduce Verdi to an echo of Gilbert and Sullivan; as did the Un Ballo translation.

But we are still nowhere without the singers. The Aida is Jane Eglen, she sounds wonderful, a big voice, but not a vulnerable approach, passionate yes, but she sounds unlikely to be in fear from any Amneris. So, to my reason for buying the set, Rosalind Plowright in her second career. She is terrific, the voice is a bit unwieldy occasionally, but although less lovely and individual than when she was a soprano, it is potent and she sings off the words, more than an implacably jealous woman, it is a very rounded character and she equals Rita Gorr in her cursing of the Priests, (a little habit Verdi wrote into scores at every opportunity.)

The tenor is Dennis O'Neill, it is an honourable attempt, it works within its own terms, but let's not kid ourselves, he is not a Bjoerling or Corelli. The voice still rings out well at the top, but below that he sounds a bit dry. The Ramfis is first rate, what a beautiful and powerful voice Alastair Miles has. Amonastro is sung by Gregory Yurisch, he sounds like a native English speaker, he sings dramatically, but the top of the range is a little strained.

One litmus paper test for any performance is the Nile Scene, Aida alone, then confronted by her father, persuaded by her lover and then...the betrayal. It sweeps along well without quite the energy Solti encourages. In it Eaglan sounds passionate, but not in real fear as does Callas, Caballe or Price. Yurisch does better than Robert Merrill in the drama, but Merrill had the superior voice.

So, greater than the sum of its parts, but not a first recommendation. I enjoyed it a lot and will enjoy it again; soon.

I am not about to try to change anyone's mind. I have never heard the Muti, but I have Caballe singing the main arias on a recital and I should think she was made for the part. I used to own the EMI Karajan with Freni, I could not stand the sound picture which submerges the singers as though they were merely other competing instruments.
I have exerpts from Perlea on RCA with Bjoerling who is terrific and Zilanov who does not sound like any kind of Aida to me, even though she gets round all the notes. Barbieri is idiomatic, but not melting in the way Baltsa is.

[Tsaraslondon]

Mike, thanks for that. I do love the music in Aida, and can't quite explain why I never find Aida's plight as moving as Otello's or Violetta's, Simon Boccanegra's or Don Carlo's. I suppose we all have our blind spots. I know you have one with La Traviata, which I find possibly the most moving of all Verdi's operas. However, I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't enjoy Aida immensely. I do. Except perhaps at the recent revival of the Zandra Rhodes designed ENO production, which was an absolute disgrace and boring in the extreme. Up until then, I wouldn't have believed it possible to make Aida boring. My 19 year old niece wanted to give opera a try, and chose to go to this, so I went with her. Unfortunately I think it put her off opera for good. The fault certainly doesn't lie with Verdi.

[Anne]

The tomb scene in Aida is memorable for me.  Pavarotti introduced me to opera and I was firmly convinced that he was THE tenor par excellence; no Domingos need apply.  That tomb scene grabbed and as usual when I find some music that is gorgeous, I can play it again and again and not get tired of it.  Such was the case with the tomb scene where that music just makes me weak in the knees. 

As it happened I had recordings of both Pavarotti and Domingo for this.  After repeated listenings I had to admit that Domingo was better in this scene than Pavarotti.  This was an absolute first for me.  I couldn't deny it - my hero came in second.  They can trash him to the second coming and I will still champion him.  I think you could call me a fan for the first time in my life.

[Tsaraslondon]

Haven't had time to contribute much more on my recent Verdi listening marathon - too busy listening to the music, but wanted to say that I finally got a recording of Alzira (Cotrubas/Araiza/Bruson/Gardelli) and found it far from the dud that it is often thought to be. Sure, it strictly follows the conventional forms of the day, and for that reason alone, probably betrays the speed with which the opera was written, but it does contain some terrific music, and Verdi writes most sympathetically for his heroine Alzira. No masterpiece certainly, but not to be written off as easily as it often is.

I also listened to La Battaglia di Legnano again today (Ricciarelli/Carreras/Manuguerra/Ghiuselev/Gardelli) and this really does have some splendid music in it. The orchestral writing is particularly felicitous, and there is no mistaking Verdi's voice here (it immediately preceded Luisa Miller, after all). Ricciarelli sings wonderfully well on this recording. I hardly recognised her. Carreras, too, is splendid, as he was on so many of these early Verdi operas. It is interesting to note how much of Verdi's mature voice can be heard in these early "galley" operas. The great man himself apparently ranked this particular work quite highly amongst the operas that preceded Rigoletto. Highly recommended.

[jlaurson]

Premiere of new Aida, Munich, June 8th

Why did the cheap seats boo Daniele Gatti? Surely his contribution could not to be blamed for the tame failure that was the new production of Aida at the Munich opera. Was he—for the first time conducting at the Bavarian State Opera—to fault for singers who refused to go along clearly indicated tempo changes? Or maybe for not playing the Triumphal March up to brass-blaring expectations? Actually, it was astonishing how much music Gatti got out of the score which, save for a handful absolutely delightful pieces, is a harsh throwback to the trivialities of Nabucco.



Nor were the singers too blame for a grim night at the opera. Sure, Salvatore Licitra (Radamès) can't act his way out of a bag and looks and moves more like the Michelin Man than a warrior-hero, but his voice has gained a little more heft and his power, even if ever pushed with operatic gusto, nearly cach­­es the lack of ease and precision in the high notes. Kristin Lewis (Aida), who jumped in after Barbara Frittoli didn't feel like performing the role after all, was visibly and audibly nervous on the big stage. That meant steadiness was lacking, but the ordinary beauty of her amber-hued voice came through and one wanted to like her. And, alone among the cast, at least she tried to act. Christian Van Horn's King was unmusical in his haphazard approximation of low notes, but like Ekaterina Gubanova's initially gray mezzo, he improved with time. Ramphis was sung well and routinely by the occasionally booming Giacomo Prestia; Marco Vratogna's Amonasro was gruff but bearable. Angela Brower, substituting on short notice in the small role of the Priestess, stood out of the lot for her unmannered beauty. (Along with North Carolinian Kenneth Roberson's Messenger, Arizona State educated Brower was the fourth American in this production. Kristin Lewis was born in Little Rock, Van Horn on Long Island.)



If that wasn't too exciting, Christof Nel managed to undermine what was left with a direction and staging that was mostly insipid for most of the time. Singers walked across Jens Kilian's almost-minimal set (Bauhaus meets diving platform) in Ilse Welter-Fuchs' bland-as-linen costumes (gold plateau shoes for the 'Walk-Like-an-Egyptian'-Disco-Party-King). Monochromism played a dirty trick on the flags of war which were swung with fervor... but white. (That would have been funnier had the story taken place in France.) For three acts, the only really moving element was the continuously operating revolving stage. The ballets were an old fashioned embarrassment, the symbolic displays of violence heavy handed, and the evoked cult of death and human sacrifice culturally off by 8000 miles and 4000 years. The work of "Conceptual consultant" Martina Jochem? The final scene, at least, was touching in principle: Aida opens her veins as she goes into the netherworld with (an apparently absentminded) Radamès; leaving only her blood stains on the bare, finally still-standing, stage. Far too little, far too late for a production so nugatory, it didn't even deserve the massive booing that ensued.

   

[Dana]

I've been perusing Harold C. Schonberg's excellent book The Lives of the Great Composers, and ran across this excerpt from a letter Verdi wrote to the director of the premiere of Macbeth -

"I know you are rehearsing Macbeth, and since it is an opera that interests me more than all the others, you will permit me to say a few words about it. They gave the role of Lady Macbeth to [Eugenia] Tadolini, and I am very surprised that she consented to do the part. You know how much I admire Tadolini, and she knows it herself; but in our common interest we should stop and consider. Tadolini has too great qualities for this role. Perhaps you think that is a contradition! Tadolini has a marvellous, brilliant, clear, powerful voice, and for Lady Macbeth I should like a raw, choked, hollow voice. Tadolini's voice has something angelic. Lady Macbeth's voice should have something devilish..."

Is it only me, or does that sound like it's leaning towards expressionism 70 years early?

[knight66]

The final line of that passage is well known. It is interesting that he wants to put expression before pure singing. I don't off-hand know of any other 19th cent insistence on an ugly sound in preference to a schooled voice. The part has subsequently been sung by all sorts, Suliotis to Caballe, Zampieri to Callas, Verrett to Bumbry. There are a range of approaches there. Suliotis was recorded when her voice was less than healthy, but the intensions are interesting and I think the critics were too harsh on her, the vocalisation is often ugly, but compelling. Caballe's recording of the main arias is very effective, despite the beauty of her voice. Callas gets all possible shades of expression into it.

It is a very demanding role, I think these days, we take anyone who can get round the notes. Youtube has quite a selection of singers in the part, some near disastrous, gusty and off-pitch, but presumably engaged for the weight of the voice in a role that really needs a combination of agility and a touch of the laser beam.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

In a recent thread in the Wagner topic, someone (from the Met I think) has been quoted as saying there are only 11 tenors in the world today who can sing Tristan. Mike said he found it hard to think of 11 post war tenors who had done justice to the role of Otello. Rather than hijack the Wagner topic (Oh how it pains me that Wagner has had 922 posts, and Verdi a mere 61. Even Handel gets 397.), I thought I would discuss here the scarcity of great (or even adequate Otellos). From the last century, the names that readily come to mind are Martinelli, Vinay, Del Monaco, Vickers, Domingo, McCracken, Charles Craig, Cossutta. That is a mere 8. I do not include Pavarotti, as he never sang the role complete and in a staged performance, nor is his recording of the work really satisfactory. And this century? Of the present crop of star tenors, is there one who could do justice to the role? Ben Heppner perhaps.
Will we therefore find performances of Verdi's greatest opera becoming few and far between? Will it become as much a rarity on stage as Bellini's Norma, though, it has to be noted, that these days the latter is played more often than it once was, with any amount of unsuitable sopranos in the leading role. I have mentioned this before, but we seem to be living in something of a golden age for Handel and early music singers, but voices are getting smaller, and there seem to be fewer and fewer singers around who can truly do justice to the works of Verdi.

[Anne]

Guess we could say that Dolora Zajick has job security.       I remember your same remark being made about 10 years ago.  It's too bad.

[knight66]

It is true, although we may be accused of living in the past, there do not seem to be the kind of solid voices with a good Verdian technique, always excepting the lower male voices. The mezzos are less juicy and reluctant to deploy the chest voice, so we get Azucena-light performances. There are only a very few tenors who cope with the larger roles. The sopranos are often good, but rarely great.

How is Trovatore to be cast? As to Otello, Cura is a controversial exponent, Domingo will not be singing it any more. Looking through the recordings available, many of them live....almost all the modern live versions contain Domingo!

There will always be somebody who will take it on, but there is a real dearth of these voices. I wonder what the future will bring us?

Mike