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DONIZETTI Anna Bolena 3CDs: C'te. Sills, Plishka, Verrett, Lloyd,Burrows, Kern, Tear. John Alldis Ch, LSO/ Rudel (Brilliant Cl)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
I am posting this review under several, various issues of this 1972 classic as I have owned or heard it in various incarnations but have invariably found it to be in good sound whatever the label. It originally appeared under ABC but is now Universal (DG/Decca), the big difference being that the one with the green DG cover includes a libretto, whereas the others do not.
It is the best version available if you discount Callas - which you can't, and if you do want her account, make sure you avoid the shocking EMI "official" issue and get the Opera d'Oro set (see my review), which despite being heavily cut and featuring a merely mediocre cast apart from Simionato and Callas herself is preferable to EMI's woolly effort by virtue of being far cheaper and in greatly superior sound quality. However, if you want the full score, this version, ably, flexibly and idiomatically conducted by Julius Rudel, is first choice.
It was Donizetti's first big success and already evinces his trademark qualities of acute musical characterisation and the winning combination of floating cantilena lines alternating with passages of great drama. The cast is exclusively Anglophone: four Brits and three Americans - and an English orchestra in the ever-accomplished LSO - but it is not short on Italianità, even if Stuart Burrows' tenor is a little soft-grained and Paul Plishka's Henry a bit woolly. However, Plishka makes the king a growling, brooding brute, which is wholly apt; Burrows' beautiful tenor is both agile and suggestive of an essentially sympathetic personality in Percy. Patricia Kern's rich, steady mezzo is lovely as Smeton and the young Robert Lloyd's sonorous bass is sufficiently imposing to suggest that he might have been a vocally more ingratiating Henry than Plishka. Some harshness in the higher regions apart, Shirley Verrett's makes a highly dramatic Giovanna (Jane Seymour); pace a previous reviewer, I don't think she would have made a success of the role of Anna. We may safely entrust that to Sills in this form.
Some reviewers have remarked how we might be conscious of the fact that she is pushing her voice to its limits, to which I say, of course - this is an incredibly demanding role which requires her to encompass a huge gamut of emotions within an equally wide tessitura from to E flat down to a trenchant chest voice - which she manages to her great credit. Her coloratura sparkles and she creates real pathos in the plangent, drooping melody of "Ai dolci guidami"; the ascending trills are precise and exquisite, her intonation spot-on; there is very little shrillness in a voice caught still in its prime before the toll of singing the Queens became apparent. Show me a singer alive today who can rival her.
Shop around for an affordable set; the Brilliant issue is usually the cheapest if you can do without a libretto.
It is the best version available if you discount Callas - which you can't, and if you do want her account, make sure you avoid the shocking EMI "official" issue and get the Opera d'Oro set (see my review), which despite being heavily cut and featuring a merely mediocre cast apart from Simionato and Callas herself is preferable to EMI's woolly effort by virtue of being far cheaper and in greatly superior sound quality. However, if you want the full score, this version, ably, flexibly and idiomatically conducted by Julius Rudel, is first choice.
It was Donizetti's first big success and already evinces his trademark qualities of acute musical characterisation and the winning combination of floating cantilena lines alternating with passages of great drama. The cast is exclusively Anglophone: four Brits and three Americans - and an English orchestra in the ever-accomplished LSO - but it is not short on Italianità, even if Stuart Burrows' tenor is a little soft-grained and Paul Plishka's Henry a bit woolly. However, Plishka makes the king a growling, brooding brute, which is wholly apt; Burrows' beautiful tenor is both agile and suggestive of an essentially sympathetic personality in Percy. Patricia Kern's rich, steady mezzo is lovely as Smeton and the young Robert Lloyd's sonorous bass is sufficiently imposing to suggest that he might have been a vocally more ingratiating Henry than Plishka. Some harshness in the higher regions apart, Shirley Verrett's makes a highly dramatic Giovanna (Jane Seymour); pace a previous reviewer, I don't think she would have made a success of the role of Anna. We may safely entrust that to Sills in this form.
Some reviewers have remarked how we might be conscious of the fact that she is pushing her voice to its limits, to which I say, of course - this is an incredibly demanding role which requires her to encompass a huge gamut of emotions within an equally wide tessitura from to E flat down to a trenchant chest voice - which she manages to her great credit. Her coloratura sparkles and she creates real pathos in the plangent, drooping melody of "Ai dolci guidami"; the ascending trills are precise and exquisite, her intonation spot-on; there is very little shrillness in a voice caught still in its prime before the toll of singing the Queens became apparent. Show me a singer alive today who can rival her.
Shop around for an affordable set; the Brilliant issue is usually the cheapest if you can do without a libretto.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
I bought this recording when it originally came out on vinyl. If possible the recording quality seems greater. The music of course is superb and the cast in fine form. Beverley Sills is at her best and ably supported by the Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows who, despite having a low tessitura and therefore pushing a little on the top notes, sings with a ravishingly beautiful tone more than making up for any shortcomings at the top end of his voice. A highly recommended acquisition.
0 of 17 people found the following review helpful
I bought this 3 CD set because of the favourable comments by Elina Garanca in the notes to accompany her own fairly recent CD "Bel Canto". Garanca chose Beverly Sills in preference to Maria Callas as a bel canto singer, and said that she had Sills' recording of Anna Bolena on her iPod. Whilst I enjoy listening to this recording, I would prefer Elina Garanca's singing (on CD, in DVD recordings & in live performance) to that of Beverely Sills (only heard by me on CD's).
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