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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Is The One (For Me),
This review is from: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Audio CD)
While taking all the points made in Ralph's informed review, above, I have to say that this is the recording that made me love this opera: I'd heard it before, but everything 'clicked' when I heard the Levine version. Informed Cav 'heads' tend to be split on Levine's conducting, with many finding him a bit too stern-faced and objective....in what the Penguin Guide liked to term 'Mascagni's bit of blood and thunder', this may be no bad thing and I think Levine's fast speeds here (so unlike the approach he tends to take in Wagner!) greatly help matters.
Scotto may never have been the most beautiful of vocal animals, but in the case of the downtrodden Santuzza, I think she turns this into a virtue: a lot of her performance is genuinely moving. Domingo is his usual reliable self - if that sounds like faint praise, it certainly isn't meant to: he had a constant level of 'excellent' around this time, which he often rose above - and he frequently does here. Pablo Elvira - whose only high profile recording this seems to have been - is an eminently acceptable Alfio: he doesn't overplay the vendetta duet with Santuzza, and I think that's a good thing. All in all, this is probably the most refined C.R. you'll ever hear: and while some may not feel that refinement should have any place in this piece of verismo, I thihk it adds greatly to a recording which has always been more than the sum of its parts.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good - but not the best,
By
This review is from: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Audio CD)
Many swear by this Levine recording with Scotto and Domingo; it is very dramatic and beautifully played, but, despite her histrionic abilities, Scotto's raw top bothers me, Pablo Elvira's Alfio is ordinary and even a little under-powered, and Levine does not bestow upon this music the last ounce of flexibility and affection it ultimately requires - thus the Intermezzo does not "swoon" as it should. I listened carefully and admired much that I heard but Domingo does not provide the brute, animal passion of Del Monaco in the 1961 Serafin recording with Simionato and Cornell MacNeill (see my review) or the plangent incisiveness of Bjorling in the intermittently available 1957 version conducted by Erede with the dream team of Tebaldi, Bjorling and Bastianini, all in top form. This is undoubtedly very fine but, as we know, the best is the enemy of the good and you get a more authentic, better sung and more idiomatically played "Cav" if you go with the older recordings.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews) 25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding performance of a great opera.,
By D. R. Schryer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Audio CD)
Mascagni wrote Cavalleria Rusticana as an entry in a competition for a one-act opera. His entry not only won the competition but quickly became a phenomenal success -- and deservedly so. Cavalleria Rusticana is a genuine masterpiece and one of the few operas which is beautiful from beginning to end with no dry spots. In this outstanding recording the principal roles are sung flawlessly, and with both beauty and passion, by tenor Placido Domingo and soprano Renata Scotto. The supporting cast is also quite good and James Levine conducts the National Philharmonic Orchestra (an all-star British recording orchestra) superbly. If you have come to think of Cavalleria Rusticana simply as an old "warhorse" which merely serves as the stablemate for twin-bill performances with Pagliacci please listen to this great recording with unbiased ears. You will discover that Cavalleria Rusticana -- despite it relatively short length -- is one of the most beautiful operas ever written.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As good as "Cav" gets,
By madamemusico "madamemusico" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Audio CD)
Mascagni's one-act opera "Cavalleria Rusticana," derided by many after its premiere as being crude, low-class and unworthy of survival, has indeed survived changing operatic fashions to become one of the world's most popular operas. I find it to be an interesting work, not on the highest level of art but an interesting conflict between an unrepentant philanderer and the wronged husband who eventually brings him down.
Over the years there have been many recordings of this opera, from Callas-DiStefano to no less than 2 versions featuring Jussi Bjorling, 2 versions featuring Franco Corelli, plus versions with Del Monaco, Domingo, Pavarotti, etc etc etc. This mid-'70s entry didn't sound all that good when it was on vinyl, but now that it's been through the digital remastering phase it sounds pretty excellent. Domingo sings in a fairly monotonous, snarly manner, but this suits Turiddu to a T; plus, he was in fabulous voice. Renata Scotto, who at this stage in her career was definitely on the downslide, does have some odd, unfocused and/or wobbly notes, but her interpretation is second only to the legendary Lina Bruna-Rasa on the old Gigli version, and here James Levine conducts much better tempi than Mascagni himself who s-l-o-w-e-d the opera down as he got older. The real "find" and surprise in the set is Pablo Elvira, a fine baritone who only spent a couple of seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, as Alfio. He sings both dramatically and incisively; listen to his "Il cavallo scalpita," it is the briskest AND finest on records. Overall this set is much better than the vastly overrated Milanov-Bjorling-Merrill recording on RCA, mostly because Milanov, though in excellent voice, simply sounds too heavy and matronly to be taken seriously as Santuzza. Scotto, for all her vocal problems, sounds terrific. 10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great performance,
By dolcissima2780 "dolcissima" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Audio CD)
What a great performance of this opera! Scotto and Domingo make this recording truly come alive. The supporting cast and orchestra are also very good. Before I heard this recording, I was not a fan of Italian opera, but now I can't get enough of it. Renata Scotto's voice is powerful, yet not overbearing and screeching like many other prima donnas. Placido Domingo steals the show with his flawless interpretation of Turridu. Although a fairly short opera, Cavalleria Rusticana is pure Italian drama that deserves more recognition. A "must have" at a great price. Please don't pass this one up!
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