Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
BEST CHOICE FOR A MODERN RECORDING OF THIS TITLE, 3 April 2003
A recording that won't deceive opera lovers. The cast is the best you can get today. Alagna is in very good form. It is incredible the way he colors her voice. Being a natural lyric tenor, there are parts in the opera where he seems a dramatic tenor. He has a very good taste with middle voices and lives the part. Gheorghiu, even if she is not a dramatico coloratura, gets so involved in the part that you don't miss a heavier voice. Diadkova is not at her best. I've seen her live and it is amazing how her voice is changed by the microphones. She sometimes sings with a hollow tone not very nice, not present during live perfomances, but hers is a very good perfomance in general. The rest of the cast is on the same level, with a special mention to Ildebrando D'Arcangelo. He has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard. The only point I don't agree with in this recording is the conducting. Let's say it lacks emotion.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best, 15 Jan 2006
This recording has got to be the best of Il trovatore out there. As something of a Verdi obsessive, I’ve heard most, if not all, of the others, and this is just superb. I’ve been a fan of Roberto Alagna since I heard his ‘Serenades’ disc back in 1997, and have followed him since, continually being impressed at the man’s talent at every turn. His Manrico is, however, the only bad thing I can think of. And its not even bad, its just the small matter of his colouring. Verdi’s tenore di forza roles frequently require an almost baritonal colour to the tenor voice, something Placido Domingo excelled at when he was at the height of his career. But the clue is in the “almost” – the voice should still be a tenor. Alagna dips quite low in parts, which gives his voice a certain ugliness. But it doesn’t happen often - "Ah si, ben mio" is quite beautiful (but he does sing it better under Abbado on his recital disc of Verdi arias). Apart from that, and the fact he annoyingly holds the final C of “Di quella pira” right until the very end, he’s superb. Leonora is taken by his wife Angela Gheorghiu, who is such a brilliant soprano that it should be enough to leave it at that. Both of her arias (and the cabaletta to “D’amor sull’ali rosee” is included, which doesn’t happen often!) are absolutely beautifully done – the second exquisitely so. Thomas Hampson as di Luna is the perfect villain. Heavier than Sherrill Milnes, far more refined than Ettore Bastianini and Giorgio Zancanaro, he is also just more listenable than Ingvar Wixell and Pietro Cappuccilli. “Il balen” might benefit from having a bit more passion interjected into it, but his sheer presence in the finales to acts one and four more than make up for that. Larissa Diadkova, I must admit, can be quite grating on me. She is probably the most eligible to sing Azucena of the mezzi available today, but she isn’t in the same league as Fiorenza Cossotto. Ildebrando d’Arcangelo rounds out the principals with an enjoyable Ferrando – I say that because the role doesn’t really present many opportunities to apply many adjectives. His act one racconto is very good, and Pappano’s direction injects a comparable amount of tension. Indeed, I found his conducting throughout to be quite acceptable. Idiomatic, maybe – he certainly hasn’t shed any astounding new light on the score, but he keeps it moving with the dramatic swiftness of a guillotine that middle-period Verdi needs. I would be interested to hear a Rigoletto sung with the same triumvirite of principals and the same conductor…
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