Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele

Arrigo Boito (Orchestra), Tullio Serafin (Artist), Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra & Chorus (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Arrigo Boito
• Audio CD (March 22, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000421J
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,772 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent singers in a less than excellent opera, February 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele (Audio CD)

This is considered Arrigo Boito's masterpiece. Some consider it a semi-masterpiece, but it is definitely the masterpiece among the few operas that Boito composed. I do agree with those who think this opera is a less than ideal masterpiece. I will start the review by discussing the opera's virtues and faults.

"Mefistofele" is an opera of uneven quality. The music is very beautiful and serves the plot very well. It is very enjoyable and certainly does its job of conjuring up Heaven, Hell, angels, the supernatural, devilish going-ons, and lively crowd scenes. The Prologue is masterful in its depiction of Heaven. The music is both powerful and serene. The Epilogue is glorious too. It is very powerful and conveys the drama of Faust's redemption and Mephistopheles' defeat very well. The chorus scenes are very enjoyable and contain some of the opera's best tunes. The major drawbacks of the opera are its plot and libretto. The plot is very ridiculous and is unworthy of Boito's glorious music. The libretto is tacky and overdone. Boito was known as a man of letters and he wrote the libretto himself. It would have been better if he had chosen a librettist other than himself and a plot that was more believable and worthy of his music. Boito succeeded with the music of this opera, but not with its plot and libretto.

On to the conductor and singers in this excellent recording. Cesare Siepi is in glorious voice and characterizes Mephistopheles very well. Mario del Monaco is also in excellent voice. This was the first time I heard his singing and his voice. I immediately liked both. His is a likeable voice that is loud and powerful. His tendency to sing loudly is evident on this recording, especially in the Epilogue. However, he also sings softly on this recording and when he does, he is quite pleasant to listen to. He characterizes Faust very well with some nice histrionics thrown in for good measure. Renata Tebaldi is a glorious Margherita. For those who are not familiar with her voice, it was a glorious spinto. It was a rich, creamy instrument capable of producing a lot of glorious sound. She was known for her portrayal of Margherita and she gives a glorious interpretation here. She displays her fabulous spinto voice in this role. Her "L'altra notte in fondo al mare" is very well sung with some nice, if not completely competent, coloratura. Her trills in this aria are hard to describe. They almost sound like real trills, but it is hard to tell. Most likely, they're probably fake. When she describes her daily chores to Faust, she has to sing a bit of coloratura in the line "filo sull'arcolaio." She manages the task decently, if not spectacularly. Her Prison Scene is done marvelously. She was not known for deep acting, but you could never say she was dramatically detached like Sutherland was. Her acting in this scene is great. Floriana Cavalli, who sings Elena, is very able. Her voice is strong and pleasant, if not as pleasant as Renata's, with powerful high notes. She has excellent diction. Her Pantalis, Lucia Danieli, is also very able. Conductor Tullio Serafin paces the scenes beautifully. The serene parts of the score are given space to unfold and the dramatic parts are given fast, exciting tempos.

This is a great recording of "Mefistofele". This one or the one with Norman Treigle, Plácido Domingo, and Montserrat Caballé will more than suffice if you want to own a recording of this opera.

PS. I bought this recording from a seller on amazon.com. It was in mint condition and still had the original shrinkwrap. It pays to buy from those sellers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Made back when..., March 16, 2010

By 

Laurence G. Dorning "Francophone fan" (New York State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele (Audio CD)

My first encounter with "Mefistofele" was an old Cetra recording of highlights. The sound was so bad I could not really tell much about the opera except I liked what I heard. So I bought the 3 record set of this recording and fell in love with it. People always say this opera is lacking something. To them I ask: what??? There are three great leads, some great ensembles and the glorious prologue-the music of which returns in the Epilogue, bringing things full circle. I think I own just about every commercial recording of the opera and this set stands head and shoulders above them all. The recording's stereo sound is still immaculate; everyone shines. This was a recording made when singers simply tackled a role and sang the hell out of it. And sing they do!!! Great singing, great conducting and play the Epilogue good and loud for the full effect: whistles, soloists, chorus-magnificient!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing older recording, February 6, 2010

By 

Eric - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arrigo Boito: Mefistofele (Audio CD)

I have never seen this opera performed, but simply hearing it makes me wonder why it's not really considered an opera of the first rank. It's quite a dramatic story but the music never stoops to melodrama, it's quite compelling and the high points convey a real sense of terror - positively spine tingling. It is certainly of my favorite opera recordings. Perhaps I like it so much because it's not been overly popular and played over and over. But still. Del Monaco and Siepi are both magnificent in the male leads.

The other amazing thing is that this recording was made in 1959. It is stereo. The sound quality is absolutely stunning, period. If this were remastered to Super Audio CD I would buy that in a heart beat. Probably won't happen.

I have heard other recordings but this one has yet to be surpassed, fifty years on and counting. The recording wizards at London/Decca certainly knew what they were doing, which isn't surprising considering that company's groundbreaking work on Solti's recordings of the Ring cycle of the same period. Highly recommended.