Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jessye Norman as the heroic Fidelio, September 17, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio / Norman, Goldeberg, Moll, Coburn, Blochwitz, Wlaschiha, Schmidt; Haitink (Audio CD)
This set, while not as hyped-up as many others, offers a listener's delight of a first rate. First and foremost, Haitink's choice for Leonore is the incredible and versatile Jessye Norman who can sound masculine being blessed with powerful and smooth lower register. That's why, really, her masking as a man works. Yet her "Wo eilst du hin?" and duet with Florestan is full of very feminine love and even a touch of vulnerability. With her superb musical intelligence, nothing is over-acted, but sang beautifully in fresh pure voice. Her Florestan, Reiner Goldberg, manages convincingly the portrayal of a man exhausted by prison and injustice. Quite a few tenors are known to practically scream this part, so one makes an assumption that the prison food could not be really that bad. Goldberg's portrayal is the most accurate. Kurt Moll seems to be over-cast as Rocco, but it's a pleasant treat to hear such a majestic bass in this role. Past examples show how important it is to actually over-cast a bass here, remember Gotlob Frick? Ekkehard Wlaschina comes through as subtle, even if not as much as Leiferkus or Fischer-Diescau, but darker, heavier, very evil Pizarro. Another surprise is the great choice for second tenor -- Andreas Schmidt as Don Fernando. Maestro Haitink stashes the Leonore III overture at the very end, and it provides a good conclusion to 2+ hours of Beethoven pleasure. Philips' crystal-clear digital recording and ideal balancing make it a preferred choice over old recordings, great as they might be. This recording, as many of the company's morsels, is rapidly disappearing from the US market, so get it while it lasts.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well Worth the Price!, December 28, 1999
This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio / Norman, Goldeberg, Moll, Coburn, Blochwitz, Wlaschiha, Schmidt; Haitink (Audio CD)
I have a number of recordings of Fidelio, and even two of its original version, Leonore. They all thrill me for one reason or other. Ludwig is wonderful, even if a bit pressed as Leonore, and who compares to John Vickers as Florestan. I bought this recording only because if was another Jessye Norman recording, and I must say, I got more than I bargained for. Norman was compelling. The way she uses her voice, both very heavy and dark when needed or light and sweat when required. She blended well with the other singers. Her Leonore was a woman of soul, one intent on going through with her masquerade as a man inorder to find her husband. Norman adds a suitable darkness that could actually pass her off as a man better than any other I have heard, but when with her husband the womanly and wifely joys fill her sounds. Her voice is very grand, and I gather would remind one of when Flagstad sang the role at the Met. Since I was not born at that time, I cannot say for sure about that. However, few Leonores have been so full-voiced as Norman. The other singers were truly wonderful too. I was so impressed, and to think, even by a Florestan whose voice is by no means as huge a Vickers! The real miracle of this opera is not so much the singing, which is a revelation, but the opera itself. Beethoven had been nearly deaf for a decade by the time he wrote it. He hearing left him at 28, and much later he wrote this opera, then year later revised it as the opera we know now. A man so tormented by his physical failings, so unlucky in his choice of loves, yet could represent true devotion, true dedication, and total commitment between a man and wife. And he did it all while deaf as a nail. This music, like so much that was to follow came from Beethoven's soul and not his intellect. This recording truly portrays the miracle the opera was, and the truth behind the sentiments it expresses.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Outshone by earlier, greater recordings, September 18, 2010
This review is from: Beethoven: Fidelio / Norman, Goldeberg, Moll, Coburn, Blochwitz, Wlaschiha, Schmidt; Haitink (Audio CD)
Already before it appeared this recording had the look of a winning combination: Haitink had successfully conducted "Fidelio" at the Met and in 1989 Jessye Norman was still in possession of the grandest voice since Flagstad in her prime. But in the event, despite its promise and the desirability of a new interpretation in digital sound, this set turned out to be a disappointment. In Norman's case, a noble voice proved inadequate if it was not to be paired with the sense of drama and acute facility with the text evinced by rival interpreters such as Ludwig or Nilsson, and Haitink seems to have jettisoned the excitement which apparently characterised his live performances in favour of a literalism which borders on the inert. It is not so much the case that his speeds are slow, as that he fails to phrase and rhythms remain slack. This melancholy conclusion holds good throughout a side-by-side comparison of the main features of this recording with those of the earlier sets conducted by Klemperer and Maazel. Take the famous Prisoners' Chorus; Klemperer generates spiritual intensity, Maazel a searing desperation, and Haitink...well, virtually nothing other than a serviceable run through the score. As Florestan and Pizarro, Vickers and Berry for Klemperer and McCracken and Krause for Maazel respectively have twice the voice of the generally light-voiced or simply inadequate singers available to Haitink. The tenor First Prisoner is dreadful. Andreas Schmidt has an attractive baritone with a fast vibrato, but can in no wise emulate the frisson that Franz Crass's noble baritone creates for Klemperer when Don Fernando arrives to punish evildoers. I am mystified to read elsewhere rapturous appreciations of Wlaschiha's windy, grainy Pizarro; wholly unable to conjure up the Grand Guignol of his predecessors' assumptions through vocal means alone, he shouts and blusters his way through the part. Reiner Goldberg was probably at that time the best tenor of the type required that Decca could find but I have heard him sing with fuller, more attractive tone in other roles; here his tone is frequently throttled. In comparison with both his stage wife and his illustrious recorded forebears, his inadequacy is all too plain to hear; he is a like a male spider, vocally devoured by his mate. Of course there are bright spots. The glory of Norman's singing as singing per se is one - yet even Norman's vocalism sounds to me at times not so much uncomfortable as manufactured in the upper reaches of her voice: the top B's and B flats sound disjointed from the rest of the voice and I have already noted her lack of engagement with text. Kurt Moll's Rocco is almost a case of over-casting but he is as firm and sonorous as ever, and makes much more of his words than Norman - even if his is a rather noble sound for a character who extols the joys of money. The dialogue is clearly, intelligently and pacily delivered. The Dresden Staatskapelle and the State Opera Chorus are fine - but the latter are outshone by both Wilhem Pitz's Philharmonia Chorus and the Vienna State Opera Choir, who sing with more power and expressivity. The recorded sound in the Lukaskirche is warm and spacious. There is some sweet, innocuous singing from the young lovers, Pamela Coburn and Hans Peter Blochwitz. Yet even the divine quartet "Mir ist so wunderbar" fails to take off; I turned with relief from Haitink's stodgy version to Klemperer's glowing account. Comparisons are odorous, but unless you are a diehard Jessye Norman fan-completist, or must have digital sound, I can see no good reason for preferring this to the classic versions by Klemperer and Maazel - or, for some tastes, those by Karajan and Bernstein. This 2 CD set is now available as one of a new series of bargain re-issues by Decca in crude, 1960's pop-art style in hideous, acidic colours. Despite their appearance, they are very good value, even if there is no libretto.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
