Customer Reviews

Benita Valente, Soprano - Great Singers of the 20th Century, Vol. 1

5 star:		(4)
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This is a sublime and joyous recording. Benita Valente's voice is exquisite and her interpretations move the soul. To add to the pleasure of this album are fellow artists Richard Goode, Lydia Artymiw, David Effron, and Alexander Schneider. My favorite track is Mozart's "Vorrei Spiegarvi o Dio!" Herr Mozart would have plotzed with pleasure. I also loved Shubert's "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" performed at the Marlboro Music Festival with Rudolf Serkin, piano, and Harold Wright, clarinet. It has to be the best recording ever of that work. Delicious and pure delight.

Bridge Records provides the increasingly rare production quality that allows Benita Valente's artistry to shine with absolute purity. Bravo Bridge! I hope you win another Grammy with this one.

I went on line and ordered two more CD's as gifts today.

i am not technically knowledgeable when it comes to opera singing but I think this is the best singing I have heard in a long time. I really like her voice and there is not a place where her voice doesn't sound right. this is what makes one love operatic singing. I would recommend it to anybody.

I don't have much to add to the previous reviewers' enthusiasm, except to say that Valente has always been a musician's singer, as shown by her close association with the elite singing program at Marlboro. born in 1934, she appears here in 1969, in a reprise of her wonderful 1061 performance of Schubert's The Shepherd on the Rocks, again with Rudolf Serkin and the great clarinetist Hrold Wright. The last items, from 1986 and 1989, are the Wolf and Spanish items, which sound almost as fresh - you'd never know that Valente was in her fifties. She was singing well up to her retirement in 2000.

Bridge has gathered these recordings from five sources, and it's gratifying that they went to the trouble, since Valente is under-represented on disc. Although she sang Mozart at the Met, I think of her primarily as a recitalist, as good as her friend, the gifted mezzo Jan DeGaetani; they rank wit the best song recitalists America has ever produced. The tone of her voice, with its fast beat and bright shimmer, reminds me of Beverly Sills but without the sting edge that Sills's voice had; on the other hand, Valente's vice is considerably smaller and her skill at coloratura not world class like sills'.

All in all, a treasurable retrospective in good sound throughout and with top-notch accompanists. Here's the complete program.

Brahms:
Meine Liebe ist grün, Op. 63 No. 5

Richard Goode (piano)

Debussy:
Il pleure dans mon caeur (No. 2 from Ariettes Oubliées)

Chevaux de bois (No. 4 from Ariettes Oubliées)

Green (No. 5 from Ariettes Oubliées)

Spleen (No. 6 from Ariettes Oubliées)

Lydia Artymiw (piano)

Handel:
Lascia ch'io pianga (from Rinaldo)

Eastman II, David Effron

Mozart:
Un moto di gioia mi sento, K579

Richard Goode (piano)

Deh vieni, non tardar (from Le nozze di Figaro)

Eastman II, David Effron

Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio! K418

Minneapolis Festival Concer, Alexander Schneider

Obradors:
Al Amor

Con amores, la mi madre

Del cabello más sutil

Chiquitita la novia

David Effron (piano)

Schubert:
Heidenröslein, D257

Rastlose Liebe, D138

Nacht und Träume, D827

Richard Goode (piano)

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 (Von Chezy / Muller)

Rudolf Serkin (piano) & Harold Wright (clarinet)

Wolf, H:
Italienisches Liederbuch (selection)

Auch kleine Dinge, Mir ward gesagt, Wer rief dich denn?, Du denkst mit einem, Wie lange schon, Ihr jungen Leute, Mein Liebster singt, Schweig' einmal still, Ich hab' in Penna einem Liebsten wohnen

Richard Goode (piano)

When I purchased this album I hadn't heard Ms. Valente's voice before. Though I am a soprano myself and make it a practice to listen to a variety of voices for enjoyment and study, I had never heard her. What a loss for me! She is wonderful! Her voice is rich. It has a lovely timbre. Her interpretations are inspiriing. I wish I had heard everything she recorded. It would have been extraordinary to have heard her in person.