Customer Reviews

Giuseppe Di Stefano - Torna a Surriento (Songs of Italy & Sicily)

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The 2 collections in this set are classics, and for good reason. Giuseppe De Stefano was perhaps the greatest tenor of Italian lyrical opera in our lifetime--at least for many of us who were already around in the 1950's and 60's. Yes, he was so for only a brief time. He apparently lived la dolce vita and abused his voice.
But fortunately, he came to prominence when Angel Records was producing extraordinarily high quality recordings, and many of his performances in the studio were created and preserved. These include his historic operatic performances with Maria Callas which have long since been digitized and converted to cd's. Among others, the TOSCA and LA BOHEME performances are mindbogglingly magnificent. Indeed, whenever I've played these for friends over the years, they always ask about the tenor--i.e., Di Stefano--and rate his performances as the most extraordinary they have ever heard.
In any event, as his operatic voice was in early decline in the mid 60's, he began to record traditional Italian love songs--both Neapolitan and Sicilian. (He was Sicilian, and included several gorgeous songs from Sicily in his albums. I'm Sicilian-American, so I'm partial to these.) The depth of feeling, emotion, loss, anguish, regret, reminiscence, love, euphoria (Maybe a bit manic-depressive here!), together with his gloriously virile yet exquisite vocal instrument and fervor make this collection a virtually certain favorite for anyone who appreciates (as in loves) this universal, eternal music that speaks directly to the human soul.
OK, I'm getting carried away--only a bit actually. Because these songs (e.g., CATARI, ADDIO SOGNI DI GLORIA, PUSILLECO, A CANZONE'E NAPULE, etc., etc.)+ Di Stefano + the lush orchestrations make these performances rivals of the Di Stefano + Callas operas. In other words, it just doesn't get better than this.

I originally bought the CD because of a song titled "catari catari". The song performed by Giuseppe Di Stefano is the best. I have listened the same song performed by many other singers including Pavarotti, but nobody but Stefano moved me. I strongly recommend this CD to other people. However, be aware that the song titles will be displayed in Japanese on windows media player although the titles on the CD jacket are listed in English.