Customer Reviews

Great Operatic Duets

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The opera world is full of singers who have beautiful solo voices, and yet, it seems difficult to find the perfect blend of two or more voices. Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne had that chemistry.......but, can you really instantly bring other names to mind? I was reminded, upon seeing Roberto Benigni's film 'Life Is Beautiful', just how great the combination of the voices of Montserrat Caballe and Shirley Verrett really are. One only has to listen to the 'Barcarolle' from 'Hoffman' or better yet, the 'Mira O Norma' from the Bellini bel canto masterpiece to know what a gem is to be found on this recording............it doesn't get any better than this.....

One thing that is enjoyable with this CD is that it includes duets from operas of different styles. Here we have bel canto, late Verdi and verisimo.

It is amazing how exquisitely these two ladies sing all the different styles! Moreover, they feel every word they sing. Other reviewers compared this duo with the Sutherland-Horne one. I admire both Joan and Marilyn but they show little understanding of what they are singing; they are too busy impressing us with their high notes and fast coloratura.

The best moments are the bel canto duets (if only there was more). Caballe is unsurpassed in this area. Try to get her complete recordings (Norma, Il Pirata, Lucrezia Borgia). Verrett too had a big success in this repertoire. Pity they didn't record the Stuarda duet as well. The Barcarolle is ethereal, the best I've ever heard while the Aida duet passionate and moving, just as it should be. Caballe and Verrett don't really have verisimo voices but the two selections on this CD are enjoyable.

I join the praise of the previous reviewers and highly recommend this recording!

Of all the great opera solo and duet recital discs (Jussi Bjoerling singing almost any Verdi or Puccini; Sutherland/Horne in Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti; Fritz Wunderlich, Edda Moser or Margaret Price in Mozart; [name your favorites]), this is probably the most thrillingly beautiful I've ever heard. The gorgeous sound of these 2 great voices and the almost palpable excitement they generate are as glorious now as when I first heard this on LP about 25 years ago. Whenever I'm trying to convince a non-lover of opera what he or she is missing, this is my ultimate weapon when all else has failed -- it always works!

Montserrat Caballe and Shirley Verrett had two of the most beau tiful voices in the world. The beauty, richness and flexibility of these voices are much in evidence in the bel canto duets of Semiramide, Norma and Anna Bolena, just as they are in the ex cerpts of Aida, Gioconda, Madama Butterfly and the exquisite barcarolle from Les contes d'Hoffman. Glorious singing by glo rious voices. It is unfortunate that these two singers did not record more often together but for those interested in hearing them in complete opera recordings may I recommend Lucrezia Borgia by Donizetti (RCA) and Don Carlo by Verdi (EMI) in which Shirley Verrett sings an electrifying Eboli.

This recording is fantastic! Both Caballé and Verrett are great. Caballé has her lush, powerful voice. Verrett has her dark, rich, equally powerful voice. The two sing very well and are involved dramatically. The duet from "Semiramide" is great. However, Sutherland and Horne do it better. Their coloratura is cleaner and more spectacular than Caballé's and Verrett's. The duet from "Anna Bolena" is done well. However, I prefer Verrett's version with Sills. Sills is dynamite as Bolena and she has a top register equal to that of Verrett's. The duet from "Norma" is fantastic. In the case of this duet, I find Caballé and Verrett to be every bit as good as Sutherland and Horne. The duet from "Les Contes d'Hoffman" is great. Their voices blend beautifully. The duet from "Aïda" is done very well. Verrett is a subtly menacing Amneris, which is quite effective. The duet from "Madama Butterfly" is terrific. Caballé did not sing Butterfly very well, but here, she is magnificent. Verrett is a sympathetic Suzuki. I don't think she ever sang the role on stage. The last duet is from "La Gioconda". No complaints here. Both singers are in top form. I wish they had included the Confrontation Scene from "Maria Stuarda". All they needed to do was to cut out the lines of the other singers in the scene. Caballé and Verrett were great together on stage as Maria Stuarda and Regina Elisabetta, respectively.

This duet album is the perfect compliment to "Belleza Vocale" with Hei-Kyung Hong and Jennifer Larmore.

The only way to discribe this cd is to call it "opera magic"!!! I often listen to opera while I do little things around the house, but when this album came on, it commanded me to stop and listen. These two voices, wonderful as they are solo, are magnificent when blended together. To hear them sing the "Barcarolle" from Tales of Hoffman is worth the price of the album ten times over. You will never be satisfied hearing anyone else sing it again! This duet is "theirs".

I bought this CD based on the reviews and am thrilled with it. I agree that the price is worth it just for the The Tales of Hoffman: Barocelle. This song is exquisite and the voices blend so perfectly that it is the most moving piece of music that I've experienced. Check this out!!!

I bought this CD a few years back think it was just Caballe. After I listened to the first two tracks I knew I had something where the whole was better than the sum of the parts. What a wonderful experience this CD is.

I remember when this album was first released on vinyl disc so many years ago. Caballe and Verrett had sung and recorded together quite a few times, and there was definately a wonderful chemistry between them. Of the many duets here, I particularly remember "Mira Norma" and the "Barcarolle" as utterly haunting. It is rare for singers to have such a "magical" quality in performance, and RCA wisely captured them in their prime in some of the most wonderful duets of the operatic genre.

As an interesting sideline, your readers might like to know that Caballe and Verrett were engaged to sing Norma at the Paris Opera probably around the time of this recording. Because of a Chorus Union Strike with the Paris Opera Chorus, a performance was cancelled just before they were to go on. Maria Callas, who was retired at that time and lived in Paris, had heard on the radio about the strike and cancellation. She invited Caballe and her husband, tenor Bernabe Marti, and Shirley Verret to dinner at her home that very evening.

After that dinner with Maria Callas at her home, Caballe and Verrett became friends with her and she graciously advised them on their careers. I can't help but feel that they absorbed something of Callas influence to express themselves "more" in the music. Certainly this album in no way copies Maria Callas, but both Caballe and Verrett are at the height of their vocal and expressive powers. Enjoy. This album is Magic.

It's hard to believe that this wonderful duets album was recorded forty years ago. The sound is ideal and happily both ladies are still very much with us. It is possible but probably fruitless to make comparisons between this disc and those offering comparable programmes by Sutherland and Horne, or Hei-Kyung Hong and Jennifer Larmore, but all I would say is that all three are delightful and offer us a feast of great singing. The most striking aspect of this recital, however, is the variety of styles successfully assayed here: seven different composers spanning coloratura, bel canto, high Romantic to verismo (if you accept Puccini as a verismo composer - but you get the picture). Verrett is not a fruity mezzo in the vein of Horne or Larmore and one can hear how she easily made the transition to soprano but her rich voice blends beautifully with the ethereal tones of Caballe. Just one or two of Verrett's top notes are a little snatched or discoloured but both singers are mostly vocally impeccable and sing with great feeling and attention to words - I am particularly taken by the passion of Caballe's Butterfly: vulnerable,desperate and powerful without being a grande dame. A special feature of her singing is of course the floated pianissimi. Caballe and Verrett sang and recorded together a good deal and are clearly at ease with other. Guadagno's accompaniments are by and large leisurely and respectful of the singers' need to take their time in making their points - though there is no lack of tension in the meatier confrontations between Aida and Amneris or Laura and La Gioconda. Verrett uses the smoky lower regions of her voice to characterise tellingly the vengeful Amneris and Caballe's Aida foreshadows her magical performance in the complete Muti recording a few years later in 1974.

Every opera-lover will enjoy this disc - a classic.