Man of La Mancha [Cast Recording]

Mitch Leigh (Composer), Paul Gemignani (Conductor), Placido Domingo (Performer), Julia Migenes (Performer), Mandy Patinkin (Performer), Samuel Ramey (Performer), Jerry Hadley (Performer), Carolann Page (Performer), Robert White (Performer), Rosalind Elias (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Placido Domingo, Julia Migenes, Mandy Patinkin, Samuel Ramey, Jerry Hadley, et al.
• Conductor: Paul Gemignani
• Composer: Mitch Leigh
• Audio CD (March 5, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Sony Classical
• ASIN: B00000279J
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,466 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Plácido Domingo endows Quixote with a vocal richness and intensity no previous man of La Mancha has brought to the role. But as wonderful as Domingo is, he is too overpowering to capture the vulnerability of Quixote's mental state, an essential quality of this character. Julia Migenes gets trapped in Aldonza's massive register changes, even though her lower range is expressive and robust. She is unafraid of indulging the chest tone, a vital necessity in this role. The sore spot is Mandy Patinkin, who is misguided by delivering Sancho in an unnaturally nasal and obnoxious manner--he is more annoying than cute. A worthy, if far from perfect, recording. --Barbara Eisner Bayer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointing, saved only by Migenes., July 9, 2001

By 

Sean "jjpeachum" (LOOK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man of La Mancha (Audio CD)

When I saw this recording on the market, I was extremely excited. This was mainly because I owned producer Thomas Z. Shepard's KISMET album, which was made around the same time, on the same lable, and mainly with the same principal performers. That album is a priceless jewel. However, I should have stopped to think that this cast is mainly made up of opera singers with little or no acting experience, as I had noted that I would have to put up with the undeniable presence of the always irritating Mandy Patinkin. But there was also the divine Julia Migenes, and I knew I would love her. But, upon purchasing, I was greatly let down. And the first clue I got was seeing the playing time of the disc.

I assumed that this recording would be musically complete, taking full advantage of the CD format. However, I was wrong. Out of a compact disc that should be able to hold up to 80 minutes worth of music, roughly 50 minutes are taken advantage of only. Among the deletions: the male chorus's mocking reprises of "Dulcinea" after Quixote's exit; the tag "We're Only Thinking of Him," sung with Antonia's fiancee, the Doctor; the important, dramatic reprises of "The Impossible Dream" and "I, Don Quixote;" and the instrumental music for "The Abduction," "The Combat," and the entire "Knight of the Mirrors" scene are all missing. There is also a curious amount of dialogue for an album that cast so many non-acting opera singers and that has such a surprising lack of important musical number.

The performances . . .

Mandy Patinkin is SO ANNOYING! It's like his intention is to be irritating. What is the point of this? He totally misses Sancho Panza's touching, human side. Sancho is a human character, devoted to the confused, befuddled Quijanna, because (as he himself says) he "really likes him." Patinkin completely misses the mark with his obnoxious "characterizations" of Sancho. And he gets so wrapped-up in his own "interpretation" of the role, that he won't let enough of the material speak for itself, and the humor in the role (particularly in "A Little Gossip") suffers because of this. Since there was so much "carry-over" casting from Sony's KISMET album, why not give Sancho to Dom DeLuise (KISMET's Wazir). Of course, it might have been to high for him, but he would have been funny and touching, and ANYTHING would have been better than that dreadful Patinkin. I was little confused by the casting of Domingo as Quixote, because he is a tenor, and it is a baritone role after all. But he is a very dark tenor, and began his career as a baritone I believe. He sings the role beautifully and expressively--however, I still *long* for Richard Kiley in the role. A man who was a great actor and had a wonderful theatre voice, and who was a powerful presence in the role (while still capturing Quixote's weakness and "gentle insanities"). And Domingo is SO over-dramatic in his much of his performance! His few dialogue bits with Patinkin make one want to run and hide, and always leave me rolling my eyes. The best part of this album is Julia Migenes as Aldonza/Dulcinea. Perfect is the only word to describe her. She sings "What Does He Want of Me?" touchingly and simply. Her "It's All the Same" is performed with such tired frustration that is perfect for it, it's as if she's saying "this is who I am, and it's like this every day--nothing new." If it was not for her presence in her dialogue tracks with Domingo and Patinkin, those tracks would be skipped. And her rendition of the dramatic song "Aldonza" is beyond describing. It is disturbingly brilliant. That track alone makes this poorly-executed fiasco worth purchasing. If one feels they have to purchase this, buy it for her alone. Hadely and Ramey give wonderful vocal performances (as always), but they are unfortunately heard too briefly on the album. Hadely's "To Each His Dulcinea" is beautiful, and this characterization of the Padre is surprisingly touching. Ramey leads "Knight of the Woeful Countenance" with power and force, "oomph!" as it were. And Domingo's sons sing "Little Bird, Little Bird" quite nicely.

Gemignani leads the American Theatre Orchestra powerfully through the score, and the Concert Chorale of New York always sing with gusto.

When all is said and done, one would think that this recording was only made because there were a lot of contracts sitting around in the Sony offices gathering dust, and they asked Shepard to take advantage of it quickly. The two performances that I had made assumptions of before I bought this album turned out to be true (Migenes and Patinkin), but the rest of the album was not what I imagined at all.

AVOID!!! (But try at least to hear Migenes's rendition of "Aldonza.")

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Feeble Opinions..., December 29, 2003

By 

Nnie the Hideous New Girl (Brookfield, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man of La Mancha (Audio CD)

Okay, this is probably more than biased, but I was given this album quite a few years ago, without even knowing what Man of La Mancha was. It inspired me to listen to the other cast recordings, and I still come back to this one the most!

I like the quality of Domingo's voice, so the accents hardly bother me. His vocals are just too easy for me to fall into. And as for Mandy Patinkin, I couldn't disagree more with general opinion. Maybe since he's the first Sancho I heard, it really grew on me, but I liked his rendition before and after viewing/listening to other versions, and I've always liked his voice. It has a very different quality to it, and if that changes the role for this recording, so be it. I really liiiiike it!

As for Aldonza, Julia Migenes' strong vocals in moments of extreme anger and despair to her reluctantly sweet coming around to Don Quixote's charms really struck me. All in all, I was charmed by this recording early on and still am! The main vocalists are extrememely talented and outshine any of the weaknesses in the recording itself. There's plenty of charming wit, humor, and drama, and I found none of it to be bogged down by any of the performances.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Miscast La Mancha, April 29, 2009

By 

David M. Daly "halloweenwolf" (Hingham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Man of La Mancha - (A Musical Play by Dale Wasserman) (MP3 Download)

Overall a very good album with many satisfying performances that simply falls short of the mark due to the miscast title role. Domingo is of course an artist of inarguable quality, but his dramatic tenor is simply out of place in the very baritone role of Cervantes/Quixote. An opera singer known for his skilled acting (especially in the heavy Verdi roles), he seems distinctly uncomfortable with this material, especially in the lengthy dialogue sections of this recording. His heavy Spanish accent is out of place (yes, even when playing a Spanish character!) when only one other character attempts it, and while he sings with his natural burnished bronze tone, the higher pitch of his voice and the higher key he takes it in robs the music of much of its dramatic power. An opera singer known for his skilled acting (especially in the heavy Verdi roles), he seems distinctly uncomfortable with this material, especially in the lenghty dialogue sections of this recording. You never feel that he shapes a believable character here, making one long for the dichotomy of fragile nobility and ringing majesty that the lighter voiced but better cast Richard Kiley brought to the original production.

The supporting roles are indeed well-taken, especially by Julia Migenes who gives a performance very much in the Joan Diener-style while supplying far more voice and giving a peformance of greater nuance and shading than her predecessor. Other stand-outs are Samuel Ramey's stentorian Innkeeper, Jerry Hadley's bright-voiced and masculine Padre, and Mandy Patinkin's amusingly underplayed Sancho. Paul Gemignani conducts a sprightly uptempo American Theater Orchestra, and the production values are generally high (although several reprises, as well as the dramatically vital "Knight of the Mirrors" sequence, are left out, surprising considering how much of the dialogue was left in!). With a more appropriate Qixote and some shrewder editing of the script and score, this could have been a definitive recording. Then again, without Domingo's star presence, the recording may never have existed in the first place.