5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful - and neglected, April 15, 2011
This review is from: Massenet: Le Cid (Audio CD)
This recording has been around for thirty years and now that I've acquired it I wonder why I didn't do so earlier. However, this is now available in a bargain "twofer" format from Sony - though you have to do without a libretto. Still, the plot is uncomplicated, the synopsis adequate, and the cues clear - so if you have a bit of French to boot you won't be lost. There isn't, to my knowledge, an alternative version, but with a performance and recording of this quality you won't need one: the three principals are in magnificent voce - especially Bumbry - and the opera is packed with stirring emotion, lovely melodies and dramatic confrontations. Some of the triumphal music is redolent of "Aida" and Massenet once again manages to do what so many French composers seem to be capable of, and inject an authentic Spanish atmosphere into his score - as he does in "Cherubin" and "Don Quichotte", for example. You would hardly guess that it was a live, concert performance - the Carnegie Hall audience is very well behaved and the soloists sing faultlessly. Both the second soprano, Eleanor Berquist, and the baritone, Arnold Voketaitis, are singers unknown to me but they are estimable artists; she, in particular, has some beautiful music and sings both powerfully and sweetly. If you love Massenet, as I do, don't hesitate - or if you simply want to hear some great singing in an unaccountably neglected opera, go for it.
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