Massenet: Le Cid [Import]

Jules Massenet (Composer), Eve Queler (Conductor), Opera Orchestra of New York (Orchestra), Arnold Voketaitis (Performer), Clinton Ingram (Performer), Eleanor Bergquist (Performer), Grace Bumbry (Performer), Jake Gardner (Performer), John Adams (Performer), Paul Plishka (Performer), Peter Lightfoot (Performer), Plácido Domingo (Performer), Theodore Hodges (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Arnold Voketaitis, Clinton Ingram, Eleanor Bergquist, Grace Bumbry, Jake Gardner, et al.
• Orchestra: Opera Orchestra of New York
• Conductor: Eve Queler
• Composer: Jules Massenet
• Audio CD (June 17, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Sony Classical
• ASIN: B00028F85W
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,398 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Le Cid, opera: Overture

2. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 1

3. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 1. Aimer! Je puis aimer librement!

4. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 1. Laissez le doute dans mon âme,

5. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2

6. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2. Jurez-vous d'être bon chevalier?

7. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2. O noble lame étincelante

8. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2. A Saint Jacques de Compostelle

9. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2. Ainsi vous l'emportez?

10. Le Cid, opera: Act 1. Scene 2. O rage, o désespoir

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Le Cid, opera: Act 2. Scene 2. Navarraise

2. Le Cid, opera: Act 2. Scene 2. Le Roi! Le Roi! Le Roi!

3. Le Cid, opera: Act 2. Scene 2. Vous, Don Diègue, parlez!

4. Le Cid, opera: Act 2. Scene 2. O tourment de la voir!

5. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 1

6. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 1. De cet affreux combat je sons l'âme brisée!

7. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 1. Rodrigue! Toi! Dans cette demeure!

8. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 1. Mourir? Tu vas mourir?

9. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 2

10. Le Cid, opera: Act 3. Scene 3

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Live Performance, February 10, 2007

By 

H. Mejia "hermes" (Miami, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Massenet: Le Cid (Audio CD)

I've owned it in the seventies in vinyl recording (analog); no matter, the sound is superb. It was my first Domingo's recording; since then I'm a Domingo's fan. This Massenet's Opera is best known by the ballet, but you'll find that it deserves a better place in his production. This one has other merit, it's a live recording at the Carneghie Hall, so you can hear live voices, no edited one's. It is the best way to judge who is who, and Domingo is great.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful - and neglected, July 11, 2007

By 

Ralph Moore "Ralph operaphile" (Bishop's Stortford, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

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 with Sony Classical - 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.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Le seul Cid, December 13, 2006

By 

Constantin Declercq "Constantin Declercq" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massenet: Le Cid (Audio CD)

«Le Cid» a été peu enregistré ; cette version de 1976 est donc une des rares disponibles, si ce n'est la seule. Malgré ses quelques 2 heures 20, ce n'est cependant pas une intégrale : les coupures les plus marquantes sont des danses de l'acte II (quatre danses au lieu des sept) et d'autres à l'acte IV. C'est bien sûr dommage, mais on peut retrouver les danses ailleurs sur des disques de musique de ballet. Les chanteurs viennent de plusieurs pays mais aucun n'est français, ce qui pose l'habituel problème de l'intelligibilité de ce que l'on entend. Grace Bumbry était au faîte de sa gloire et elle porte l'opéra dans le rôle de Chimène qui lui va très bien. Plácido Domingo est habituel à lui-même : une voix certes belle mais aucune nuance. La partition n'est pas la meilleure de Massenet et on le sent parfois à court d'idées même si on reste dans la lignée des opéras grandioses comme «Le Roi de Lahore» et «Esclarmonde», après lesquels «Le Cid» vient d'ailleurs chronologiquement. Le vinyl a été réédité deux fois en cd, en coffret avec la pochette d'origine (une gravure) et en 2004 avec une photo («La France renaissante», étonnant monument sur le pont de Bir-Hakeim face à la Tour Eiffel). La seconde réédition, moins chère, propose cette surprenante pochette mais pas de livret -et il faut absolument se le procurer pour ne pas perdre ce que disent les chanteurs ; on a juste droit à un résumé de l'action en allemand et en anglais.