Customer Reviews

Mozart - Così fan tutte / Lott · McLaughlin · Focile · Hadley · Corbelli · Cachemaille · Sir Charles Mackerras

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this is not the best Cosi available, I believe it is competitive with the more celebrated recordings by Bohm and Solti. I think it's far better than the widely-acclaimed and (in my opinion) over-rated Karajan version.

Mackerras' interpretation is certainly very non-offensive, but it's not incrediably memorable, and not as lively or visceral as Solti's. Felicity Lott and Marie McLaughlin's performances are technically sound, but lackluster. Nuccia Focile isn't particularly remarkable as Despina either.

What really makes up for the run-of-the-mill-ness of all those parts is the stellar male cast in this recording. Jerry Hadley is the definitive Ferrando of our time, and Alessandro Corbelli is one of my favorite buffo baritones. Gille Cachemaille's rich tone makes a great worldly Don Alfonso.

To sum it up: though the female cast is relatively weak compared to Bohm's and Solti's recordings, the male cast is by far superior, and that's what makes this recording a must-own for fans in search of the definitive Cosi experience.

An excellent, wholly appropriate combination of attention to period performance practice without being tied to convention, with the full sonority of modern instruments. A beautiful ensemble performance, skillfully conducted by Mackerras, with a real sense of drama, clearly recorded (all of which is evident in the Don Giovanni by the same team). Enjoy.

While I admire the live feeling of this studio recording, the cast is nothing to brag about. Come Scoglio sounds terrible, and there's a general lack of perfection here and there. The chorus, however, is wonderful, and I admire the way Mackerras tries to conduct it with historical accuracy- the tempos are a little more brisk, etc. He also shares all the research he has done on this opera with you in an interesting essay.

Apparently, Telarc has published two issues of this set (not including the cheaper 1-disc highlights), whose discs are identical and which have almost identical cover art, but which have two different catalog numbers, and, incredibly, two different prices from vendors that carry both. The generally cheaper one is NOT this one, but is catalog number 80728, which has a label in the upper right hand corner that just says "Telarc" as opposed to "Telarc Digital." Both are DDD, by the way. I established all this through a series of emails with Telarc. Amazon sells both.

I'm partial to Jerry Hadley, who was a local boy from my neck of the woods. He has a particularly sweet voice, which some would say is inappropriate for Ferrando. But if you've heard his Tamino in The Magic Flute, Ferrando is not too much of an extrapolation. I'm not very familiar with the other 5 singers, but they all put in very strong performances. The one exception might be Focile, who, while blessed with a strong and vibrant voice, albeit a little squeaky for the Despina character, doesn't impart all of the clownishness required of the role, although she does a great, if a little fast, "In Umoni." Cachemaille as Alfonso conveys the aura of an eminence grise required of his role. In my opinion, the 4 principal characters are such ditzes, the singers just have to be good at that craft; not much acting is required. Having said that, I note that Lott sings an excellent and heartfelt "Per Pieta" that would elicit "Bravas" in a live performance.

At first listening, I found the tempo of the overture to be a little too fast for my taste, but after getting used to it a bit I grew to like it. This is as good a place as any to assert my oft-repeated theory that we tend to like what we were weaned on, and to reveal that my first Cosi was the 4-LP Angel set with Schwartzkopf, Ludwig, Kraus, Taddei, Berry, Steffek, and Bohm. So, faster than Bohm, but not too fast. This may also be why I found Hadley a little too sweet at first listening.

The sound quality is the best I've heard for any Cosi. On a good sound system, it has a slight raspiness around the voices in the baritone through tenor range, but I've noticed this problem on nearly every opera CD I own, including SACD. (The only exceptions are a few discs that use DGG's new 4D technology.) But here, Telarc puts the microphones in the right places, and the mixing, in terms of voice-orchestra and within-orchestra emphasis, is just as I want it to be. Kudos to the unnamed engineer and editor.

I tend to judge all opera recordings by how I feel about the overture and the opening aria or duet. In this case, it's the "La Mia Dorabella" which is right on target, with the punch needed to draw the listener in. In the particular case of Cosi, I also require a good "Bella Vita Militar" and a really emotional "Giusto Ciel" in the last act. This set delivers on all these counts and more (I once threw an LD set in the garbage for such failures). The one exception was that I found the "Stelle, un bacio?" by the girls near the end of the first act to be a little weak. Not that that was their fault; the mixing just wasn't quite right.

There is no libretto (there is a small booklet that gives some of the materials of a full booklet), which is a general downside of the transition from LP to CD, but you can download a nice one from Telarc's website, which has the Italian and English, in .pdf form, which you can then pull up and follow along on your computer whenever you're listening if you don't care to kill all the trees required to print it off.

If you're a Cosi fan, you owe it to yourself to get this one, if you don't already have it. You won't be disappointed.

Cosi Fan Tutti is definately my favorite opera. is has some great orchestration, as well as that classical Mozart style. this recording is superb. the vocals are wonderful and so is the music. I definately recommend.