Customer Reviews

Mozart - Lucio Silla / P. Schreier · Gruberova · Bartoli · Upshaw · Kenny · Harnoncourt

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Mozart - Lucio Silla / P. Schreier · Gruberova · Bartoli · Upshaw · Kenny · Harnoncourt

There are times when one may not entirely like Nikolaus Harnoncourt's idiosyncratic conducting, but more often than not, he serves up exciting and intelligent performances from his forces. His conducting of the Bach Brandenburg Concerti is one such recording (I own 8 recordings of the Brandenburg Concerti, including the splendid Il Gardiano Armonico's, yet Harnoncourt's is the one that I find most satisfying in every respect).

And this? His conducting of Lucio Silla?

Very, very close to sheer perfection.

The ONLY caveat I have is the casting of Dawn Upshaw. I find her performance a little too bland and sugary, yet I have heard her sing utterly wonderfully in modern French repertoire. I just do not think that Mozart suits her (not every light lyric soprano is an ideal Mozart singer). In preference... oh, if we'd been given Barbara Bonney here instead! It would have been the final touch to a superb recording.

This IS a superb recording. With the astonishing Edita Gruberova, one has only to imagine her singing this great Mozart coloratura role to know she is perfect in it. To hear her on this recording is to know that Mozart is weeping with the delight of it. Yvonne Kenny is sweet-toned (not TOO sweet) and ravishing with that lovely silvery voice of hers which is so very beautiful in Mozart. Bartoli is agile, remarkable, velvet-toned, full of heartbreakingly sincere character - she has always been one of the great Mozartian mezzos from the first moment she began to record. Her voice is so beautiful that it almost defies description. And Peter Schreier, that veteran lyric tenor, shows exactly why he has been one of the top tenors in this sort of repertoire for years. It's such a smoothly beautiful voice, so capable of drama and sensitivity.

In all, this is by far the best recording of Lucio Silla that exists. The opera itself is magnificent - a grand and very beautiful work that exemplifies Mozart's genius with endowing even characters in an opera seria with real and moving personality.

This highly enjoyable and too rarely heard opera is here performed with incredible vocal virtuosity by an extremely talented group of singers. First and foremost must come Gruberova and Bartoli. The latter, here near the beginning of her professional career, is in beautiful, limpid voice, and, as usual, the pyrotechnics hold no terrors for her (listen to 'il tenero momento'). Gruberova sings one of the most difficult arias Mozart ever wrote ('Ah, se il crudel') with astonishing breath control; and, unlike Bartoli, she doesn't aspirate her runs. Both sing with a great deal of feeling. But this is a performance in which all the singers are a pleasure to hear: from Schreier's Silla, to Yvonne Kenny's Cinna (shining, forthright tone) and Dawn Upshaw's sweet voiced (slightly too sweet for me) Celia. Harnoncourt leads a stirring performance and doesn't do anything too controversial; the only disappointment is that this work is not given complete. Buy it!

I bought this opera for Cecilia Bartoli, but was pleasantly surprised by the excellent performances by the other singers. Yvonne Kenny is excellent, as always, and there is a very beautiful duet between Bartoli and Gruberova. I am pleased to hear this early Mozart.