Customer Reviews

Nessun Dorma

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

 

 

When I hear Roberto Algana on broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, I am usually impressed. I have also been impressed when I have seen him perform in full length operas, especially when he is paired with his wife, soprano Angela Gheorghui. I am also impressed with his complete recordings of operas, but when I hear albums where he is the solo performer, I am often disappointed. His voice is pleasant enough, but somehow it does not always compare with other great tenors, particularly Pavarotti, Corelli, Domingo, or Bergonzi. The great tenors have so established themselves, that at times Alagna seems to pale in comparison. I have often found that when Alagna performs less familiar works, he is usually on more solid ground. For this reason, I approached this recording with some hope. Since so many of the pieces are unfamiliar to modern listeners, I thought he would have a better chance at producing a superior recording.

Well, I was certainly pleased with his performance of the less familiar works and appreciate his taking the time to record them. Some of these works can be found on compilations of older recordings, but since we seldom hear performances of ZAZA, Leoncavallo's version of LA BOHEME, LA WALLY, I ZINGARI, or CHATTERTON, we are fortunate to have contemporary interpretations of these works. Alagna seems to have the passion necessary to sing these verismo works and often exudes power and beauty in his renditions. The surprise for me would be his renditions of the more well known pieces. His "Ceilo E Mar" has the beauty we often associate with tenors of the past who have recorded this work. His rendition of "Viva Il Vino Spumeggiante" may be one of the best available. Alagna really stands on his own in this recording.

Alagna fans will certainly love this recording, but all opera buff will probably want this CD in their collection, not just for its sheer beauty, but also its array of lesser known pieces we would not otherwise have the opportunity to enjoy.

After a downright magnificent account of Berlioz, Roberto Alagna ventures into an equally demanding world of verismo. With Ruggero Leoncavallo most prominently featured, a wealth of material abounds.
Some of the grounds covered here were recently treaded by Argentinean tenor José Cura. I would venture to say that while Cura's recital was unusual and interesting, the CD at hand provided a lot more exciting moments in its 65-min time span save for the double-take of "Nessun Dorma." (the "updated" version would be welcome on another disc, I don't believe we need to have them both here for contrast).
Alagna's matured tenor is remarkably agile and the top notes are very secure. Even the rare sharps don't sound out of place. While there is an occasional unsteadiness in upper range, he makes up for it by a strong attack and seemingly endless breath span. He is also able to infuse a little sob when called for - some argue that this sob and not a hair more is what verismo demands. Such treatment of little known aria from Zaza "mai piu, Zaza, raggiar vedro" brought to mind young Carreras on his extremely rare Philips album. It's really a heart-gripping piece and it's a shame that a full recording of the opera is not available. Aside from this brief comparison, I wish Mr. Levine et al would stop the senseless references to the "4th tenor". The only "package" deal that Alagna participates in is with the missus - soprano Angela Georghiu. I sincerely hope he would not ever consider forming another duo or trio and ever venturing into pop. It's better to be a leader than a follower, even if the latter approach makes more money.
With his latest two CDs, Alagna shines as a pioneer of wonderful, but forgotten material. I have little doubt that composers such as Zandonai and Franchetti just found legions of fans thanks to this recital. I hope to be treated to a full recording soon!

In a recent ad, the Rolex Corporation recycled the sobriquet,
"The Fourth Tenor", to this singer. Dear, sweet ladies and gentlemen as Dr. Phil would put it: get real. Nowadays, there is only one tenor: the Corsican Roberto Alagna.

The NY Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote apropos of my father's favorite tenor, Jussi Bjoerling, that "the greatest Italian tenor of the twentieth century was a Swede." Alagna is arguably the finest tenor since Bjoerling. (Here's where disagreements between my Dad and I crop up.) True, Alagna lacks Bjoerling's truly sterling top notes, but, really who does possess them? Nonetheless, Bjoerling was reportedly lazy, thus limiting the number of roles he performed (and recorded). By contrast, Alagna is hardly content to rest on his laurels (seemingly given out by the French government every other week) or on his obvious capacities. He searches out new material and even new mediums, i.e. film. Also, I prefer his warm (Mediterranean?)timbre and how he shapes each aria with his own distinctive stamp. Bjoerling's Nordic power (which deservedly brought the house down at Carnegie Hall, in 1959 with his "Nessun Dorma")may be peerless perfection, but
I still like the earthy sound of Alagna. (I know, Dad, I didn't hear him live, but c'est la vie.)

Finally, why the MET has not cast him in the role of Teriddu must remain one of the early mysteries of the new millenium.

The composers of the verismo school made it their mission to take opera away from the gods, royalty and nobles which it had exclusively depicted in the previous centuries and to finally have it concern people who lived 'real lives.' Unfortunately, too many opera fans and performers - especially tenors - make the mistake of assuming that the intense passions and 'crude realism' depicted by these composers is a license for excessive sobbing, gulping, screaming, macho posturing and other inartistic distortions of the music and drama. Roberto Alagna doesn't. What is so wonderful about his new disc of verismo arias is that none of what he sings is here merely a 'tenor showpiece'. His emotion is absolutely genuine, never 'look at me emote!'. He is always totally in tune with the dramatic situations, and serves them with a wide palette of tonal colors and vivid word-painting made even more intense by the clarity of his Italian diction, as superb as his native French. Although he has plenty of power and drama when required, more often he sings sweetly, smoothly, gently, and lyrically, even in the heaviest repertory. Best of all, Alagna's recent tendency to overuse the darker, rougher sides of his voice in recordings of Italian works has disappeared. This CD is his best work in that language and his singing here bodes extremely well for his future live excursions into these roles.

The title track 'Nessun Dorma' sets the stage for much of what follows. I can think of no higher praise than to say that it recalls that of Jussi Bjorling. Although Alagna doesn't have Bjorling's blazing voice and unsurpassable tonal beauty, he provides just as much sensitivity, nuance, and soft singing - this is a young man in love with a beautiful princess, not a soccer fan. His Andrea Chenier truly is a poet - youthful, passionate and desperate, and is Loris is equally impressive. Turridu in 'Cavalleria Rusticana' is surely an ideal vehicle for this tenor of Sicilian parentage, with his high spirits and smile in the voice for the drinking song turning serious and repentant for 'Addio alla madre'. For Enzo in 'La Gioconda', Alagna's 'Cielo e mar' is thoughtful and introspective, with a gorgeous diminuendo on 'O sogni d'or'. And what a joy to have Maurizio in 'Adriana Lecouvreur' sung by such a beautiful lyric voice, especially with more lovely pianissimo singing in 'L'anima ho stanca'! Can we hope for at least a live performance of the complete opera with his wife Angela Gheorghiu, who would be ideal in the title role?

Of course, any CD project Alagna undertakes will include a high percentage of rarities, and the very best of these are 'variations on a theme' to operas that Alagna is already famous for singing. Many consider his greatest role to be Romeo in Gounod's 'Romeo et Juliette', so it is no surprise that he is just as moving a Romeo in the tender and passionate tomb scene from Zandonai's 'Giulietta e Romeo'. In going from Puccini's version of 'La Boheme' to Leoncavallo's, Alagna switches from Rodolfo to Marcello, who is the tenor lead in this version. Having heard this opera in its entirety, I had originally thought that it was interesting but clearly inferior to the Puccini. Now I'm beginning to think all it needs is the right cast! More Leoncavallo rarities show Alagna at his most lighthearted and ebullient, even while playing some rather unsympathetic characters, from the feckless, selfish prince in 'I Zingari' to the married man having an affair with the title character in 'Zaza'. But in the wonderful 'Tu sola a mei rimani, poesia' from 'Chatterton', written by Leoncavallo when he was 17, Alagna is once again a heroic figure unlucky in love.

The 'Song of the Bear' from Wolf- Ferrari's 'Sly' is another triumph. Alagna darkens his tone to a rich bronze to become both the drunken poet of the title and his alter ego, the pathetic, lovestruck performing bear. He even improvises a delightful growl after 'voglio l'orsa!' ('I want the she-bear!'). Giordano's 'La Cene della Beffe' with its tale of a tenor jester's terrible revenge, would be a superb stage vehicle for Alagna's considerable dramatic talents, although here we only hear the character sweetly serenading about love in springtime. It is also nice to hear 'Quando a Solden', Hagenbach's anguished apology to the title character from Catalani's 'La Wally', an opera known mainly for the soprano aria 'Ebben? Ne andro lontano'.

The only problem I have with this disc, and I considered but decided against deducting the final star because of this, is that at least in the familiar selections I find conductor Mark Elder's tempos a little too slow. Although this allows Alagna to be at his most expressive, it takes away from the drama and urgency that is so necessary in this music. The Covent Garden orchestra does their usual splendid job, as does London Voices in their choral contribution, and Marianne Coterill and Tasmin Dalley are fine as Lola and Mamma Lucia. In addition to a wonderful background essay by John Steane, the documentation includes full texts and translations and - FINALLY - a biography of Alagna, as well as one of Elder.

I hope Alagna will get the opportunity to perform much of this material on stage, especially the rarities, although it might be best to limit his appearances in these roles to small theaters. Although Alagna has recently left EMI to go freelance, I am sure we will hear and see more of him in this and other interesting repertory - especially as he wants all his roles on DVD. Until then, "Nessun Dorma" is an ideal showcase for the marvelous voice and adventurous spirit of one of the greatest tenors of our day.

This is quite an entertaining CD, indeed! Though it is not without its flaws, it makes a strong case for two unjustly criticized aspects of todays opera world: verismo & Roberto Alagna.
Verismo may seem like a tough sell to some: it is over-the-top, melodramatic, and downright absurb sometimes. And yet, musically, it is so rich and passionate that it can often move one to tears. Boring opera purists would disagree, but I would take verismo over most snooze-fest German operas or emotionally empty Mozart works.
Roberto Alagna is plagued by what some seem as over-hype and his widely-publicized marriage to the diva, Angela Gheorgiou. But, when you get right down to it, Alagna is the real deal. His voice is powerful, ringing, sensous, and he has a keen sense of how to use this voice. Face it folks- he's the best we've got these days. And we should be glad we have him!

In the past, I hve found Alagna voice to be a tad stiff...Lacking feeling. That is far from the case here. He is alive with passion and intensity in each aria here, something necessary for verismo. Those who have any doubt should check out his singing of the aria "Io Non Ho Che Una Povera Stanzetta" from Leoncavallo's LA BOHEME. The subtle sob his voice makes on the last phrase, "sempre vi vedra," can easily give one goosebumps!!
In general, this disc finds Alagna in most unfamiliar territory, but it works!! Critics may raise an eyebrow at his choice to do this album, and rightly so, but for the most part, he triumphs.
Now, why the album is called "Nessun Dorma" is beyond me. TURANDOT is the most un-verismo of all Puccini operas. Perhaphs the arias from the uber-verismo IL TABARRO would be better here. Oh well. "Nessun Dorma" is probably a way to get more people to buy this.
Alagna's renderings of "Nessun Dorma," the two arias each from ANDREA CHENIER & ADRIANA LECOUVREUER, and the selections from GIOCONDA and CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA won't exactly erase memories of Corelli or Domingo, but Alagna does better here than past lyric tenors who bullied their voices into these arias (Carreras, Di Stefano, Shicoff, etc).
Where he does succeed amazingly are the rare, obscure selections. His renderings of the two Leoncavallo BOHEME arias are terrific! The same must be said for his versions of the arias from ZAZA and the ultra-obscure Leoncavallo opera CHATTERTON. These arias alone could make a case for a revival of Leoncavallo rarities!
Alagna sings with such passion and conviction here that one can't help but be amazed by what they are hearing.
Verismo is a natural progression for Alagna as his voice gets darker with age. While I'm not suggesting that he abandon the Massenet Des Grieux for the Puccini Des Grieux, I do think that he could be an excellent verismo singer in years to come.
The only flaw is that there weren't even more obscure verismo works here! While Leoncavallo is well represented, I would've loved to have heard more from the likes of Zandonai, Cilea, Ponchielli & Wolf-Ferrari. Or what about works from such forgotten composers as Mascagni & Franchetti? I certainly would've preferred that to hearing NESSUN DORMA twice.
All in all, this CD is a find because it showcases the talents of one of the best singers out there today and a forgotten opera craze of yesteryear.

This album, as mentioned by Mr. Levine,is very, very good. Algana is NOT Pavarotti, Carreras, or Domingo thank God!! He is exactly what he's been from the first, the first Alagna. As to his range and basic vocal power he's more like Bjoring in that he's a true lyric tenor with a dark coloration to his tone. There is more than enough ring in his top notes to pull this repertoire off in the often stunning manner he achieves. This singing is on a par with the best post WW II singing in this repertoire. We are speaking of Tucker, Peerce, Bjoring, Konya, Corelli, DiStefano and the YOUNG Domingo which is good company to be part of.

The arias from Adriana Lecouveur, Zaza, and Boheme are stunningly done with great tonal beauty and more than sufficient power and ring in the top notes. The same could be said of the Andrea Chenier arias which leaves one wondering, hopefully, if a full performance of the opera is in the future. While Algana's voice is not large neither was Gigli's and he was an outstanding advocate of the role. The metallic 'ping' in the Algana voice would, hopefully, carry the day. The arias from Turandot and Gioconda are, as pointed out by Mr. Levine, stunning as is the aria from Sly an opera that deserves to be heard more often and recorded. If recorded, however, I hope Domingo and the other lyric baritone, Mr. Carreras are out of the equation.

A sad observation on the power and control Domingo still has in the recording industry is that HE, a total HAS BEEN who is forced to transpose his operatic roles into the baritone range to perform, recorded Enzo in La Gioconda in the new recording, not Alagna. INFAMIA!!!!

In closing mention should be made of the exceptional quality of the recordings made by Mr. Alagna. His CD's are always very well planned and developed. Examples include the French Arias album, the Berlioz album and, of course the Bel Canto album. One hopes he keeps up the good work.

First off I think that it is really awesome that Roberto Alagna is recording rare works. On the flip side of that coin I dont really see how his voice can last through much more.

It is very clear that Alana should not really touch Verismo. I don't say this to be cynical or dismissive, he just goes very sharp and shows alot of force. The voice is very comfortable in French lyric Rep. When building a carrer, I think, a singer must find what his voice natually tends to and build around that. Certainly you can test and push boundaries, but If you make it your whole life pushing boundaries, than the voice breaks down. A similar fate befell Carreras, Di Stefano and many other singers. When I say that he should not touch verismo, I don not say that he brings nothing to the table, but that his voice does not have squillo and he goes very sharp when he hits high notes under stress, a sign of forcing. There is no squillo in his tone or dramatic declamation, and he has picked up the odd habit of scooping to seeminly every higher note.

The real positive is the interpretative ability, it is clear that Alagna is really thinking about each note, expecially in his excellent stuff from Cavalleria. I really enjoyed the Aria from sly, and listen to it more than most of the other tracks combined. Overall this is a good buy for some arias that you probably havent heard before.

I am not suggesting that roberto Alagna will ruin his voice. I am suggested that he is slowly beating the bloom out of his high notes, and taking the flexibilty and bright color by doing many artificial things in heavier rep.

So although I enjoyed this disc, and would recommend its purchace, I don't think it is the idiomatic verismo voice that one might expect in a verismo recital disc.

It was a big shock to hear Yu Qiang Dai's debut cd. He is, I think, the best lirico-spinto tenor nowadays. He has a lovely voice, which is very well produced. The center is wonderful, the lower notes are good, the high notes are shining and of fantastic quality... the singing through the passage is very well handled. He is an itelligent musical interpreter and singer, with an interesting and appealing line and sense of style. Very good dynamic changes. He offers some of the absolutely best renditions of some arias (nessun dorma and cielo e mar, for example) that I have heard in many years.

He still has to work his Italian (specially the consonants) and his French. But there were great historical tenors with bigger idiomatical problems.

Despite taking spinto repertoire, Yu never pushes, never tries to make the voice sound darker than it is, everything is always under control, and he takes the chance to give very stylish renditions (for example, of una furtiva lagrima), which is strange for tenors who "want to sing spinto".

The tenor is a fantastic discovery, one of the best ones around. Actually, all my criticism goes to EMI and the production of the CD: no choirs, no solists (for example, for the aria of Cavalleria, where the mother should sing her line), and the acoustic "atmosphere" has made some people to doubt if Yu's voice is really as big as it seems (people who saw his Cavaradossi at Covent Garden say that it is very big, actually).

Not a the best production job by the people of EMI, but five stars (ten if possible) for the singer. Simply wonderful.

For Heaven's sake, it is ludicrous to compare Alagna -- who has talent but is NOT one of the "greats" -- to the likes of Jussi Bjorling or Domingo. The only reason other reviewers are impressed by this recording is because they haven't heard these arias sung by other, better tenors. First of all, Alagna is a lyric tenor, not a dramatic tenor, and his voice simply isn't big enough to handle the material without displaying a highly unattractrive raspiness, almost a bleating sound, on virtually every aria on the disc. How come no one noticed it (or did his fans simply choose to ignore it)? Alagna can be expressive in his singing, and I have no quibbles with the orchestra or conductor, but this vocal rasp or near-choke hardly makes this CD a listening pleasure for the discerning opera fan. Mario Del Monaco, who had the right dramatic voice for this material, recorded an album of "Verismo" arias which is available on CD and shows how these works should be sung -- with great dramatic power and vitality, not to mention ringing high notes. Alagna hits the high notes, but they are hardly "ringing." This CD demonstrates all too aptly why Alagna has never really caught on with serious and discriminating, knowledgeable opera fans who are familiar with many different tenors of the classic period. Alagna is one of the most over-hyped singers of his generation.