Customer Reviews

Nessun Dorma ~ 20 Great Tenor Arias / Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo, Bergonzi, Aragall, Björling, Di Stefano, Kollo, Corelli, Del Monaco...

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't remember how I found this CD the other day surfing through the "Amazon" such as it is, but I did. I listened to a few clips provided & on the strength of that, I purchased this CD.

First it is a great buy. A booklet with pictures of each tenor, a small bio, the year recorded and TRANSLATIONS of each aria are provided. This is really nice. It seems more & more that translations are being left out. Being a former opera singer, I may know most of the words, but sometimes it's just nice to read along (sometimes it's just nice to listen too).

Being on the Decca label, there is admittedly quite a few Pavarotti selections. Out of 20 selections, he has 6 of them. But I love Pavarotti, so this is no problem for me. These are all early recordings & his voice is magnificent! Being a singer, I still marvel at his ability to sing "All'armi!" on a high C and still say the 2nd syllable "mi" on such a note! WOW. There is also of course his very sweet, impassioned and lyrical turn as Rodolfo in "La Boheme" as well as the lesser known (although I still have it on casette) "La Favorita" which has a particularly high tessitura.

Also featured are a young Plácido Domingo singing a VERY nice "Flower song/ La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" from Carmen. He usually sounds too pushed for me on the top notes (as one might expect from a Pavarotti fan, I like free top notes) but in this recording he is pretty darn fabulous. He also sings an aria from "Tales of Hoffman/Les Contes d'Hoffman" and I have always felt that he, like Neil Schicoff, was well suited to this role.

Lamentably there is only one selection each from Carreras, Correlli, Monaco, Aragall & Kollo. Special kudos to the young recording they feature for Aragall. He had a very free and nice high tenor well suited to Verdi. Of course as his career went forward with the natural darkening of his voice and the "heavier" roles, he did start to develop a wobble. But this recording is before that. His top, his phrasing are all beautifully done in his featured aria from "La Traviata."
Mario del Monaco's "E lucevan le stelle" is hauntingly beautiful and has such a wonderful pianissimo in it that it makes you just want to gasp for beauty's sake. I now know every tenor I've heard sing this aria was trying to emulate what he did.

This is a great CD because it does bring together on one CD some of the greatest singers of the 20th/21st century. Bergonzi, di Stefano, Björling, in addition to the previously mentioned artists is quite an impressive collection. I'm sure there's only one of each for Carreras, Aragall (I believe they are formerly EMI/Angel artists) and perhaps some of the others because they are "imported" from another label. There's so much Pavarotti on this CD because he IS a Decca artist.

A highly recommended CD, affordable, not the usually obscure and unpolished artists that are sometimes found on compilations. Plus acutal linear notes and translations. Nicely done, Decca!!!

This Nessun Dorma 20 Great Tennor Arias would be a great CD for anyone's first Opera CD or a welcome addition to any Opera Fan's collection. How can you go wrong when you have Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo, Bergonzi, Aragall, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Kollo, Corelli and Del Monico singing such great Arias as Che Gelida Manina, Donna Non Vidi Mai, La Fleur Que Tu M'Avais Jetee, M'appari, Mi Batte Il Cuor...O Paradiso, and on and on. This is a wonderful CD. Its fantastic to sit back and listen to each great's interpretation of the aeria's. Every Area is great but my favorites are Pavarotti singing Che Gelida Manina, M'appari, Favorita Del Re...Spirto Gentil, Di Quella Pira, and he just rules on Nessun Dorma; Corelli singing E Lucevan Le Stelle (you can really hear his influence when you hear Andrea Bocelli sing); Also I am very impressed with Carlo Bergonzi sings beautifully on Mi Batte Il Cuor...O Paradiso, I can just go on and on Carreras, Domingo, Aragall, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Kollo, and Del Monico all wonderful.

I can only recommend this CD. Especially if you are not so keen on listening to operas in their full length. Instead here some of the best arias with some of the best tenors have been carefully selected. If you eg. have been listening to The Three Tenors this CD will take you a step further and introduce tenors as eg. Bergonzi, Di Stefano and Björling. In the enclosed booklet there is a fine description of the tenors and their career. A subject for a heated debate will of course always be - who is the best tenor of them all ? On the cover it is stated that Pavarotti is the greatest of them all - allthough inside the booklet it is also mentioned that such a title could as well be claimed by Domingo or Björling. I think this shows that such a rating is very difficult to make and depends on the criteria used in the comparison. My own favorite is Pavarotti in his younger years (listen to Che gelida manina - it is absolutely heartbreaking)but in general I think all the tracks on the CD are great and the CD deserves 5 stars.

Franco Corelli's "Nessun Dorma" is still the best of them all - clear, passionate, and exciting. (And those final two notes...! Gives me chills just to think of it.) I was fortunate enough to see him live in both "Turandot" and "Romeo and Juliet" a year before his retirement, and he was still a Calaf and a Romeo to die for... as, of course, Liu and Juliet did! As it is, I tend to buy compilations depending on how much Corelli they include - though Bjorling is a strong second, and I have happy memories of Domingo. Long live the Golden Age of Operatic Tenors!

This CD, which is truly fine overall, reminds me of Marilyn Horne's lament that we have probably seen the end of the big voice and it makes me sad. I agree with the reviewer who refers to "microphonies". And more justice could be done to Bjorling's voice with a better transfer. But at some point, music becomes a matter of taste and I prefers singers who have the instrument and the support and the training, whether formal or not, to just let fly and take a chance on making a mistake. Domingo can be wonderful and so can his musicianship but he tends to be so stiff. I have to wonder at the virulence and asperity with which some people go after Pavarotti. It's true that late in his career he made some questionable recordings but the answer to that is simple: don't buy them. At his best, he belongs for all time in the top echelon of tenors. I love this CD and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys great (big) voices.

If you think that Bocelli and Alagna are real tenors, then listen to this tenor compilation issued by DECCA. Here we find the greatest of ALL singers;Jussi Björling together with the most famous of all singers; Luciano Pavarotti and more great latin tenors of the past. The sound is quite allright apart from the Gioconda aria in which Björling sounds unfamiliar and dry - a bad transfer truly. Pavarotti gives his best in the recordings from the 60`s, before his voice tended to sound contracted and his notes a bit tight. His Che gelida manina from 1972 is only surpassed by those of Björling, and his Spirto gentil is really fine. Giuseppe di Stefano had a short vocal peak, and in 1958 his voice had already broken up by wear and tear, and he forces all over the place. Domingo and Bergonzi did not have the free vocal production of Björling, Pavarotti and Caruso, but they were fine musicians and much more convincing than Pavarotti in the dramatic repertoire. The highlight of this compilation is Amor ti vieta, in which Björling -age 46- sweaps everyone off the floor with this masterly controlled and passionate rendering of Giordano`s aria. Still unmatched. Only a better transfer can better that one...

Highly recommend this CD with these beloved arias of the greatest tenors in opera. I have owned this CD for a couple of years and purchased another for a friend who always requests that I play it ... perfect for listening in the car, dinner, bridge games, relaxation ... just so perfect. You won't be disappointed in this one.

A great disc,combination of the greatest tenors of the 20th century and some of the most beautiful music ever written in any century,a must addition to any opera lovers collection.

A wonderful cross-section! Some of the best tenors from the last 50 years, really singing some of the most beautiful arias.
THESE people have all been on stage without a microphone, and still made an impact on the ears and the soul. Of course, the best are not all here, but at least there are NO micro-phoney's such as Michael Boulton or Andrea Bocelli.
An excellent sampler, to teach the standards of greatness to those who are ready to learn more about the real thing. Or to keep close by the CD player, for an hour of what will become old friends.

I recently purchased this product actually based on one of the review from a customer. When I got it home I was extremely dissapointed and returned it. If you are looking for something that is similar to the three tenors or tenors on tour do not buy this one. The previous review raved about the Nuseen Dorma performed by Pavaroti. That was the biggest disapointment of all. It only contained his part and left off the finale which is so emotional and wonderful. Try tenors on tour where the nuseen dorma is performed by Placido Domingo, that is a performance i could not find enough words to express how wonderful it is.