11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
middle of the road performance, November 5, 2001
This review is from: Les Pecheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) (Audio CD)
This is a perfect example of studio recordings with opera stars that ought to be very good, but somehow fails. There is nothing obviously 'wrong' with this recording, but it surely doesn't engage either.
The voices are generally good - Gedda's Nadir is smooth and beautiful, idiomatic in style, if sometimes a little strained under pressure - and that's not strange - Nadir's writing is very high. The romance 'je crois entendre encore' is however a wonder of precision and smoothness, technically perfect indeed, but it's rather hard to imagine that he sings a romance when there's no trace of feelings there. Janine Micheau on the other side is as always rather dry in tone, but perfectly french in style, and her vibrato is not as wide as it sometimes could be - and her performance is, I think, the most 'felt' of the three main roles. Ernest Blanc as Zurga is also rather unengaged, although with a firm and effective voice. The conducting is also rather uninspired, and perhaps that's the main problem, cause an uninspired conductor can damage a whole performance.
There are at least three better recordings according to my taste, and one of them stand clearly ahead of the other: the live recording from 1959 with Vanzo/Micheau/Baquier and Rosenthal as conductor, available here on Amazon.com. A typically french performance with all the positive effects of a live recording captured in good sound and hardly none of the negative ones, combined with wonderful singers in their prime. Vanzo, as Nadir, is alone worth the purchase (it's also budget priced!). Thereafter I think the two mono recordings from Philips (Simoneau/Alarie/Bianco/Fournet) and EMI (Legay/Angelici/Dens/Cluytens) are good. There are studio recording with more modern sound, but they all let you down in one way or the other - you might as well go for this one in comparission to them.
Compared to other more modern stereo versions, this one has the great advantage of giving us highlights from the very rare Bizet opera 'Ivan IV' with an other conductor and different cast. For the real Bizet fans this alone might be worth the purchase, but if you just want a good version of this lovely opera, go for one of the three I've mentioned above.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Opera to love, April 18, 2000
This review is from: Les Pecheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) (Audio CD)
Bizet wrote some of the most beautiful melodies in classical music, and this opera abounds with some of his best. Filled with breathtaking arias, the exotic setting of Ceylon and glorious poetry, The Pearl Fishers is more lush and visceral than Carmen. James Michener's The Drifters was my introduction to this opera; in the Winona Ryder version of Little Women, Gabriel Byrne as Professor Baehr takes Jo to a production of Les Pecheurs de Perles. This is a wonderful recording of a very accessible piece of music.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Carthartic and Moving, November 12, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Les Pecheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) (Audio CD)
Micheou is wonderful. One of Bizet's best operas is well treated in this recording. The music itself is marvelous; slightly more exotic than most classical music. Definately worth buying.
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