Customer Reviews

Puccini: Turandot

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a truly first class performance of Turandot. Birgit Nilsson is terrific in the title role, but the real standout is Franco Corelli. His "Nessun Dorma" will take your breath away. Once you hear Corelli sing this aria, no one else will do. This is the way this role really should be sung. I thought the EMI recording of Turandot with Corelli and Nilsson was good, but this recording makes that one pale in comparison. What excitement, which, I feel, is enhanced from the fact that this an actual live performance! The little duet with Turandot and Calaf at the end of Turandot's aria "In Questa Reggia", culminating in a unison High C between the two leads, is nothing less than a phenomenon. As far as Mdme Birgit Nilsson is concerned, what more can I say that others haven't? The role of Turandot belonged to her! "In Questa Reggia" is sung brilliantly, but Nilsson also brings to the rest of the role a regalness and sensitivety that none others have been able to realize. The soprano who sings Liu will literally melt your heart away. The quality of this performance is so fantastic, so Italian, so utterly Puccini one will not notice the slight fluctuation of pitch that occurs at the end of Act 2. Gavazzeni's conducting is excellent, always keeping the performance moving, yet realizing the tender moments like Liu's very touching "Signore Ascolta" masterfully. There are 4 very fine studio recordings of this work with Bjoerling/Nilsson, Corelli/Nilsson, Sutherland/Pavarotti, and Del Monaco/Bork, but this one surpasses them all. All I can say is buy this recording! The performance is unsurpassed and the price is irresistable. Another Five Star production from OPD recordings!

Of course, the RCA complete recording of TURANDOT, with Bjorling and Tebaldi is the ultimate studio version. But this VERY modest priced 2CD set, recorded at La Scala live, is a must have! Corelli is superb in this role, many think he is unsurpassed. Nilsson has much more dramatic icy force, completely in character, from the '59 studio recording. The Liu is an incredible surprise, as I had never heard of her, as she shines! In act two, both Nilsson and Corelli give SO much, that when they hit their high Cs, it sends shivers down your spine, to hear such spectacular singing! I dare you to listen to it just once, IMPOSSIBLE! This performance is a joy from start to finish and should be in EVERY collection, because of the performance, AND the price.

Despite their backstage squabbles, throughout the 60s Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli were box office dynamite as the ice princess and the unknown prince who melts her heart. The sound is quite good for a live recording. Both artists are at their peak - Corelli does not exhibit too much of the underattack which would later be his undoing. Nilsson is freer and more brilliant than in either of her two studio recordings. An added plus is the Liu` of Galina Vishnevskaya in her La Scala debut season sounding youthful and poignant (get a load of the crowd's reaction after "Signore ascolta"). Gianandrea Gavazzeni brings out all the nuances of this fascinating score. The balance of the cast is made up of La Scala stalwarts of that era (Zaccaria, Ercolani). The one drawback for me is the chorus which sounds a bit shrill - particularly the upper voices. Whether this is a result of the recording process or not, it still is not enough to detract from a truly exciting performance.

This Turandot is the best there is, and that includes the studio recordings. Nilsson and Corelli dominants completely, I frankly find Liu's voice a bit shaky, but not bad. Corelli's sound is totally the greatest tenor of the century, bar none. And of course, who can touch Nilsson as the ice princess. But I would have to nominate Sutherland/Pavorotti/Horne's decca recording for sheer glorious singing by Sutherland and Caballe as Liu. But it's still second best to this live recording!

It's an excellant Turandot, one of the best, and undoubtedly, it would have been a dream to be in La Scala then. Nilsson is as always a fabulous Turandot, yet to me she just doesn't have Sutherland's ...beauty? in the last act. As an ice princess she is perfect, as one melted by love, less so. Corelli is WONDeRful, he beats Pavarotti, the other definitive Calaf hands down. Liu is portrayed very well, much better than Caballe does on the Decca set (Caballe sounds far too mature to be convincing as a love struck slave girl), and the rest of the cast is generally stellar.

The only drawback, and a big one, is the sound. It's a live recording, so one cannot expect studio quality, yet this set is worst than some, even older live recordings. The one big flaw is the slip in the pitch, yet also, there is a fair amount of static, almost regularly bursts of static, which is very distracting. Occasionally, the balancing slips up, and one is treated to almost inaudible singing. However, such faults will be more apparent to modern listeners used to stereo digital sound, and that said, this makes a wonderful Turandot, rivalling the Decca in raw emotion, passion and outright excitement, yet let down, slightly or a lot, depending on what one looks out for, by the poor recording.

It is exciting indeed to hear Nilsson and Corelli duel it out, each trying to hold on to high notes longer than the other. I think Corelli is the winner on that strength. Besides that, the two principles are without equals in their perspective fields. The great Wagnerian soprano and the great spinto tenor. I am not thrilled by the Liu of Vishnevskaya, her voice a shaky one. The Liu of Renata Tebaldi have always been my favorite, the conbination of tone quality and pathos. But you have to listen to the splendid singing by Corelli and Nilsson. This is, with all due respect to Sutherland/Pavorotti's Turandot, the finest on the market.

Despite all the noise and sound distortions, this is one of the most excitng recordings I own! Birgit Nilsson is a great, phenomenal Turandot, and she is partnered with a defiant Calaf by Corelli. They made an impressive tour-de-force all over the performance! pavarotti and sutherland are OK, a more balanced performance perhaps,but not even nearly as exciting as this one!

I was in attendance when Corelli and Nilsson sang this opera at the Met in 1962, with Moffo and Stokowski--A genuine "Wow," especially when Nilsson stomped on Corelli's foot because he was holding the final high note longer than she could. This performance is not quite up to that level, but it is very close. It's true the pitch goes up a hair, but who cares when there is singing like this--no "political correctness" here. You'll love it--in fact, buy any Corelli performance.

Despite all the noise and sound distortions, this is one of the most excitng recordings I owe! Birgit Nilsson is a great, phenomenal Turandot, and she is partnered with a defiant Calaf by Corelli. They made an impressive tour-de-force all over the performance! pavarotti and sutherland are OK, a more balanced performance perhaps,but not even nearly as exciting as this one!

I ordered this bargain set on the strength of the Santa Fe listener's recommendation and having just been listening to it, I can confirm that it is indeed wonderful, despite the shatter and buzz inherent in a 1964 live recording. But about this supposed half-pitch slip upwards that Robert Levine remarks upon: I've checked with a pitch pipe and it's marginal - certainly nothing like a semitone, as the top B's and C's in "In questa reggia" at the end of Act 2 and in "Nessun dorma" at the beginning of Act 3 sound more or less true to me. Apart from the glories of Corelli and Nilsson's totally unbuttoned singing, there is much pleasure to be had in Vishnevskaya's Liù - quite the best thing I have heard her sing, as her piping, slightly piercing tone is perfect for the childlike Liù and her crescendo on the B flat at the end of "Signore, ascolta" is quite one of the most beautiful sounds I have heard come out of the human throat - as the audience's reaction confirms. The other great benefit is the ebb and flow of Gavazzeni's direction; he is so sensitive to the phrasing that good Puccini conducting requires. Corelli grasps the baton Vishnevskaya has passed to him with singing of uncommon delicacy and tenderness for "Non piangere, Liù". Zaccaria contributes a wise, touching, gravelly-voiced Timur to complete a superb quartet of lead singers. The audience intrusions serve only to confirm the excitement of a live event. This cannot be your only "Turandot" if considerations of sound matter to you. In that case, go to the Mehta set; but if you want this particular peerless pairing in better sound there is also the cheap EMI conducted by Molinari-Pradelli. But if you are prepared to trade off studio sound for the most visceral and convincing "Turandot" I know, this Opera d'Oro issue is unbeatable.

PS: Now, having raved about this one, I learn that apparently the live 1961 Met performance under Stokowski with the same two principals - hard to find - is even better...so I've ordered it...