Customer Reviews

Puccini: Turandot

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

 

 

I ordered this CD based on the cast and price. I was not disappointed by the cast. The performances by the cast are uniformly great with moving interpretations of this classic.

Unfortunately, the sound on the transfer is *terrible*. There is very noticeable distotortion of most (if not all) of the portions where the volume is moderately loud or louder. It sounds like you're listening to a cheap walkman with blown headphones.

I'd like to give this disk 2 stars, but the extreme distortion at so many points in the soundtrack really can't compensate for the excellent performances by the cast. There are many other great recordings of Corelli and Nilsson as Calaf and Turandot (particularly EMI's #69327, use the Classical Power Search feature). I recommend that you pass on this one.

I have given this recording five stars although the sound is only fair. Perhaps this is the only testimony of how Miss Nilsson really sounded. Her voice always has been difficult to record fairly. But this Turandot fullfills every wish. I know very well how Nilsson sounded in flesh, as I live near Stockholm and have heard her at the Royal Opera more that twenty times 1972 - 1981 (her last performance in Stockholm being Brünnhilde in die Walküre, 1981). And I have heard her Turandot in Gothenburg, 1973 (available on CD).
On this recording she and Di Stefano are the true heroes. Di Stefano is in better voice than I have ever heard him before. Carteri is good.
Nilsson has stated that this Turandot at La Scala 1958 is the greatest memory during her career. Hearing these CD:s I can understand why.

In much better sound you can get the pairing of Nilsson's Turandot and Di Stefano's Calaf under Molinari-Pradelli, but anyone who loves these two great singers might want to hear this Opera d'Oro despite its primitive AM-radio sound and the dull Votto as conductor. The tenor's style is more lyrical and touching than rivals Corelli, Pavarotti and Domingo (even though they are in finer voice on their commercial recordings). Di Stefano was still shy of the vocal breakdown that would abruptly curtail his career in 1965.

Nilsson sounds essentially the same as in her two commercial recordings and a couple of other pirates, and the rest of the cast is forgettable. It's only Di Stefano's touching struggle with this cruel role that made me want to listen. As he himself readily admitted, the audience loved him for coming out every night and committing vocal suicide on stage. It's not quite that brutal here, but close.

The sound quality may be really bad, but the performance and recording are very interesting. Whenever there's a solo line, I somehow hear a director speaking the character's lines out before the singer sings them, such as on the last track:the director says "Che e mai di me?" and then Birgit Nilsson sings it and then the director says "Perduta" and Birgit Nilsson sings that too. This recording is as interesting as the other opera d'oro recording of the same opera. Birgit Nilsson and Giuseppe di Stefano actually sound very good. It's just the sound quality and the director's interruptions that are disturbing.