17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sills radient despite the recording quality, March 9, 2005
This review is from: Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq D'Or (Audio CD)
I saw the production in question the year it opened at the NYC opera, and the recording is a faithful reproduction of Sills' and Tregle's marvellous performances. Even her laughter immediately tells you how she thinks the king is stupid, while making the king think she is girlish. The performance earns the highest rating.
When hearing Tregle's performance as King Dodon one can understand why it was banned. He makes the king appear ineffective, overbearing, and not very bright. The brilliant libretto which parodies Czar Nicholas II is very effective in Tregle's voice.
However, the quality of transfer is not very good. The original was the audio simulcast which was probably recorded on a home stereo tape recorder. Then it was subsequently made into a vinyl recording. The vinyl ticks an pops were still evident in the result. The last track on the first CD had some very large pops and a number of crackles. In addition there were some obvious tape dropouts. The ticks and pops are all removable by good quality software. Most of the dropouts are also easily spliced out as they are of very short duration, and the change is not audible. However there are several places where the volume suddenly jumps, possibly because of a skip in the recording process. This typically happens when using a computer for the recording, but it could be due to bad editing before the record was made. There is also the possibility that this is where the record breaks were located and GALA did not properly match the volume changes across the break. Finally there is a fairly large phase shift between the left and right channels which moves the orchestra to one side of the sound stage, despite having equal volume on both channels. When this is removed the orchestra and soloists are much more natural sounding and spread out better.
I have a copy of the Sept 11, 1967 recording which although in mono was easily cleaned with nearly inaudible transitions between the record breaks. This earlier performance is nearly identical to the GALA recording, but with Nicol Castel as the Magician. The earlier performance may still be available from some vinyl dealers.
So while I give the performance the highest marks, the transfer rates the lowest marks. The average would be three stars. However, the computer literate opera fan can use my hints to improve the recording, to bring it up to five. Even with the flaws it is a bargain and still the best stereo recording of Le Coq D'Or. Now I wish that the original telecast complete with the simulcast stereo track could be professionally released on DVD. Sills also acted with her body, and the combination of vocal plus visual would be a great pleasure to experience again.
Since writing this review a B&W DVD of this performance has materialized. The DVD has bad herringbone interference, which can be partially removed by good software. When comparing the video with the audio recording it is evident that a few bars of music are missing, probably at record breaks. Apparently the original broadcast was marred by a color shift to green. But with professional software it might be possible to bring back the color, assuming master tapes exist. The simulcast could then be put back together with both video and stereo sound. It is possible that the herringbone pattern might be an improperly decoded color signal. Is there a company such as VAI interested in producing this as a tribute to Bubbles?
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Rare Treasure Opera- Beautiful Beverly Sills !!!!, September 21, 2004
This review is from: Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq D'Or (Audio CD)
This is a must have for collectors of rare opera and for fans of the American soprano Beverly Sills. The Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov is best known for his "Flight Of The Bumble Bee"- which in itself is part of one of his operas about a tsar turning into a bee. Korsakov had a knack for the exotic (he composed music for the Arabian Nights story of Scheherezade) and his music, which is essentially Russian- Western in a Romantic sense, is perfect for the world of fantasy. This opera "Le Coq D'Or" French for "The Golden Cockerel" may have been written in French by Korsakov (who spoke various languages)and most undoubtedly it was also in his native Russian. The plot is taken from a Russian fairy tale about a strange, Oriental kingdom and the search for the enigmatic golden bird "The Golden Cockerel" that has the gift of prophecy. Korsakov was not the only Russian to write an opera based on a fairy tale. Sergei Prokofiev based his opera "The Love Of Three Oranges" on another Russian legend.
This recording (I don't quite recall since it's been a while that I've heard it) is in English, translated directly from the French libretto. The dynamic duo that was Beverly Sills and bass Norman Treigle feauture their brilliant operatic and acting talents to this recording. Norman Treigle had a keen sense of theatre and he shared much success with Beverly Sills at the New York City Opera. His bass voice was earthy, sonorous and quite lovely note-for-note, allowing us to hear every line of the text. Back then, there were no supertitles superimposed on a screen. It was more important for singers to really enunciate and speak clearly, even act as if in a play, to get the message of the opera across. Beverly Sills sings the role of Queen Shemakah, a fiendishly difficult coloratura part. Lately, this opera is hardly performed at all which is sad because it's a gorgeous story along the lines of Mozart's Magic Flute. Perhaps in some European locations they still produce this opera, perhaps a recording appears now and then and there is a DVD production of it in circulation. Beverly Sills was the first soprano to make the role of the Queen Shemaka her own. No one at the time was singing the role. The Hymn To The Sun is a high coloratura aria in which the Queen honors the sun. It is hauntingly beautiful. This recording is worth buying if only because of Beverly Sills and Norman Treigle, two marvelous singers in the opera scene of the 60's and 70's. For fans of Sills, this recording is a must have. Also, hardcore fans will be pleased to know that this same opera was videotaped and filmed in the early 70's and there exists a film production out there somewhere in the underground market.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Still waiting for a Kirov Opera recording of Golden Cockerel, January 28, 2006
This review is from: Rimsky-Korsakov: Le Coq D'Or (Audio CD)
A previous reviewer is right about the "Mozart and Salieri" bonus being the best part of this set. The 1951 Soviet recording is amazingly superior in sound quality to the 1971 NYCO Cockerel. I'd love to hear Reizen's Dodon and Kozlovsky's Astrologer. Before a famous Italian tenor (Corelli?) visited Russia, Russian tenors had their own distinct style, a little reedier and lighter, in comparison to most Italian and other western tenors. Kozlovsky was among the best of the Russian tenor school, if not the best. (Fortunately, the old style is coming back into vogue among the new generation of Russian tenors.) I only broke down and bought the NYCO recording, because the Kirov has yet to record "The Golden Cockerel" in its series of Russian operas for Philips. The NYCO recording sounds like a tape or a vinyl record in sound quality, and the violins sound tinny in parts, but the playing itself under Julius Rudel is fine. The English-language production fills a gap but makes me wish more for a recording by a Russian cast.
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