Customer Reviews

Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia / Prey · Berganza · Alva · Dara · Montarsolo · LSO · Abaddo

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

 

 

As you can read in other reviews, Berganza's performance is really amazing (Listen carefully to track 7 of CD 1). The overture is very light, if you compare it with other recordings just of the overture, including Abbado's recording with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; but anyway is just beautifull. The end of the work is great too. If you like opera, you must get this recording.

This was the first recording to use Alberto Zedda' s revision of the score, a revision that rightly brings Rosina back to the mezzo fach. Teresa Berganza was at the height of her powers when this set was recorded. Her voice is so incredibly beautiful, that really no other mezzo even comes close: not Horne, not Bartoli, not von Stade. Hermann Prey is an elegant Figaro, missing only the sheer fun that a Gobbi or a Panerai brought to the role. This is an excellent all around Barbiere, but Berganza makes it historical, simply not to be missed.

If you want still more fun with this wonderful recording, try the video featuring the same cast. Hermann Prey is delighful, so is Berganza and Alva. Try the tape to see shy and frightened young Abbado! I cannot understand why certain critics insist that Prey's Figaro is not funny enough. Watch the tape and see for yourself! For me it is one of the best opera videos ever made.

Claudio Abbado's 1971 Rossini BARBER OF SEVILLE has never been out of the catalogs since it came on the market in LP format over 30 years ago, and for good reason: it's excellent. Abbado has the London Symphony playing at the very top of their form, and if he has been criticized as faceless and not having enough of Rossini's humor in his conducting of BARBER, it is a very fine performance just the same. Abbado has among the best soloists for their perspective roles: Teresa Berganza (Rosina), Luigi Alva (Almaviva), Paolo Montarsalo (Basilio) and Enzo Dara (Dr. Bartolo), with Hermann Prey (Figaro), sometimes considered too straight for the role and not "Italian" enough by some critics, but to me he sounds excellent. Berganza may be the best Rosina of the past 40 years, and really makes me wonder what all the fuss about Cecilia Bartoli, good as she is in Rossini, is about. Berganza has a maturity and richness to her voice in 1971 (she was about 35 then) which more recent Rosinas cannot match.

Some of Abbado's tempos may be slightly broader in this BARBER than in his DG video (DVD or VHS) with the same singers and the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus. But no matter: this is an excellent recording, and Abbado does not cut some arias in places as Callas/Alva/Galliera, EMI or Berganza/Corbelli/Varvizo, Decca do.

Be forewarned: Abbado re-recorded BARBER in 1992, also for DG, with Placido Domingo as Figaro and Kathleen Battle as Rosina. The orchestra is the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and is an attempt at authenticity. But it is not in the league of the Abbado/LSO reviewed here: it is patently inferior,quite frankly; despite some good solo work, the entire production does not hang together well.

So, I recommend this, as it is superior to Abbado's 1992 BARBER recording (DG).

The first time I listened Il Barbiere performed by Abaddo et al. it was in a double-cassette released by Deutsche Gramophon. I have been looking for this version on CD during several years because is one of the best performed Rossini's opera buffa. The color of the orchestra, tempi, and chorus are incredible. Special mention for Hermann Prey's performance, an excellent bariton. I recommend this classical for all opera fans.

A wonderful mixing of orchestra, exuberant performances and chorus makes this Barber of Seville one of the most enjoyable recordings of the opera that I know. My children (ages 3 and 6) dance around the living room whenever this is on the stereo.

Excellent recording for a newcomer! If you can only have one Barber I'd reccomend this one unless you're a history (opera) buff, in which case you probably can't just have one anyways! Alva and Berganza do a fantastic job (Bartoli who?) and Prey lives up to his reputation as the best Figaro ever recorded.

By Rossini - the 1989 Bologna recording led by Giuseppe Patane and the 1971 London recording led by Claudio Abbado -- recently and I want to recommend both of them to potential listeners, with some comments about their relative strengths. Each one is outstanding.

Patane recording - What jumps out at me is the joy of the artists' musicmaking. The orchestra clearly has this music in its blood and they play with precision and panache, underlining what a talented orchestrator Rossini was. Another plus is a young Cecilia Bartoli as Rosina, a role which first brought her to prominence in the year before this recording. I've always admired her singing and she is exuberant and completely in control here at the young age of 23. I also found Paata Burchuladze in the comic role of Basilio to be excellent, both vocally agile and precise and able to convey the broad humor of Basilio's lecherous money-grubbing. As an example, take the rage-filled, stuttering, first act aria "A un dottore della mia sorte," which is funny. The recording is audiophile level and represents one of those really excellent recordings from the first decade of digital sound. I have highlighted certain contributions but the remainder of the singers are very good. A sparkling performance.

The Abbado recording - An excellent version with slightly different strengths. Hermann Prey is simply great as Figaro. His rendition of "Largo al factotum", the first act introductory number which is probably the single most famous aria Rossini wrote, is outstanding, is sung with zest. Prey has such a big voice that he carries the number with ease. He later collaborates with the Rosina in this set, Teresa Berganza, in a virtuosic "Dunque io son," which is memorable. I found Abbado's conducting of the two orchestral numbers, the famous Overture and the 2nd act Thunderstorm, to be outstanding - forward drive is combined with control and accuracy. Recorded sound is very good. All singing and playing is at a high level. All in all, a great recording and one to treasure.

Listening to this opera took me away from the German 19th-century music that I have been listening to recently. While I love the music of such angst-filled composers as Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, I sometimes wonder where the sense of fun so evident in the music of their immediate predecessors went. That spirit of levity lies at the heart of this music by the young Rossini, and it is a refreshing break. (This comment applies also to contemporary pop music - how many songs cover sad topics? Most of them.) This isn't to criticize music preoccupied with sad or serious matters. But listening to Rossini made me realize how a dimension of musical high-spiritedness had been lost with the ascent of Beethoven and the rise of the Romantic period, a preeminence which has continued to live on in today's music.

Anyway, enough commentary. Two wonderful recordings which I strongly recommend. They'll put a smile on your face.

Rossini's "Barber" was the first complete opera that I ever heard, and still remains one of my favorites. The humor of the libretto, the sheer beauty of the music, the memories of Bugs Bunny and his "Figaro Fertilizer," this opera has it all.

This rather simple opera bouffa is in fact so perfect in every way, not even the unofficial sequel, Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," can match the sheer brilliance of this. (To be fair, Mozart's opera and its follow ups "Don Giovanni' and "Così fan tutte" are still the most perfectly crafted operas of all time). Unlike most of Rossini's other operas, this one had remained unequaled in its popularity, so much so that even Beethoven said that this work will never be forgotten and hailed as Rossini's piece de resistance no matter what else he writes. I am sure Beethoven would have still held by this even if he heard "Guillaume Tell."

This particular recording, often hailed as the best sound recording of the work, has much to offer.

First up is Teresa Berganza's unsurpassable Rosina. Although one would not expect a mezzo to take a youthful roles ("Witches, Britches, and B....s" after all) everything that emits from her mouth comes out perfectly and beautifully. She truly sounds like a sixteen-year-old blossoming into a young beauty. The only other Rosina I am really familiar with at this point, Kathleen Battle, cannot come close to reaching this perfection. Although I have not heard any else by Berganza at this point, she is on her way to being my second favorite mezzo at this point (behind Christa Ludwig, but that is another matter entirely!).

Next comes Hermann Prey's Figaro. Although I think he does a better job as Mozart's Figaro, he is terrific here as well. His voice may not be as liquid or beautiful as Giuseppe Taddei's, in fact the end of his "Largo al factotum" is rather unexciting (he does not hold the "de laaaaaa ciiiiii taaaaaaaaaaa!"), but unlike his contemporary, he does not bark or sound decidedly German, and actually has a fantastic voice in his own right. His acting is also fantastic! He may not be "funny" to some people (note, I have not seen his video performance), but I feel he is funny, even if he is a bit elegant in his portrayal compared to others.

Luigi Alva is wonderful as well. His voice has definitely aged since 1959 (his Ottavio for Giulini), but he still has it all there. He has the right voice for the role that Rossini specified: a high lyric tenor who can sing coloratura passages with ease. His appearances as Alfonso and the drunken soldier are hilarious, even if he is not as caricatured as Frank Lopardo.

Enzo Dara's Bartolo is exquisite as well. He is wonderfully foolish and you can just feel that rage and humiliation building up in him as the opera progresses.

Paolo Montarsolo is enjoyable as Bartolo, even if he does not reach the vocal and comic heights of the great Ruggero Raimondi, and Stefania Malagú handles her Act II aria with great dexterity.

Musically, Abbado is fantastic. He is focused 100% and enhances the humor and drama (used VERY lightly) of the opera. His 1992 account has better music all around and is more upbeat and elegant, but this reading is all comedy and practically funny in its own way.

One thing I do not like about this recording, however, are the removal of Fiorello's recitative in Act I, and the deletion of Bartolo's terrified response to the discovery of the identity of the Count and the Count's seven and a half minute solo in Act II. The prior is not extremely necessary, but the latter is utterly fantastic and only removed mostly because of the difficulty of having a large solo RIGHT before the finale. Thankfully there is a wonderful account of this in Abbado's 1992 recording.

Overall, this recording is technically perfect. An enjoyable cast, a conductor who knows what to do, and although not previously mentioned, a sound quality to rival even digital recordings. Kudos to every DG engineer who worked on this, and all other "Original Series" releases in general. Any one who enjoys opera MUST have this recording, and no matter what kind of opera you enjoy (I personally am a dogmatic Wagnerian) or just someone who want to have a happy two hours of pure musical joy.

Teresa Berganza sounds amazing here, as do the orchestra and chorus. However, Prey and Alva as Figaro and the Count were a disappointment as they labored through the difficult coloratura passages that make this opera so much fun. I have heard that the "standards" back then were not as high as now, but then that wouldn't explain why Berganza is so terrific. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering the recording's age.