Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia / Nucci, Bartoli, Matteuzzi, Fissore, Bruchuladze, Patanč

Gioachino Rossini (Composer), Giuseppe Patane (Conductor), Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Orchestra), Leo Nucci (Performer), Cecilia Bartoli (Performer), William Matteuzzi (Performer), Enrico Fissore (Performer), Paata Burchuladze (Performer), Gloria Banditelli (Performer), Michele Pertusi (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leo Nucci, Cecilia Bartoli, William Matteuzzi, Enrico Fissore, Paata Burchuladze, et al.
• Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
• Conductor: Giuseppe Patane
• Composer: Gioachino Rossini
• Audio CD (September 26, 1989)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B0000041W2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,653 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Bartoli, Cecilia
  • #24 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > A to B > Bartoli, Cecilia > All Works Featuring Bartoli

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 14-SEP-2004

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last-a coloratura mezzo!, August 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia / Nucci, Bartoli, Matteuzzi, Fissore, Bruchuladze, Patanč (Audio CD)

Let me confess, first of all, that I have never been convinced that Cecilia Bartoli deserves quite all the adulation she receives. Second, I have always had difficulty completely enjoying "The Barber of Seville" - and other Rossini operas - because of his passion for coloratura mezzos, common enough in his time but an almost extinct breed today. If a modern mezzo manages to get through the difficult coloratura passages without totally disgracing herself, she still sounds old enough to be Rosina's mother. Bartoli not only sails easily and delightfully through the hard stuff; she manages to sound like a young woman in the process. The rest of the cast is excellent, and, being almost completely Italian, puts a liitle more zing into the acting than non-italians can achieve. Hearing this has not only put it on my wishlist; it has made me reevaluate Bartoli.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bartoli as Rosina...the beginning, February 4, 2007

By 

M. T. Risner "Hokey religions and ancient wea... (Soon to be NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia / Nucci, Bartoli, Matteuzzi, Fissore, Bruchuladze, Patanč (Audio CD)

We must not be to quick to judge Ms. Bartoli's instrument based soley on this recording. She was only twenty three at the time and shows remarkable skill for someone whose voice is, in essence, only about 10 years old. Here she sounds much more like a true mezzo-soprano than she does today, her tone is dark and full--quite different from the light, ringing, bell-like sound that we attribute to her today. She sounds a trifle strained at the top of her register, near B and C, but this is not where the meat of Rosina lies. Her sound is consistant in the troubling middle range and even does a fair job with the low Gs that litter the score. Her natural charm comes through in the scenes of the opera rather than in her solo line. She plays wonderfully with Leo Nucci, the great Italian "working-man" baritone of the 80s, here heard in his prime before he started taking on the heavier Verdi repertoire. The rest of the cast is exemplary and the wonderful nuances of the Italian language are brought to the fore by native speakers. This is a wonderful recording of a truly wonderful opera. I was most pleased to add it to my collection.

5.0 out of 5 stars I have been enjoying two outstanding performances of "The Barber of Seville", May 23, 2011

By 

jt52 "jt52" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia / Nucci, Bartoli, Matteuzzi, Fissore, Bruchuladze, Patanč (Audio CD)

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.