Siege of Corinth (L'Assedio di Corinto) - Complete Opera [Import]

Gioacchino Rossini (Artist), Renata Tebaldi (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 18, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Hardy Classic
• ASIN: B00000I7JZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,627,162 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 1: Vestibolo del senato di Corinto: Coro

2. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 1: Vestibolo del senato di Corinto: Tua figlia m'e promessa (Pamira)

3. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 1: Vestibolo del senato di Corinto: Destin terribile... Oh Ciel! propizio mie preci intendi (Pamira)

4. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 1: Vestibolo del senato di Corinto: Al Mussulman corriam... La data fe rammento (Pamira)

5. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 1: Vestibolo del senato di Corinto: Sinfonia

6. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 2: Piazza di Corinto: Dal ferro del forte... Esecri Corinto il proprio furor.. Guerrieri sorgete

7. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 2: Piazza di Corinto: Duce di tanti eroi

8. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 2: Piazza di Corinto: Trionfiammo Signor!... Oh ciel, fermate (Pamira)

9. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act One: Scene 2: Piazza di Corinto: Ritrovo l'amante... Pamira mi sei resa... L'alma che geme

10. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Two: Padiglione di Maometto: Cielo! che diverro?... Dal soggiorno degli estinti (Pamira)

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Two: Padiglione di Maometto: Imen le dona...

2. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Two: Padiglione di Maometto: Divin Profeta...

3. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Two: Padiglione di Maometto: Audace shiavo...E mio fratel...Oh sol chi t'adora (Pamira)

4. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Two: Padiglione di Maometto: Corinto in suon di sdegno...Sfidiam della sorte... (Pamira)

5. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Salve, asilo della morte...

6. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Ciel che sara...Signor che tutto puoi... (Pamira)

7. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Sei tu che senti, oh Dio

8. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Celeste provvidenza... (Pamira)

9. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Gia feroce s'avanza...I secoli futuri...

10. L'Assedio di Corinto: Act Three: Le tombe di Corinto: Questo nome che suona vittoria

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An excellent testament to Tebaldi, NOT Rossini, June 14, 2007

By 

BDSinC "Music lover" (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Siege of Corinth (L'Assedio di Corinto) - Complete Opera (Audio CD)

This is a live presentation of the opera sung by Tebaldi. She is noted as condemning the rendition of the opera sung by Sills and Horne. And although what they sing adds music from the earlier Maometto II (Sills sings two extra arias from it, and two extra from another Rossini work; Horne combines the Act 3 scene of the opera with an aria from Maometto II, and a trio from Maometto II is added after Neocle's big scene in Act 3), nothing is really cut from the opera itself (excepting an alteration in the cabaletta in Act 2 for Sills -- one of her replacement arias, as it has the same melody of the additional aria for Neocle added from Maometto II for the beginning of Act 3, and a part of the duet in Act 2 for Pamira and Maometto II which was written by Donizetti). One must not get the impression that this rendition of the opera is closer to what Rossini wanted. It is NOT. The overture (Sinfonia) does not occur at the beginning, but between scenes I and II of act one, a thing expressly forbidden by the score itself. The scenes are to actually run right together (as in the Sills commercial recording with Verrett). There are many cuts in the music, and although Tebaldi does a wonderful job with the coloratura she does sing, she does NOT sing the most difficult parts of the score. They have been removed, though I really doubt because of her (though she has no real trill, the runs are clean and well done). The male counter-parts in the opera do not sing all their music, nor do they always do it well. However, by no means are they HORRIBLE like so often is the case in Maria Callas recordings of Bel Canto operas.

An understanding of Rossini's style is completely ignored, but at this time, no one really knew HOW to perform a Serious Rossini Opera. All they knew about were his comedies. There are no embellishments to speak of (and we know they were sung, no matter what many reviews of the various Sill's version say, for the singer Laure Cinti-Damoreau, who created the role of Pamira in Paris in the French version of the opera, not an Italian preparation, like this version is based on, left us a very detailed notebook of not only her embellisments -- all approved of by Rossini, and some even written for her by him -- but all those sung by the other characters; her notebook also contains the variants of other operas by many other composers that she sang during her career).

The sound quality is simply HORRIBLE. The singer who sings Maometto II actually is not even audible during the finale of the opera (where it is so important to HEAR his statements make to Pamira as she commits suicide). But, even with the world's worst sound, I really enjoyed listening to this recording.

I gave it only 3 stars, not because it is such a terrible singing job, but because the sound is so terrible most of the real interesting affects called for in the orchestra are not audible, and because of the edition of the opera sung. So many cuts were made many fine introductions and postludes were lost, and that spoiled the entire affect that was to be created by those scenes (the most glaring is the loss of all the introduction in the second scene of Act I, that Turkish chorus leading to Maometto's aria; The aria itself is also heavily cut, but in nearly all Italian versions, there is an entire middle section of the aria left out, and a very beautiful section it is; I believe the only recording of it is in a "live from Lincoln Center" performance honoring Rossini's birthday and is sung by Samuel Ramey).

Cuts of that period were NEVER done to improve the music, but simply to cut time. And in this case, we see a very butchered opera where the real intent behind the music is lost. Yet, even with all those cuts, most very poorly thought out, the opera does hold together and is exciting.

As for the singers, firstly, one must accept this is NOT the French version of the opera, the part of Neocle has been returned to a Mezzo-soprano, as was done when it was brought to Italy in Italian in the beginning (Donizetti was the one who prepared this version of the opera, and to date, the opera is always published with both the Tenor vocal parts and the Mezzo vocal parts together for Neocle; one can see exactly the differences between the two versions, and in Neither version is the part overly ridden with colorature, that is why the arias from Maometto II were added in later presentations of the opera, a very ordinary serviceable mezzo could sing it easily, but the tenor version is written very high, which would make it a strain for most tenors today). The singer who sang Neocle did a fine job. She was nothing special. There is nothing exciting about her, but there is nothing bad either. She is good at what she does, and that is about it. I felt NO development of character (and Neocle does develop as a character much more than the original Calbo does). Her voice, DOES, however, blend well with Tebaldi when they are required to sing in thirds during duets and trios.

All the men sang well, at least the music left in the score they were required to sing (again, the most difficult was often cut), but the man who sang Maometto really sounded TOO OLD to be a dashing hero (and he is, after all, the LOVE INTEREST in the opera), and the part of Cleomene was very obviously NOT a comfortable fit to the man who had to sing it. But this said, neither singer was bad. They were very enjoyable. The miking was horrible, and you could tell lines and parts of lines were lost.

All the very minor roles were well sung considering they have no real important music to sing, but every singing did a wonderful job with what they had.

Now for the discussion on Tebaldi herself, as she is the real reason this opera has been reissued. I found her voice "driven" at times too much. She reminded me of TOSCA more than Pamira. Though she did get through the coloratura, it really held no meaning. She really didn't know how to phrase it so it took on color, or a meaning, or an intent. It was well-sung vocalizes. She doesn't have the finess of Callas at all when it comes to shaping cadenzas or shaping a very decorative line. All she does is sing them fairly accurately and for the most part, well. She is not alone in this aspect, as NONE of the singers had a clue how to shape a line of coloratura and make it MEAN something. And none of them had a clue how to make it fit into the feeling of the piece. Rossini wrote those scales and trills for a reason, and they MEANT something, they pushed forth the emotions of the words. All that was lost.

In recitatives, her DRAMA was more than apparent. At times, she was a little TOO HARD for what the character is intending, stressing words to the point of sounding angry, when in context she is not angry (when Maometto refers to her father) but divided thinking of her love (whom she chose over her father and country) and her father (whom she really loves). At times she sounded like she had to "push" the voice to just get to the F at the top of the clef. Yet, we did hear some of her wonderful high pianissimo that really were meltingly beautiful.

Based on how she sang this role, I can easily see why she stopped trying to make her mark in this type of music. Though she sang it well within the context of her talent, there were many others who were far better at this type of music than she was. They knew how to breath life and drama into the plastic lines of the music. She really was not great at that at all. Even later in her career with such music as in Mephistopheles by Boito, or even in Trovatore, she never really makes any of the florid music do much. She is better in Traviata, but still, florid music is not where she shines, no matter how well she sings it.

This recording is a testament to the wonderful talent that was Tebaldi, and it was a talent that needs no apologies or excuses. She was vastly talented, very musical, deeply dramatic, and intensely emotional. She just needed to find the music that was the best fit for her abilities, and well, this opera and this style of music, was NOT that fit. Though I agree with the former reviewer who stated that she could sing coloratura with the best of them (and she could), it was not this style of music that really brought out the best in her talent. I am very glad this recording is out there. It is a very acceptable "alternative" to the more elaborate one sung by Sills (though, like with all Maria Callas recordings of bel canto operas, not a testament to the opera itself because of the wayward way the cuts were made). It is a great revelation as to the career and talent development of a wonderful artist now gone. It really is a treasure to listen to, to enjoy, and to imagine what it was like to have "been there" during the performance. It is well worth having in any collection of Rossini operas.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TEBALDI SHINES IN THIS ONE!, May 27, 2000

By 

F. Barton "Forrest W. Barton" (Newport, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Siege of Corinth (L'Assedio di Corinto) - Complete Opera (Audio CD)

This opera by Rossini, recorded LIVE in 1952, gives us a tremendous opportunity to hear Tebaldi do a coloratura role -- to PERFECTION! While the Hardy release "Fernando Cortez" gave us an early peek into her spinto powers, this opera proves that at her early stage, she could sing coloratura with the BEST of them. Thanks to Hardy, we are finding many recordings that were available before only on badly made tapes.Sills and Horne did this opera, but it cannot compare to this! Tebaldi's voice is remastered to perfection, and the entire opera is a new-found joy to me, with it's many melodic arias, and superb singing from the ENTIRE cast.To imagine this singing duplicated today is impossible. All the more reason to buy it, and hear what REAL voices were like. It's no secret that Tebaldi considered Naples her second home, the first being the MET. So in every Hardy release we get her in a great environment, great cast, and a most appreciative audience! This opera was and is new to me, but I will enjoy it forever. VERY attractive packaging, singing, and remastering. During this time of Tebaldi's career she was into revivals, and this is just one.Hardy has told me that many more releases are planned. I can hardly wait! However hearing the incredible Tebaldi do tremendous coloratura and spinto in a single performance is more than worth the price of this 2CD set! Perfection.