Customer Reviews

Verdi: Aida

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Recorded in August, 1955, this RCA "Aida" continues to hold its place as one of the glories of the catalogue. It has attained "classic" status and will likely always remain so. The mono sound has been digitally remastered, and while not exactly "state-of-the-art" by today's standards, is perfectly acceptable. The glory of this "Aida" is in the singing of the principals. In the title role, Zinka Milanov contributes a substantial amount of magnificent singing, most notably in every moment that calls for soft lyricism (which is needed in a vast portion of the role of Aida). Her floated top notes are in a class by themselves. The more turbulent portions of the role find her sometimes a bit squally, but the overall effect is so positive, that a few raw moments can do nothing to topple her vocally opulent performance. Jussi Bjoerling might have had a problem managing the role of Rhademes in the opera house, but on this recording he is without peer. His voice has a lyrical sheen to it that sounds totally right. The beauty of his voice, like that of Milanov's, is something easier experienced than discussed. Truly, if I had one operatic scene to take with me to a desert island, it would be the Tomb Scene at the end of this opera, as sung here by Zinka Milanov and Jussi Bjoerling. It's like a marriage of two sublime sounds which combine together to create something close to a vocal transfiguration.No doubt about it: opera singing gets no better than this. The jealous passion of Princess Amneris is searingly captured by Fedora Barbieri, whose booming chest tones provide exactly what this role needs, and her Judgement Scene is thrilling and dramatic. Leonard Warren, the most acclaimed Verdi baritone of his time, fully substantiates his reputation here. Jonel Perlea may not have been the most exciting conductor of his time, but he paces this performance beautifully, and most importantly, allows his four outstanding principals to create an "Aida", the likes of which you simply don't hear anymore. Nor are you likely to encounter its like in the near future. This one is a winner in spades!

My favourite Aida and one of the five top recordings in my Verdi Collection. Although very often this recording in reviews is indicated as "historical" or "classic", I really don't see why. The remastered RCA version has good sound and the technical level is good. A better cast, even compared to other famous Aida's (Toscanini, Karajan, Abbado, Muti, Solti), will to my opinion never been found again. Of course, Jussi Bjoerling as Radames is the absolute top on this recording. Particular the ease of his singing is remarkable; the only other person, I do know, who comes close is Carlo Bergonzi in the Karajan recording from '59. Never heard a more "smooth", but at the same time powerful Celeste Aida. I fully agree with Classical CD's choice (7/99) to call Jussi the number one singer of the century in a list of hundred. But next to Jussi, all other roles have top casts. Remarkable is also the variety of the timbre's, Milanov and Barbieri, Christoff and Warren. In one of my reference tracks for judging Aida recordings, Nume, custode e vindice at the end of the first act, Boris Christoff is Ramfis and Jussi does Radames. Listen to the unique combination of voices. Compared to Muti or Toscanini, Perlea is less present, both at the same time also more "sympathetic". He is fully in lead, but does leave more room for the individually singers. All together THE Aida to get and, not unimportant too, for a very reasonable price. Especially a big recommendation for people who do take their first steps in the opera world of Verdi.

I grew into opera in my teens with this recording and I still listen to it over and over again. This "Aida" is a historical document in that it features four artists whose particular type of singing is, unfortunately, extinct. The great Italian mezzo Fedora Barbieri is a classic Amneris, venomous, vindictive, and in the end, very human. Her ripe mezzo, with its booming chest notes, may not sound terribly regal, but they ARE exciting. The Amonasro of Leonard Warren was also a famous assumption in the 1950's, and here he shows us why he was the leading Verdi baritone of his day. Jussi Bjoerling might have had a problem putting his Rhademes over in the opera house, but on records, his singing is lyrical, youthful, and very beautiful. Zinka Milanov's Aida may have a few moments of scooping and gulping, but for the most part her singing is something to be cherished. We simply don't hear Aida sung like this today. The famed Milanovian soft piano notes are, for want of a better word, awesome (listen to "Numi, pieta, the top C in "O Patria Mia, and the entire Tomb Scene). Milanov and Bjoerling's duet in the Tomb Scene is, to me, the perfect marriage of two magnificent voices. Yes, I love this recording as much as I did when I first heard it when I was 17, and that's a pretty long time ago. If I were left with only one recording of this great opera, this would be the one I'd keep. I very strongly recommend it.

This was the recording that introduced me to the beauties of the opera "Aida." I was honored to be able to borrow it from a friend's mother. I listened to it in awe. However, I was not able to buy it, as at that time, I simply could not find it. Later, I bought one with Leontyne Price, and of course, I fell madly in love with that recording. I now have many recordings, including a live on with Maria Callas. The opera has become a staple in my record collection. Finally, decades later, I was able to buy this recording and really listen to it, and compare it to all those others I have. Is it the best of the best? Well, I don't know, but it is pretty near there if it is not there. I love Price's sound more than Milanov's, but both bring something special to the role. Now everyone speaks of Caballe's wonderful pianissimo in the Patria Mia aria. It is wonderful, but if one follows the score, that famous and treachrous high C in not sung all piano through that passage. Verdi writes a crescendo leading to that high C, and then it is sung piano and is to melt away, or fade away, never rushed till the phrase is over. What Caballe sings is wonderful, breath taking actually, but what Milanov sings is what Verdi asked for. Her high C, and the high A that is sung after it, is not just a wonderfully poised pianissimo, she sings what Verdi wrote. She begins the phrase delicately and sings a crescendo, and on the high C she sings a pianissimo and fades it away ever so delicately and descends. There is more to AIDA than this one aria, and more to this aria than this one phrase, but here we hear it as Verdi wrote it. It sends shivers up one's spine. I think this is the only recording ever recorded where the singer actually sings what Verdi wrote. This is the recording that converted me to the Milanov sound. The duet with Bjoerling simple gives one goose bumps all because of how their voices blend and the drama they bring to that beautiful singing.
With all my recordings of this opera, I still say this one is at the very top, maybe tying with Price (the recording with Jon Vickers). Great as Callas was in her portrayals, AIDA was not her role, and I really can't see her removing the foundation from under this recording. Aida is opera, dramatic opera, but it is opera that requires the best in vocal technique and beauty. This is truly a "gold standard" by which many recordings of Aida will have to be judged.

From the time I first bought this on LP in the '50s until the present Cd format, this has also been a special Aida and will always be difficult to surpass never mind equal. As a teenager I heard Milanov in this role several times at the Met [standing for $1.25 in the rear of the orchestra floor] and listeners be reassured, what you hear on the CDs is the real voice! [Klinks and triumph all}.Her power was astonishing, riding the top of the chorus in the triumphant scene to the pianissimos of the Nile and Tomb scenes. The rest of the singing is equally distinguished: Warren and the often "take for granted, underappreciated syndome" Barbieri - she is equally thrilling in the Bjorling-Mlanov-Warren Trovatore. Several reviewers have referred to the beauty of the" tomb scene" and have they got it right.
For a mono recording the sound is amazing and never distorted. For sheer beauty of voice, especially the floating soft notes, Milanov's only rival is Caballe on the EMI recording. Personally I think Cossotto has the edge on Barbieri in the EMI recording. The Verdi casts at the Met in the 50's have no equal and we must be grateful that some of them made it to disc. For Leotyne Price fans she was another in the great line of Aidas. Only personal choice and taste can choose the winner in this sublime company of sopranos. This recording should be on every one of your shelves!

When the opera is Verdi's "Aida", your night at the opera will be time well spent. When you add this recording of it to your shopping cart, your money will be well spent.

Perlea's "Aida" easily compensates for several apparent drawbacks. Most of the principals are non-Italians. It is a mono recording. It was recorded as long ago as 1955.

I think the quality will become apparent as soon as the "curtain rises". Instead of prompting the tenor to engage in a few bars of dialogue before beginning "Celeste Aida", the High Priest (Boris Christoff) instantly commands attention. Jussi Bjorling, whose 1936 recording of "Celeste Aida" helped launch him on the international opera circuit, delivers here a noble, tender and thrilling account of it - not at all Italianate but highly musical. When these two singers share the second half of the next scene, the Temple Scene, the vocal richness is overwhelming. Fedora Barbieri, as Amneris, riveting, ripe and regal, provides more vocal richness in the scene that follows, and the act ends with Zinka Milanov, in glorious voice, conveying the distress of the supposed slave girl whose loyalties are impossible to reconcile.

The Triumphal March features a chorus that actually sounds like a rejoicing crowd and the ballet sequences are richly evocative. Jonel Perlea directs these sterling forces, equally successful in structuring the huge ensembles and in handling the intimate scenes of this masterpiece.

The locale for the recording is the Rome Opera House, a venue for many of my favorite recordings. As with most "Aida" recordings, this could be a 2 CD set, but it disposes itself much better onto 3 CDs.

This is for me, with the possible exception of the Beecham Boheme, Bjoerling's best studio opera recording. The other reviews have it exactly right - though I think more attention needs to be paid to the superb singing of Barbieri and Christoff. Although Bjoerling's voice was not 'dramatico' and so a little light for Radames (I also agree that Vickers with Solti is first choice here) this is a performance that you'll never forget. Again, the other reviews have it right, the last three scenes are amazing - the Nile scene, the judgement scene and the tomb scene.

When friends ask me what is so special about Bjoerling I play them his entrance in the Nile scene on this recording. He comes in full voice and right on the note. No swoop up to the note, no hesitancy (this is unique on record and on stage as far as I can tell). The impact is visceral.

Whenever anyone asks me about what is meant by the "Golden Age" of opera I refer them to this set. This is an example of a perfect, but typical, Met Opera cast from the 1950's. You have one of the finest (maybe second only to Leontyne Price)Aida's ever in the incomparable Zinka Milanov, the great Jussi Bjorling as Radames (I don't need to say anything about Bjorling that has not already been said), and my favorite Verdi baritone of all time in Leonard Warren as Amonasoro. These three, as well as the other performers bring this great opera to life in a way it seldom is.

In my opinion there have been three great singers in the role of Radames; Martinelli in the 30's-40's (I've only heard him at toward the end of his career, Bjorling in the 50's (although he struggled with the role live, on disc he is a marvel), and the great Jon Vickers in the 60's-80's. To my ears Vickers is in a league of his own, granted his was not the most beautiful (that would be Bjorling)voice, but the power and emotion of his singing is just shattering. That being said, you cannot claim to have heard Radames until you've heard Bjorlng sing the Nile Scene and the Tomb Scene on this set. He is a wonder, his voice is free and easy with a beautiful ring and tone. He conveys all the loss and emotion of the Tomb scence like no one else, it is heartbreaking.
There is very little I can say about Zinka Milanov that has not been said by other reviewers. Her techniques is flawles and her floated notes are a wonder to hear, here was a woman who did not need to use tremendous volume to convey emotion, her "Patria Mia" is a marvel and a model of how the part should be sung. Her pianissimo notes are so good they've spawned the phrase "Milanovian" as a way to describe her tone color.

I would not reccomend this as a first Aida, that distinction should always fall to Solti's set with Vickers and Price. But I cannot reccommend this set enough as a second or third set, it is so superior to almost anything else out there.

There have been many complete recordings of "Aida" made between 1928 and the present, not even counting the numerous "live" performances circulating as pirates. Yet, of all of them, this set continues to outsell most others in spite of its sound and a few performance flaws.

The mono sound is actually quite good for its age. This set, made in 1955, had fuller body to the orchestral sound, not being quite as thin and boxy-sounding as the 1950-53 RCA opera recordings led by Renato Cellini with basically a pick-up band. The Rome Opera forces perform well under Perlea, an experienced theatre conductor with a good sense of musical pacing and shaping, but one who occasionally opted for slower-than-written tempi. This is his one flaw as a conductor here, but when you compare his reading to the much quirkier ones of Solti, Leinsdorf, Karajan or Levine, Perlea comes out pretty good. For some strange reason, however, the mono sound is drier and boxier on CD than it was on LP: obviously this transfer was made long before 20-bit remastering and clearer sound! However, boosting the treble restores a more natural balance.

Going down the cast list: Milanov, whose voice could float beautifully on top but sound somewhat base and hollow further down her range, is a surprisingly good Aida, curbing her tendency to elongate notes beyond their written length except for a couple of instances. She also sings dramatically, something one is not used to hearing from her, especially at this late stage of her career.

Barbieri, on the other hand, usually over-dramatized things, but here as in the Serafin "Ballo in Maschera" she sings with both a glorious tone and attention to musical detail. An excellent Amneris, surpassed only by Rita Gorr on the Solti set and equalled by no other.

Bjorling is usually not a favorite of mine in opera; his beautiful, silvery voice usually just soars through the music without any sense of what he is singing about. Here, however, he is remarkably sensitive to both text and dramatic situations. I'm guessing that either Christoff or Perlea (or both) gave him a good talking-to prior to the sessions. He sounds passionate in the Nile Scene duet, anxious and frightened in the Nile Scene finale. Good job!

Having not listened to him in some time, I had forgotten what a dramatic AND musically sensitive singer Leonard Warren was. His only drawback was his gruffy timbre, which just seemed to get gruffier and woolier as time went on. But the voice could also "bite," and it does so here. He is the second-best Amonasro on records, after the underrated Giuseppe Valdengo.

Christoff is his usual snarly self, but here both voice and character click. He was an excellent Ramfis because he, like Ramfis, was pompous, arrogant and overbearing. It was perfect typecasting.

My favorite "Aida" still remains the Toscanini, despite the cold singing of Tucker as Rhadames (in the first two acts - he warms up well for the last 2) and the tremulous, unfocused Amneris of Gustavson, but this makes a superb second choice. Now, if only RCA would remaster it with 20-bit sound and change it from 3 to 2 CDs...but don't hold your breath!

This is a great recording of Aida and arguably the best. However the Urania remastering[[ASIN:B003528HE6 Verdi - Aida - Jonel Perlea (2 CD Set)] has significantly better sound and is worth upgrading to.