Customer Reviews

Verdi: Aida

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I agree with the liner notes by critic/musician Robert Levine that this is the finest available recorded Aida. There is much to admire in other recordings -- individual great performances, like Price's, but for overall impact, there is nothing like this recording. There is a sister recording, done in ilan a few months earlier, also available on CD, but the Munich audience is quieter and, if possible, even more enthusiastic when they take their opportunity to applaud, and yell, and stomp. Unlike another reviewer, I think that, despite a great cast, Cossotto stole the show. Like Domingo, she is not just a graet singer, she is a great actor.

This 1972 performance of Verdi's Aida was such a success because that night, much like the same night that Leontyne Price first sang Aida at the Metropolitan (a role that would become Leontyne's signature role), it was a role that Martina Arroyo became totally one with and all the rest of the cast sang with perfect dramatic and vocal unity. Placido Domingo is a terrific Radames, totally immersing himself in the role with character integrity and romantic, rich, dark and powerful tenor heroic voice. In fact, 1972 was a good year vocal-wise for Placido and the Don Carlo recoding under Giulini attests to this, as well as several recordings with EMI in this time in the early 70's. The Amneris in this recording is the older Fiorenza Cossotto, whose voice, I'm afraid is not as commanding or moving as those of Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett and Dolora Zajick's Amneris interpretations. Fiorenza Cossotto is too wobbly, too hollow, a Maria Callas in a mezzo soprano body, and tries too hard. Amneris is not a role that should be shouted. She is a noble and regal woman who is passionate and a victim of unrequited love. Her softer side should come through and its not coming through with Cossotto's performance. I'm sure she has her share of loyal admirers and I mean no disrespect to this great singer from the past, but I just find her performances, especially on disc, to be very lacklustre. I never saw her in person and perhaps on stage and in a live performance she was better. Her voice is too weird, too high for a mezzo, and there is no real mezzo di voce, but rather the imitation of one.

Fortunately, in Martina Arroyo's Aida, we are saved from a performance that may have been disappointing. Arroyo is no Leontyne Price, but she identifies with the Ethiopian slave and her voice is rich and sumptuous and full of character integrity. I've noted that all the singers that work with Placido Domingo, himself a fine actor, worked with supreme dramatic credibility. Perhaps Domingo's influence got to them. Martina is Aida all the way through, from her explosive "Ritorna Vincitor!" to her dying words "O Terra Addio". The late great Russian bass Nicolai Ghiurov makes an imperial and sonorous Pharaoh Amonasro, even making him sound a bit sinister and cold-hearted. This is one of the greater Aidas out there, along with Leontyne Price's two Aidas under Leinsdorf and Solti's batons.

Verdi: AidaThis is a fine recording. If only it had been Rita Gorr instead of Fiorenza Cossotto (not that one would quarrel too much with her performance), it would have been perfect. Arroyo is delightful, and Domingo's singing is a treat to hear.