Verdi - Don Carlo / Corelli · Janowitz · Ghiaurov · Verrett · Wächter · H. Stein

Giuseppe Verdi (Artist), Horst Stein (Artist), Franco Corelli (Artist), Gundula Janowitz (Artist), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Artist), Shirley Verrett (Artist), Eberhard Wächter (Artist), Tugomir Franc (Artist), Martti Talveala (Artist), Ewald Aichberger (Artist), Judith Blegen (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 16, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Opera D'oro
• ASIN: B000000UO2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,872 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Tenor Franco Corelli never recorded the role of Don Carlo commercially, so this release is instantly valuable. Indeed, the tenor is in magnificent voice: pungent, emotionally forward, thrilling, and only occasionally sloppy. His Elisabetta is Gundula Janowitz, hardly a Verdi soprano, but she makes some very beautiful sounds nonetheless. Eberhard Wächter is surprisingly Italianate as Posa, while Shirley Verrett almost walks away with the whole show with her fiery Eboli. Nicolai Ghiaurov is at his grandest as Philip II, and his scene with the terrifying Grand Inquisitor of Martti Talvela will take your breath away. Horst Stein leads a not always tidy but exciting reading. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good singing, poor version, April 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Verdi - Don Carlo / Corelli · Janowitz · Ghiaurov · Verrett · Wächter · H. Stein (Audio CD)

This performance is more like 3.5 stars, sometimes four. After listening to other complete five and four act version the cuts in this four act version were somewhat disconcerting. Both cuts in the second and fourth act Carlo-Elisabetta duets ruin the flow and interupt the drama for anyone who was heard the full versions. The finale also seems empty without the appearance of Charles V and Elisabetta's final scream. I also was not as impressed by the Philip-Inquisitor duet as other reviewers. In his attempt to be menacing Tavela resorts to screaming and towards the end his ranting leaves him breathless and you can hearing him panting during the lulls in the music. As this is an older, live recording the sound is spotty at times, but is decent overall. That all being said the rest of the performances are good and the energy of the live performance adds to the excitement. At this price this recording is worth buying for a Don Carlo fan.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Riveting Performance, June 14, 2000

By 

John Cragg (Delta(greater Vancouver), B.C Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Verdi - Don Carlo / Corelli · Janowitz · Ghiaurov · Verrett · Wächter · H. Stein (Audio CD)

Don Carlo is a problematic opera -- Verdi and French grand opera really didn't get on. The problem is too much material so cuts are needed and unfortunately, the best music, the most spectacular stage presentations and the coherent development of plot and character do not correspond, and muchthe latter is usually sacrificed. (This apparently started with the initial production which turned out to be unbelievably lengthy.)

However, Don Carlo does contain some really magnificent music. A satisfying performance requires five (and preferably six) really great singers with very strong voices, an enthusiastic orchestra and a fine chorus -- preferably one that is smoother than the principals.

This live recording has all these requirements. The title role was still ideal for Corelli towards the end of his career, and his singing is breath taking and one cannot ask for a bigger tenor voice. Shirley Varrett also may have been beyond her prime, but here she provides electric singing that lifts one from one's chair. Some of her low notes are chesty -- but this adds to the highly sinister portrait that Varrett paints of Eboli. Eberhard Waechter is magnificent as Rodrigo, his typically smooth and elegant singing poviding a nice contrast to the other two. Less memorable, though still supurb in some passages, is the Elisabeth of Gundula Janowitz. Her portrayal, marred by a rather dark timbre not too sitable for this role, seems almost routine in comparison with the others'. Nicolai Ghiaurov gives a suitably weighty Philip II, though not a performance that adds much to his character, and Talvela's grand inquisitor rounds out ably a satisfying cast. The Vienna chorus does a splendid job, and Stein just manages to control a Vienna Philharmonic that has abandoned gemutlichtheit in favour of red blooded playing.

The sound is remarkably good for a live recording. The Viennese audience is enthusiastic but well disciplined and in fairly good health. Their applause is not cut short -- the recording proceeds through curtain calls -- sometimes several of them -- where a typical radio production would fade to a voice over. Of course, one can cut this short with the remote zapper, a necessary step for repeated listening.

The booklet is farcically inadequate, wih no libretto and no serious indication of which versions are used and what is cut. But for the price, what can one expect? (Incidentally, my search for this recording turned up a version from Myto which appeared to be the same thing with different track indices and the addition of some other (non Verdi) material at a very much higher price. I have no idea what its booklet etc might be like.)

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Verdi's masterpiece a tad abridged...., August 29, 2002

By 

Amazon Jon "AJ" (Connecticut, United Staates) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verdi - Don Carlo / Corelli · Janowitz · Ghiaurov · Verrett · Wächter · H. Stein (Audio CD)

This is a very interesting recording of DON CARLO because it offers a terrific cast, great sound quality at a low price, but, sadly, the score is so abridged that one yearns for a more complete reading with most of the same cast.
We don't often think of Corelli in this role, but he is quite thrilling, particularly in his final duet. Gundula Janowitz and Eberhard Waechter, as Elisabeth and Posa, respective, are clearly out of their fach in this opera, but they get the job done, particularly Janowitz.
Ghiaurov, heard here in his prime is a booming, threatening Phillip, yet he turns introspective and delivers a great verion of his Act IV aria. His confrontation with the wonderfully sinister Inquisitor of Matti Talvela is the finest I've heard anywhere.
Clearly, though, the performance belongs to Shirley Verrett, who steals the show with her gutsy, thrilling Eboli. From her Veil Song, to her "Don Fatale" she thrills at every turn. If for no other reason, buy this recording for her.