Customer Reviews

Verdi: La Forza del Destino

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4 star:		(1)
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What we have here is the first St. Petersburg version of La Forza del Destino, so be aware that a lot of the familiar music is missing, such as the overture and the final trio. In compensation we hear a fiendishly difficult aria for the tenor that Verdi wisely dropped and several other first thoughts. This recording is excellent, with large slavic voices that can cope with La Forza del Destino better than many of the light-brand of singers we are getting for the real article in the West. First of all there is Galina Gorchakova, a gorgeous soprano with a very important instrument. She may not be Callas, Price or Milanov, but by any standard she is very good. The Georgian tenor Gegam Grigorian is rather rough and not as sweet sounding as our best Verdi tenors, but he is also very competent and once you accept his voice, he is manly and valiant. His aria with chorus is one of the main reasons for getting this album. The Carlo is also rough vocally, but very well acted. Valery Gergiev makes sure that everything sounds verdian, thank God. Even if this recording is not a first choice (go for Price-Domingo-Milnes and Levine on RCA) it still is very collectable and certainly worth hearing.

I believe this is the most recent recording of Verdi's opera. Although it is the original St. Petersburg version, there is much to recommend here. It is an exciting performance from all aspects and fascinating to hear the original version.

The alternate choice would be the video version which I believe the production was based upon the original sets from the premiere.

I do not know whatever became of Gorchakova. I heard her a few times at the Met and was extremely impressed originally when the Kirov visited New York and she sang the difficult role of Renata in "Fiery Angel". One of the reviewers here wrote that she was no Milanov. I had to laugh because the first time I heard this recording, I was driving and it was on the radio. I thought, oh that's the old Decca "Forza" with Milanov.

It is somewhat odd that the revisions undertaken by Verdi for MACBETH, for SIMON BOCCANEGRA and for DON CARLOS are frequently discussed and written about, but the extensive revisions for LA FORZA DEL DESTINO are rarely mentioned. The familiar and beloved overture was originally a short atmospheric prelude not interrupted by some of the lighter themes worked into the the full scale overture. The third act has mostly the same music, but is totally differently structured and ends with an absolutely thrilling aria for the tenor that Verdi cut from the final version, and the last scene of Act IV ends not with the beautiful trio of reconciliation of the final version, but a violent scene where Alvaro, the hero, commits suicide by throwing himself off a cliff. The work as a whole is very exciting in this version, but one also sees why Verdi wanted to tone down the gloom and violence.
The opera had been premiered in St. Petersburg in 1862, so it is both appropriate and interesting that the first studio recording of the "Ur" version was recorded in the very theatre where it was first performed.
(There is a BBC radio performance with Martina Arroyo that has recently been released, but that is live and off the air.)
The singing here is as exciting as the work deserves. Galina Gorchakova (Leonora) and Olga Borodina (Preziosilla) are absolutely thrilling. In the original version as in the revised, Preziosilla is the luckiest comprimaria ever, Verdi gives her not one, not two, but three canzonas with chorus. Surely no other minor role, one that does nothing to advance the plot, has ever been given this much music ! While I agree with the other reviewer that tenor Gegam Grigorian's voice takes some getting used to, he rises brilliantly to the Act III aria and the Act IV finale. Nikolai Putilin is a superb Carlo, Georgy Zastavny is a fine Melitone. The smaller roles are perfectly cast. (I know that the "Wallenstein's Camp" sequences are mostly silly music, but they ARE fun.)
Conductor Valery Gergiev makes both the familiar and unfamiliar parts of this work seem new and exciting.
Things have come a very long way since the notoriously bad Russian sound recordings of the nineteen fifties and early sixties. The sonic ambiance is beautifully vivid and clear.