Verdi: Luisa Miller [Import]

Gaetano Donizetti (Composer), Giacomo Puccini (Composer), Giuseppe Verdi (Composer), Gianandrea Gavazzeni (Conductor), La Scala Theater Orchestra (Orchestra), Leone Magiera (Performer), Montserrat Caballé (Performer), Luciano Pavarotti (Performer), Bruna Baglioni (Performer), Carlo Zardo (Performer), Carlo del Bosco (Performer), Piero Cappuccilli (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leone Magiera, Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti, Bruna Baglioni, Carlo Zardo, et al.
• Orchestra: La Scala Theater Orchestra
• Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
• Composer: Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi
• Audio CD (September 9, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: Myto Records Italy
• ASIN: B000001MKK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,784 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #100 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Caballe, Montserrat

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: Ouverture

2. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Ti desta, o Luisa, regina de' cori'

3. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Ecco mia figlia...'

4. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Lo vidi, e 'l primo palpito'

5. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Mia diletta!...'

6. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'T'amo d'amor ch'esprimere'

7. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Ferma, ed ascolta'

8. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Sacra la scelta č d'un consorte'

9. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Costarti, o vecchio debole'

10. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 1: 'Ah! fu giusto il mio sospetto!...'

See all 27 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Vien la Duchessa...'

2. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Presentarti alla Duchessa'

3. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Come celar le smanie'

4. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Il foglio dunque?'

5. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Oh! fede negar potessi'

6. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Quando le sere al placido'

7. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'Di me chiedeste?'

8. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 2: 'L'ara, o l'avello apprestami'

9. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 3: 'Come in un giorno solo'

10. Luisa Miller, opera: Act 3: 'Pallida... mesta sei!'

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars INADEQUATE RODOLFO AND LUISA BUT A MAGNIFICENT MILLER, September 1, 2001

By 

"jfmaniaci" (Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verdi: Luisa Miller (Audio CD)

Luisa Miller is among my favorite operas by Verdi. It is an opera with an ardent musical texture composed especially for the tenor. He has to display pure mezza voce, romantic temperament and fiery emotions. In "Quando le sere al placido chiaror", perhaps the most beautiful and certainly one of the most inspired arias composed by Verdi, the tenor has to offer rare and incisive accents.

Pavarotti never imposed himself in the Verdian repertory. In this CD recorded live in 1976 at La Scala, Milan, he does not possess the vocal qualities for the part of Rodolfo. He sings with a voluminous and easily extended voice but not romantic, warm and virile enough. For a tenor of his commercial fame, he "croons" with a dreadful mezza voce and resorts repeatedly to falsetto. The silvery brilliance of his voice (of the mid sixties) in the Duke of Mantua, Rodolfo (Boheme) and Romeo and Juliet, has gone inexorably away! Even the base colour and pulp show signs of evident wear. His characterisation of Rodolfo is a disaster! He is no Lauri Volpi, the legendary tenor who sang the premiere at the Met in 1929 with a cast that included Rosa Ponselle, Giuseppe De Luca and Tancredi Pasero!

Caballe', the great Catalan with Spanish blood in her veins, is reputed to be one of the bel canto voices of the XX century together with Toti Dal Monte, Callas, Sutherland and Gencer. In this CD, her voice is an all-enchanting falsetto. She sings deliciously but her top notes have a marked shrill and the dramatic role of Luisa does not suit her type of bel canto singing. The trouble with Caballe' is that she adapted the score of Luisa to her vocal means, forgetting the composer's musical intentions and orchestral necessities. In dealing with the score, she needed to exercise, study and frequent dress rehearsals: all of them, with humbleness, as the divina Callas used to do.

Cappuccilli, as Miller, Luisa's father, comes to the rescue vocally and as a magnificent Verdian character. The voice is all there: colour, extension, large capacity for particularly incisive phrasing and very mature, serious musicality. His forte is the squillo, endowed with a most notable resonance. His middle register shows charm and persuasive powers. Cappuccilli's voice is particularly suited to Verdian roles: Count di Luna, Iago, Giorgio Germont, Renato, Rigoletto, Don Carlo di Vargas and Amonasro. Last but not least that of Miller in the CD under review. He delighted me with a happy union of biting and, at the same time, painful accents.

The recorded sound is what you would expect from a 1976 live performance in an opera theatre such as La Scala of Milan, Italy. Poor arrangement of the microphones, close to the orchestra pit and theatre first rows with notable, fastidious coughs by the audience, distant from the stage whereby the voices sound bottled up, as if they were behind the stage curtains. The orchestra sound is reasonable, at times drowning the singer's top notes (particularly Rodolfo's in the final squillo). The conductor, the veteran Gavazzeni, has a firm hand but the pulse is slow at times. The unusual and famous duet between the two basses, Walter and Wurm, in Act II, Scene III, starts almost pianissimo (!). Walter's "O meco incolume sarai, lo giuro," is a frenetically ringing line but sung at a disappointingly slow orchestral accompaniment. The book-note is ordinary, uninformative and includes the libretto in well spelt Italian only. The track numbers are in bold characters and usefully appended to the lyrics.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent recording, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Verdi: Luisa Miller (Audio CD)

BUY THIS. It is fantastic, especially the last act.