Customer Reviews

Verdi: Nabucco

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Despite the blank spot and an occasional cough, this recording is realy quite good. Both Ghiaurov and Suliots have wonderfully omnious vioces, which make them perfect for their roles. The orchestra is also great (especially in the sinfonia). The conducter also does a wonderful job of keeping the music exciting (which it is without his help). This is one of my favorite recordings to listen to and worth buying.

Admittedly, the sound quality of this "live performance" is not particularly good. HOWEVER, soprano Elena Suliotis (in my view the chief reason for buying THIS recording) is a truly outstanding Abigaille. ALL of her singing is riveting. Listeners unfamiliar with this early Verdi opera would do well to buy this CD as an inexpensive "starter"--a way to learn how and why the 19th cent. Italian public, who identified their own plight with that of the Hebrew slaves in this opera, came to consider the famous chorus "Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" their unofficial national anthem AND a way to hear some other truly wonderful music. Listeners already familiar with this opera owe it to themselves to hear Suliotis in her all-too-short prime. (Not incidentally, the moving and beautiful "Va, pensiero" chorus was conducted at Verdi's funeral by Toscanini.)

These five stars go to Suliotis alone!!! For Such a long time Ghena Dimitrova was my favorite interpreter of the role of Abigaille, that was until I heard Suliotis in this live performance from La Scala di Milano. Suliotis performance in my correct opinion outclasses Dimitrova, Scotto, Cerquetti, and even gives Callas a serious run for her money. This live performance finds Suliotis in mind boggling form. She attacks this role with reckless abandon, much like Callas 1952 Medea with Bernstein. Her high notes are blazingly bright and powerful as they literally leap at you out of your loudspeakers, and her chest voice is pushed so dangerously close to the edge that it comes as no surprise that her career was so short, much like her Greek counterpart. Perhaps the most absorbing and rewarding aspect of her interpretation is the way in which she colors and curdles her voice for dramatic effect. Her Abigaille is vindictive, wild, psychotic, bitchy, vulnerable, and imperious all at once. I even think that this live performance of hers makes even her recording with Gardelli pale in comparison. The rest of the cast, orchestra and chorus are admirable, but there can be no doubt that La Suliotis dominates this performance with a will of iron that leaves no doubt as to who the star of this production is. You just have to admit that there is a certain magic that live performances have that just can't be duplicated in the recording studio. BUT IT NOW!!!!!!!!TO HEAR THE GREATEST ABIGAILLE EVER!!!!!ONLY LA DIVINA HERSELF IS THE EQUAL OF THIS DIVA!!!!!!

Source: 1966 live recording from La Scala in Milan.

Sound quality: Generally pretty good. There are some coughers and the usual pond scum who feel obliged to finish any paragraph they have begun to speak when the music starts. The infamous blank spot occurs in the trio of Ismaele, Fenena and Abigaille, just before the entrance of Nabucco in Part I. The tenor is cut off in mid-squawk just long enough for a listener to flinch and ask, "What was that?"

Documentation: As always, Opera d'Oro plumbs the depths. No libretto. Nothing on the cast. Nothing on the circumstances of the recording. A very brief and wholly generic essay on the opera is followed by even briefer summaries of the plots of each of the four acts (or Parts, as they are called in this opera.) Od'O continues in its aggravating habit of neglecting to print timings for the track list. In the only appearance of the name of the lead soprano, she is called "Elena Suliotis", although every other reference to her that I know uses the spelling, "Souliotis".

Format: For some reason, Part II is cut off midway on CD 1 and continued on CD2, despite the fact that Parts I and II would appear to fit comfortably on a single CD.

The prime reasons for acquiring this recording are its two stars, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Elena Souliotis. Ghiaurov is fantastic as Zaccaria, the High Priest of Judah. He hauls a full weight of sound down to his very lowest notes. His huge voice snaps and crackles with power as he proclaims the forthcoming destruction of Babylon.

I was fortunate enough to see Elena Souliotis and Tito Gobbi in a San Francisco Opera production of "Nabucco." I also heard her sing the part on a Metropolitan Opera broadcast about that same time. Gobbi was at the end of his performing career and his voice was fraying badly, but his was an overwhelming and unforgettable performance. Souliotis, with her power and demonic energy was a match for him. It was no secret to anyone who heard her that she was pushing her voice to its limits and it was no surprise that the voice began to fail her not long after. This recording catches her one or two years after I saw her. If my forty year-old memory of the voice I heard in the theater is reliable, these disks document a considerable fall. She was still tremendous, but not nearly what she had been. Her basic sound quality was quite like that of Callas and some have even referred to her as a Callas-imitator. Not so, she was all Souliotis and for a too-brief span of time, she was wonderful.

Giangiacomo Guelfi was a good, solid, utility baritone who, I imagine, was welcome in just about any opera house. He would probably have been everyone's second choice for every role and no-one's first choice for anything. On these disks he turns in an attractive, workmanlike performance without major flaw but equally without anything really memorable.

Gianni Raimondi was a post-war fixture at the Wiener Staatsoper. Karajan is said to have preferred him over diStefano. He was another solid performer who was not quite of the very top rank. In this "Nabucco" he sounds just like diStefano (on a bad day.)

While this is a very good performance and sometimes even an exciting one, I find myself at odds with the basic musical concept of the conductor, Gavazzeni. He conceives "Nabucco" to be achetypically Verdian: rhythmic, propulsive, fast-moving, melodramatic. I think the youthful and still slightly tentative Verdi placed "Nabucco" closer to the Bellinian "I Puritani" than the truly Verdian "Ernani". The recording made fifteen years earlier under Previtali (on Warner Fonit) is much closer to my way of thinking. Without sacrificing any of the drama, it offers graceful lyricism missing from this version.

On the whole, a good performance with an annoying glitch -- four stars.

Despite the blank spot and an occasional cough, this recording is realy quite good. Both Ghiaurov and Suliots have wonderfully omnious vioces, which make them perfect for their roles. The orchestra is also great (especially in the sinfonia). The conducter also does a wonderful job of keeping the music exciting (which it is without his help). This is one of my favorite recordings to listen to and worth buying.

Soprano Elena Soliotis was an under-recorded and obscure but terrific soprano who if people had payed attention to would have surpassed Maria Callas. Her voice is perfectly suited to the Italian opera repertoire, especially Verdi, and intones every line of Verdi's villainous Abigaille in this Nabucco with a hair-raising intensity. It is her performance alone that makes this live recording an attractive album. It's very affordable and the sound quality is fine. If you're a fan of Solitois, this is a must buy. Sadly, her only other commercially available recordings include a tribute album on Decca Legends and her only full-length opera recording Macbeth opposite Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.

I have the pleasure of owning this CD live, and although Elena Souliotis, is my Favorite Soprano, sad to say, Im a little disappointed in this Recording. It's probably the recording itself, or perhaps being at the particular time the audio that was used to record. Because there is, in one point of the recording, where it goes blank. However, Im surprised that you only have this recording. Because, there is another Recording with Suliotis,Gobbi,Prevedi and Cava. This is an Excellent Recording, although on London Label, it's been copied off the Decca Label which is the most Excellent sound and quality you can hear.Ms. Souliotis taking a gulp of air, and hear pages turning. For me She is exactly what they named her..which is "Greek Princess". I personally had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Souliotis, via Overseas to Italy, where she is living, Married, and has a Daughter. Sometimes I wish they would do a Special on Her. I know that she as done a T.V. Series in England on the BBC Titled "Souliotis Sings". I am in search for this taping. Also, you must hear her Norma, the only difference between her and Sutherland, (is that Her drama is way better and her diction is much clearer) it's hard to find her recording because Dame Sutherland' is the only one on the shelves instead of Ms.Suliotis' recording. Her recording is considered incomplete where as Sutherland's is a completed version, and because her husband is the Conductor so to speak. But fortunately I have that vinyl recording. Although they should produce it on CD. And let the consumer decide which to purchase!. She has done works from: Catalani, Boiti,Mascagni,Ponchielli and Verdi. There are a lot of Divas who are jealous, everyone says she ruined her voice singing Nabucco. I say they are wrong. If she wasn't ready, she would of never taken the role as Abigale. I know because I myself have studied Vocal specifically for OPERA!.- I remember Elena saying "Perhap's she should of been more Competitive like the other's were". That was the nice thing about her..She alway felt there was room for other singers to be discovered! - I THANK YOU, VAB,CIAO!

Although the tracks are brilliant, the quality of the recordings are NOT. I was rather dissapointed by the background noise and although I REALLY like Nabucco I can't imagine that this will be my favorite CD of this opera. Consider picking another recording and pick this if you no other option is available, please do!