Customer Reviews

Verdi: La Traviata à Paris - The Soundtrack

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

 

 

So what if they overdubbed to make a good TV show... the singing is just fine. Not perfect, but Gvazava and Cura put on a very good show.

Remember that this beautiful music and drama was created as entertainment. Let's not get in the way of enjoying this fine performance with pointless academic refernces to other people who may have done it better. Lighten up folks!

Having vented all of that,I'm looking forward a release of the DVD version of this performance. The CD just is fine, but watching it as a full performance is even better. Just saw it broadcast by the CBC while in Toronto. Get the DVD, listen - watch, enjoy.

level of recording and presentation beyond excellence. Couple Gura/Gvazava is a guarantee of full success. Please find me the DVD.

If you were lucky enough to see the live broadcast on PBS you already know this was an exceptional production. If not, you still can experience some of the great performance with this CD. Opera is not always fascinating or inspiring. This production is! Truly great!

This new recording of La Traviata is the sound production of a TV film, it hardly can compete with the classic recordings of Callas, Scotto and Cotrubas, so why bother? Eteri Gvazava has a pretty voice, but Violetta is a huge and very demanding role and asks for far more than what she can offer. The beefy Argentinian tenor is NOT a model of stylish singing, and only the great Rolando Panerai is left to save the show. He belongs to a long gone era of truly great singers, and at 75 he is still one. Next to him, his colleagues seem all the smaller and provincial. TELDEC's previous recording of La Traviata had Edita Gruberova and Giorgio Zancanaro, a very collectable recording in good digital sound. Even if Gruberova is not as warm and moving as Callas or Scotto, she gives a performance of real stature. Giorgio Zancanaro as always is a model of a Verdi baritone, for him alone that recording is worth having. So leave this new offering right where it is and go for the Scotto/Votto recording in DG, the Scotto/Muti in EMI or if you don't mind live mono sound, Callas in Lisbon, Callas in La Scala or Covent Garden.

I just had the opportunity to see a rebroadcast of the TV film, and completely disliked the visual performance, including the staging, the camera work, and the acting. Now, if you close your eyes, and listen to the music, you might actually enjoy it. Although it is a stretch to compare it with the classic recordings of the same, it does hold its own, at least it is not bad. The exception is the elder Germont. I never had the chance to listen to Rolando Panerai when he was younger, but here at 75, his voice is stiff, lacks emotion, and contains too many rough edges to my liking. While I agree with one of the reviewers who dismisses the critical comment about this performance by pleading ignorance to the academic finer points, and focusses instead on the enjoyment aspect of the show, I am also in agreement with the author of that critical comment, why bother with this one, if you can't completely enjoy it.

OK, some of you may want to find a different presentation of the old classic, in that sense, you probably won't be disappointed by the musical portion of it (if you can overlook the one role I mentioned above), but for those of you looking for the DVD, I would suggest to stop that search right now, not because it is not available in stores, but because of its less than pleasing visual presentation.

The raison d'etre of this sound recording is the made-for-television event of broadcasting from Paris, purportedly made by the same crew that made the Tosca from Rome. While Tosca from Rome was a live performance, a grand artistic tour de force, this TV film was made in such an amateurish fashion, that it looks like the entire crew had a lobotomy after the first success. The direction, the use of cameras (angles, movement, etc.), as well as the acting evoked from the performers are horrendous. The under-the-table scene in Act I is unnecessary, and looks to be a copy from Boheme; the use of Steadycam (it is mounted on the cameraman, and his going and stopping give the feeling of discontinuity) gimmick is not much of an improvement from Dave Letterman's Monkeycam years ago; and the camera angle and zoom is very curious, the director seems to like to place obstacles, like tree leaves, tall grass, furniture, and other things, between the camera and performers. I was so distracted by his constant obscuring of Germont and Violetta's faces in Act II that I kept thinking "ticks, ticks, ticks" when they walked into the overgrown tall grass, and "will she scream if she finds a worm" when they kept walking into the hanging willow leaves. 8-)

I may appear to be a little cynical, but my point is that if it fails to capture the attention of the audience, the director failed his job. This production's visual part is full of unsuccessful experiments, it is painful to watch. So if you have to get this performance, get the CD version, but stay away from the video (get the Zefferelli version instead to see how it's supposed to be done).

The finest la Traviata I have ever heard. Bold orchestration and deep rich vocals. Wonderful listening experience. It's a great CD for fledgling opera buffs who want to start with the best execution of the best composers.

While much has been said about the gimmicks used in the making of this recording, the work is fine. We were at the Hameau at Versailles when they were videoing a part of this opera. Sure, the music was less-than-perfect, but the performances were excellent. The best part, not captured on the recording, was when the horse busted up one aria. The plucky tenor tried to keep going, but he eventually burst out laughing, as did everyone else. The cast seemed to have a grand time, and their voices shine through with such good-nature. A great CD.

5 stars, because of Eteri Gvazava. "E strano", "Follie", "Sempre libera" in atto primo - she is singing the ''des and ''c without any difficulty, without vibration, without shouting (VERDI itself was complaining about the shouting of the singers). Your "editorial review" says that E.G."is less happy in the spinto scales and leaps of Sempe libera in Act I." I totally disagree. Please, listen again! I have heard Eteri in Bielefeld as Tatjana in "Eugen Onegin". Listening to the "Letter scene" the audience started crying. I have heard Eteri in "Rusalka". She was better than the Benackova. Show me a Violetta, who is singing atto primo as sparkling as Eteri does!

A Violetta that sounds like a cheap imitation of Callas, Cura sounding crude and Panerai way over the hill. There are much better Traviatas out there than this one.

I AM BE NAIVE, BUT, I ENJOYED THIS MAGNIFICENT RENDITION OF LA TRAVIATA IN PARIS........SO THEY USED SOME GIMMICKS....SO WHAT?...THE FINAL OUTCOME WAS MAGNIFICENT IN MY VIEW....I AM NOT HARD TO SATISFY WHEN LISTENING TO SUCH BEAUTIFUL VOICES....GRANTED ETERI IS NO MARIA CALLAS, BUT, SHE WAS STILL WONDERFUL TO MY EARS AND THE ORCHESTRA COMPENSATED FOR HER BEING LESS THAN POWERFUL. CIAO