Customer Reviews

Verdi: La Traviata

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firstly, the price is hard to beat...Zeani was an outstanding Violetta. Her ability to shade her voice is uncanny, as is her delivery of a superb characterization. Herlea, an absolutely amazing baritone who was left behind the iron curtain for too long, is out of this world. The timbre of his voice is luxurious. The Alfredo is not quite of the same caliber, but nothing to be ashamed of either. The orchestra is a tad untidy here and there...but the recording ranks up there because of its Violetta and Germont as well as a generally palpable sense of commitment from all the artists involved. It really does all come together beautifully. Highly recommended!

There are those sopranos of whom everyone has heard -- women like Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi and Joan Sutherland -- and then there are the lesser names, not necessarily because of talent or vocal ability, but simply because the vagaries of an operatic career didn't allow them to achieve the renown of their far better publicized peers.

Sopranos in this latter category include Anita Cerquetti (who gave up her singing career after making only one opera recording), Leyla Gencer (who, while she appeared in many of the great opera houses of Europe, never made a commercially released studio recording) and Virginia Zeani, who is featured on this complete (but apparently cut) recording of Verdi's "La Traviata."

From looking at this CD (and glancing at the price) you might be tempted to think that this is a cheap and cheesy recording meant to be sold at K Mart to rubes who think that Andrea Bocelli is a great tenor. But, believe it or not, you'd be wrong. I own six "Traviatas" with sopranos as disparate as Rosa Ponselle and Maria Callas, and this recording is competitive with the best of them.

Virginia Zeani is in splendid voice and as passionate as just about any Violetta I can think of (excepting possibly Callas). Jean Bobescu leads a nicely conducted account of Verdi's score, and the rest of the cast doesn't have a weak link.

So if you're a Verdian or an operatic newbie and looking for an inexpensive introduction to a great opera, this CD is going to be right up your alley. While there are other recordings (including Callas' "Lisbon Traviata" and Toscanini's dress rehearsal for his radio broadcast with Albanese and Peerce) that I would rate higher than this one, for the price you pretty much can't go wrong buying this set. If it has a rival in the "cheap but good" category, it's Maria Callas' only studio recording, made in 1951 in mono for Cetra, which Warner-Fonit has put out at a similarly inexpensive price.

This recording, however, is in stereo, and while it has no libretto it does have a synopsis. So go ahead and buy this recording, and you may feel inspired at some point to hear another, more famous soprano in the role of Verdi's passionate but doomed heroine.

VIRGINIA ZEANI WAS ONE OF THOSE SOPRANOS WHO LOST OUT TO THE "BIG NAMES" ESPECIALLY ON DISC HOWEVER SHE HAD AN ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER ON THE ROAD SHALL WE SAY. A DIVA,PROFESSIONAL ALWAYS, AND A TALENT THAT WOULD RIVAL THE BEST,SHE WAS VIOLETTA.
HERE THE ORCHESTRA IS A LITTLE LAZY.THE secondary ROLES ARE ACCEPTABLE BUT PLEASE BUY THIS FOR ZEANI. YOU WILL LOVE HER.

Virginia Zeani, one of the best Violetta ever! How I missed her this February 2006 at the Met! Her lyricism and then her passion of "Sempre libera", the intensity in the duet with powerhouse baritone Herlea (his legato!), the drama of the last two acts! Beautiful recording, excellent classical conducting in the best tradition, by Maestro Jean Bobescu, good tenor Ion Buzea, splendid Elisabeta Neculce (mezzo and great teacher) et al. Highly recommended!

The great Virginia Zeani was largely overlooked by the recording studios which is a tragic misfortune for those who admire great singing. The lack of studio recordings is a confusing puzzle when one takes into consideration the quality of her performance on this recording. Madame Zeani was one of this century's greatest singing actresses with a ravishly beautiful voice through which she weaved rich emotional colouring to create the definitive interpretation of Verdi's tragic heroine. Unlike Callas whose Traviata recordings were marred by vocal problems and Sutherland's with unclear diction, Zeani's singing is secure and her diction unmatched. Violetta was her signature role, one that she sang 648 times, and this recording is a great testament to her artistry.

This recording was made in the Marble Hall Studio, Bucharest in May 1968 by Electrecord, the Romanian recording company. My copy was published by Gramofonové in the Czech Republic in 1998. The performance is somewhat cut (Alfredo gets a verse of his cabaletta in the second act, but Germont doesn't and there is that jarring cut to Alfredo's departure at the end of the scene). The conducting is very good, the orchestra and chorus are better than expected, and all singers inhabit their roles believably. If you were fortunate in hearing this in the opera house you would be moved emotionally and satisfied musically.
I got this recording for Zeani, but am surprised and pleased by the performance of the tenor, Buzea, and astounded by the superb performance of Herlea as Germont. Zeani's emotional and dramatic commitment are exemplary and she has the voice and technique to carry out her dramatic intentions. She is, unfortunately, under pitch during several stretches of the first act and at moments during the second and third acts. (The last note of "addio..." starts flat and ascends to the correct pitch in time for the orchestra's entrance.) Buzea also has pitch problems from time to time. I mention this because it sets my teeth on edge and distracts me from the otherwise affecting and effective performance.
There are no perfect or definite performances of La Traviata, but this one has much more going for it than some wonderfully vocalized recordings - Caballe, Begonzi, Milnes comes to mind - which fall flat in the drama department. At this price it's worth picking up and judging for yourself.

There are a plethora of Traviata recordings. But almost none, IMO, convince from beginning to end in quite the way, say, that classic sets like the Cellini or Serafin Rigolettos or the Cellini or Salzburg Trovatores do.

Recent re-listening, FWIW, to a range of "traviate";-) has left me pondering the field with somewhat less frustration (though only marginally so) than I had a while ago. It may be useful to understand the pitfalls involved in some detail before understanding my (highly subjective?) reasons for recommending this Zeani set.

If one wants (and, yes, I do!) a set with a thoroughly committed heroine, colleagues who are at least within hailing distance of that heroine's vocalism and her "wavelength", expressively and dramatically, a conductor who, at a minimum, is a viable enough storyteller with neither a tendency to thump, to rush nor to snooze, and sound quality that at least gives a reasonably undistorted picture of what the artists are trying to do, then one has a long search in store.

The pleasant surprise here is how much I am now drawn to this Virginia Zeani/Ion Buzea/Nicolae Herlea recording on Vox (under Jean Bobescu). It is not entirely uncut (neither are most of the other upper-tier sets, and this is still slightly more complete than some), the orchestral and choral work isn't flawless, some of the smaller parts are filled by singers with rusty Italian, it does not come with a libretto, and so on. But these flaws bulk less for me than the combined flaws on any other of the tens of generally available recordings that I've studied so exhaustively.

Ultimately, this Zeani recording holds my interest throughout in ways that the others don't: a committed heroine who can convey the "fever" in the title role and who is in fresh voice, usually simpatico colleagues and a strong rapport in the crucial meeting of Germont pere and Violetta, responsive and sensible conducting, and reasonably clear sound. All these assets seem more present than absent in this recording -- for once. They combine to give this set, as a whole, a slight edge over all others now available. Yes, others may sometimes have a greater peak in one respect or another, but here, for once, I find the whole greater than the sum of its parts -- that sums up the many virtues here.

As a generally fine performance, which is well recorded, it may not plumb all the expressive potential in the score; but there is relatively little to distract one from listening to a compelling drama told clearly through inspired vocal (and orchestral) writing -- more than one can say (IMO) of any of the other recordings -- and how refreshing! It gives me a feeling that I'm hearing a generally accomplished and "lived-in" reading where the experience is not being "filtered" through stopgaps for this or that, or through the vicissitudes of amateurish recording quality, or through the necessity for applying due appreciation for high artistic intent compromised by uneven result. Instead, one is set up with certain expectations that are, by and large, fulfilled. -- Geoffrey Riggs