Customer Reviews

Verdi - La Traviata / Cotrubas, Gedda, MacNeil, Krips [highlights]

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

 

 

Both Ileana Cotrubas and Nicolai Gedda are in fine voice for this 1971 live performance from the Vienna Staatsoper. Cotrubas, in particular, was in the early spring of her career and had just signed a three year contract with the house. All the promise of a magnificent career can be heard in her already maturing artistry and dramatic emphasis, and that, combined with the youthful bloom and beauty of her lovely, evenly placed soprano, makes this a thrilling operatic introduction. We get a generous hour and a quarter of music and the particular joy of hearing Cornell Macneil's authentic Verdian baritone in it's prime. Josef Krips conducts with rather too much enthusiasm at times, and leaves his tenor, soprano and chorus behind for a moment or two in Act 1. It's interesting to hear them musically bumping into each other and the overall musical and dramatic effect is not badly spoiled. The recording quality is surprisingly, very good. This is a must buy, especially at the excellent price.

Josef Krips is my favorite conductor of all time, especially of Mozart. I had never heard him conduct Verdi, and even though he would have been of an advanced age in 1971 (the year of this recording), I bought it anyway.

This is good collection of highlights: it is over 70 minutes long and includes pretty much every major aria and ensemble in the opera. The conducting of Krips is, as I expected, logical and elegant in his Viennese fashion. As another reviewer has noted, there are a few beats where the singers and orchestra aren't in the same groove - but it's a live performance, and the performers are on their toes and are back together in no time. These mistakes are merely ripples and no energy is lost.

Nicolai Gedda annd Ileana Cotrubas (who is to me the most splendid of all Violettas), are no-brainers. They sparkle together in as Alfredo and Violetta should, and sink together properly later on as well.

The recording quality is merely decent; but for a budget label, such is hardly unexpected. Get this if you like Krips, or great conducting in general, and certainly if you enjoyed Cotrubas in the Kleiber set.