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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A CLASSIC "TROVATORE", December 19, 1999
This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)
I still rank this 1952 RCA recording as one of the greatest "Trovatore" recordings ever made. This recording has long held "classic" status, and considering the four singers, it is not hard to understand why. Verdi himself proclaimed that in order for "Trovatore" to be successful, all one needed were the four greatest singers in the world. That is pretty much what we have here. I doubt whether there were four other singers at that particular time, and for this particular opera, that could have sung "Trovatore" as well as this. Jussi Bjoerling's Manrico is not heroic in the sense of Corelli and Domingo, but it is believable, heartfelt, and the most beautifully sung of any Manrico I've yet encountered. Zinka Milanov is heard here in what is probably her greatest commercial recording. She was the reigning Leonora of her time, spinning out those famous high "pianissimo" notes at every opportunity. The great baritone Leonard Warren, at the peak of his vocal powers here, sings a suave and impeccable di Luna, and Fedora Barbieri, with those wonderful booming chest notes, sings a wild and crazed Acuzena. Renato Cellini, a competent conductor, certainly was not on the level of his four grand soloists, and there is nothing particularly great about his reading of the score. It matters not a bit. In this opera, the singers dominate, and if there's a quartet of singers (all together on another "Trovatore" recording) in the past forty years to equal the collective quartet here, they have escaped my attention. Certainly, Domingo and Corelli have done well with Manrico, and there are the great Leonoras of such divas as Callas, Price, Caballe, and Sutherland (all of them wonderful to be sure), not to mention the di Lunas and Acucenas of such baritones and mezzos like Merrill, Milnes, Simionato, Cossotto, Obratzova, et al. But all together on one recording? Buy this recording.You won't be sorry!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A LEGENDARY 'TROVATORE", June 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)
This is what "Trovatore" is really about, with voices, voices, and what voices they are! Milanov is caught in one of her greatest moments, with high piano notes in abundance; Jussi Bjoerling at his most lyrically heroic; Leonard Warren's baritone in it's prime, and Fedora Barbieri's booming mezzo blowing the house down! All four singers sing their hearts out, and then some. The conducting of Renato Cellini is not much better than adequate, but with singers like this, it really matters very little. The 1952 mono sound is clean, warm, and very easy to listen to. Yes, there are some later stereo versions that have better sonics, and some others that have some wonderful individual performances (Callas and Price for Leonora, Domingo and Corelli for Manrico, Simionato for Azucena, etc), but none have the cumulative effect of the quartet of Milanov-Bjoerling-Barbieri-Warren. Strongly recommended
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A REMINDER OF THE WAY OPERA USED TO SOUND!, August 17, 2002
This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)
I'm going to make this very short and to-the-point. They simply don't sing like this anymore ----- sopranos and tenors like Milanov and Bjoerling are an extinct breed, and we are the poorer for it. Ditto for Fedora Barbieri and Leonard Warren ------- two more outstanding singers ---- all of whom could be heard regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950's. But then again, so were many other great singers. We don't have voices like this today --- and one hearing of this recording of "Trovatore" sadly proves it. Recorded in 1952, it still sounds acceptable --- and no subsequent "Trovatore" has matched it, though the famous 1962 broadcast from Salzburg with Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, Giulietta Simionato, and Ettore Bastianini, all under the baton of Herbert von Karajan, comes the closest.
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