Verdi: Il Trovatore

Sherrill Milnes (Performer), Giuseppe Verdi (Composer), Zubin Mehta (Conductor), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Performer), Fiorenza Cossotto (Performer), Leontyne Price (Performer), Nelson Taylor (Performer), Plácido Domingo (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Sherrill Milnes, Elizabeth Bainbridge, Fiorenza Cossotto, Leontyne Price, Nelson Taylor, et al.
• Conductor: Zubin Mehta
• Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
• Audio CD (July 28, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000009NIY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,044 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #8 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Price, Leontyne
  • #41 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > A to B

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With an all-star lineup of experienced Verdians in this 1970 recording, one can't go wrong. But there are other recordings in which one can go more right. Compared to her Trovatore on RCA only 11 years before, Leontyne Price seems self-consciously grand, her plush voice sailing through the opera like visiting royalty and actually growing labored under the strain of sustaining such an imperial manner. Fiorenza Cossotto's slightly shrill, somewhat scary mezzo is at home in playing the witch Azucena even if more vocal weight would be ideal. Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes are customary adept Verdians, though conductor Zubin Mehta seems unable to give the music flexibility and plasticity without losing momentum. --David Patrick Stearns

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Ten Best Opera Recordings, July 28, 2001

By 

Stephen McLeod (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)

There are a lot of thoughtful remarks about this recording from other reviewers here. Although I know for a fact that different people hear differently, or love differently, the same recording, I think that this recording is an incomparable document of a certain style of Italian singing that was on its way out of singers by 1970.

Price, Domingo and Milnes - clearly not Italians - give luxurious, splendidly made performances. Some may prefer other examples of Price's Leonora, and if you're shopping for Price, then that may be an issue. But if you want the best stereo set of this opera, I really think this is still unmatched. The reason is that this recording is one of the last reliable documents of the Italian style of singing Italian opera - as opposed to the international style that we see and hear today. Apres... le deluge.

I am not a scholar or a critic, but it seems to me that this is a recognizably different kind of singing that is totally dominant in opera recordings before 1970 - all the way back to the beginnings of recorded music, characterized by a humane confidence in the nobility of operatic conventions. Even though, for its ethnic credentials, this recording features only the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and two actual Italians in the cast, those two singers - Bonaldo Giaiotti (Fernando) and Fiorenza Cossotto (Azucena) - create an axis with the chorus and Metha's assertive corralling of the orchestra into its particularly Verdian role of opinionated commentator to the action, that provides the unmistakable style and sound that is, unfortunately better represented by mono recordings.

I don't know if there are samples of Giaotti's first number on this site, or if a short clip would demonstrate this, but if you can, listen to the generosity and total comfort with Ferando's demanding music that allow him to shape a character totally out of the music. Similarly, Cossotto's first scene establishes her dominance as the musical and dramatic force that stabilizes the star-studded cast throughout the recording. She has a limpid mezzo that allows itself to be shaped by Verdi's music, giving us an Azucena who is just as clearly an Italian mama as a ethnically challenged nut - something impossible to understand without a sensitivity to the conventions of Italian opera, which this recording has. The Ambrosian Opera Chorus handle the inflections of their black-face gypsy music without the slightest irony, almost naively - which is an absolute must for the understanding and enjoyment of this opera.

The best thing about it is that it blends - all the talent on this recording is beautifully blended and shaped with the listener in mind - the notion that special attention should be paid to the fact that the listener is not in a theater but in his home (car?). In all this, the only wish I have is that Decca had recorded this, but don't let this criticism distract you - the sound is fine.

If you're looking for an exciting musically and dramatically thrilling recording of this most Italian of Italian operas, this is the one for you.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Performance 5, sound 0, December 23, 1999

By 

Michael Newberry (Santa Monica) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)

These CDs contain great performances from all the principals, not the least of which is Zubin Mehta magical conducting. Many years ago I bought cassette tapes of this recording. Absolute bliss! It's my all-time favorite recording of this opera. Cossotto, Milnes, Domingo, and Price simply nail it. But they and the music are hideously marred by the digital remastering! Every time the music and vocalists reach intense climaxes, which is quite often; there occurs a weird vibration in the speakers. It's similar to the old AM car stereos at excessive volume. I thought it was my speakers but I assure you it is not, and I am talking about at very reasonable volume levels. I see green when I hear Leontyne Price flow upwards in a magnificent phrase and the simultaneously hear static, what an incredibly disappointing experience. Perhaps this is the result of engineering terrorism! So, performance rates a 5+, sound...what rating would you give if you wanted to smash the CDs, stomp on them, cut them into little pieces, and then burn the remnants!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Performances Ruined By Abyssmal Sound Engineering, January 11, 2005

By 

Scott Jelsey "tscott2" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Verdi: Il Trovatore (Audio CD)

The performances here are all first rate - I agree with what has been noted before. The sound engineers must have been on crack though, because many passages are recorded at a too high volume level and distort, or "crackle" through the speakers. This is a MAJOR problem, not a slight one. The problem is with the original master tapes, not the CD remastering. And no, you can not adjust your treble, bass or volume to fix this, as one reviewer suggested. It was recorded with major distortion, period. There is absolutely no excuse for a major label studio recording to have such amateurish sound engineering. How could the producer not have caught this on playback? What a waste of vocal talent!