Customer Reviews

Verdi: Il Trovatore (complete opera) with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, Herbert von Karajan, Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala, Milan

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Certain recordings evoke special memories for me, and in that regard this Trovatore is near the top of the list. I still remember that Saturday afternoon 40 years ago that I wandered into the Enoch Pratt Library in downtown Baltimore, went to the music listening room and followed this recording, score in hand, from beginning to end. At the time, my only acquaintance with the opera was through the highlights LP of the early RCA Victor stereo set with Price and Tucker. As much as I had always enjoyed the RCA Victor recording, after hearing the Angel I walked out of the library that day floating on a cloud. Even now I find this recording pretty amazing.

Of course, Maria Callas is probably the primary reason for owning the recording. She kept the role of Leonora in her repertoire for several years, dating back to the 1950 season in Mexico City. This recording, which was her final performance of the complete role, thus gives us her last thoughts on it. In 1956 she was still near the top of her form and is in superb voice throughout, able to manage both the coloratura and the dramatics of the part with ease. While of course it would be unthinkable nowadays for a recording to omit the Act IV cabaletta "Tu vedrai che amore in terra," it was less commonly recorded in 1956 (Tebaldi sang it in the London set issued around the same time and did not seem to be enjoying herself in the least). Callas and Karajan also work well together. Ironically when she died in 1977, Karajan was re-making the opera for EMI/Angel, with Leontyne Price recording the role for the third and final time.

For me, Barbieri is close to being an ideal Azucena. She is more adept at portraying the gypsy's wildness than her tender moments, but she never sells the character short. I have a hard time choosing between her recording here and the mono RCA Victor recording, although this is certainly the version I play more often.

Although I did not know it at the time I first heard this recording, Giuseppe di Stefano is a controversial piece of casting as Manrico. Not content to stick with the lyric parts that ideally suited his beautiful voice, he made constant forays into roles he might better have stayed away from, such as Canio and Manrico (he later sang Otello and even Rienzi onstage). I am able to listen to the young di Stefano without focusing on the harm he was doing to his voice by singing roles like Manrico, and so I have always gotten a lot of enjoyment out of his performance here. He sounds young and ardent, as indeed Manrico should sound, and on this recording at least he is not overpowered by the role's demands.

I have always liked Rolando Panerai. There's something about the unusual timbre of his voice that I find very special, as I also do that of Ingvar Wixell, who is in my second favorite recording of the opera, the Sutherland/Horne/Pavarotti version. I don't know that I've ever heard Panerai to better effect than as the Count di Luna, possibly as Riccardo in the Puritani recording, also with Callas and di Stefano. I have always considered his "Il balen" and its cabaletta one of the highlights of this recording.

Finally, Nicola Zaccaria takes the role of Fernando, which often goes for naught, and really makes something of it. His only real moment to shine is his aria in the very first scene, and he gets the opera off to a perfect start with his sinister, moody reading of the aria, abetted by Karajan's atmospheric conducting. After hearing Zaccaria's Ferrando tell the creepy story that forms the background of the opera, it's easy to believe why the soldiers are so terrified when the bell suddenly strikes.

A lot of the credit for this very convincing performance of the opera rests squarely on the shoulders of conductor Herbert von Karajan. I believe every one of Karajan's tempi and nuances are ideal and really demonstrate how much a conductor can bring to an opera that is generally considered to be merely a singer's opera. Karajan certainly gives the lie to Caruso's oft-quoted statement that a good performance of Trovatore requires only the four greatest singers in the world. Certainly this would still be a recording to reckon with even without Karajan, given the strength of the singers, but whether it would be my favorite recording of the opera is a question I'm happy I will never have to answer.

The CD remastering is among the best of the EMI/Callas sets that I have heard. I have this recording on LP also and the sound here is very reminiscent of the already very good sound that EMI managed to get back when the recording was first issued.

My love for this recording no doubt at least partly dates back to the very special memories I have that are associated with the first time I heard it, and I don't think that is the reason it has remained my favorite for the last 40 years. I would not hesitate for a second to recommend it to anyone looking for their first, or even only, Trovatore recording.

I was rather amused by the previous review. I know many people who heard Madame Price live (Including her signature roles such as Leonora, Tosca and her Aida) and they said that her voice was indeed lovely but not as big as Milanov's, Callas' or Stella's. It's not primarily a matter of size of course but Verdi not only demands a flawless technique but also a big voice. Price's voice was medium, and a very lovely instrument. This Trovatore was recorded around 1957, only two years after Jussi Björling called Callas' Leonora "sheer perfection". And when a Jussi Björling says this, it means something. She's in great voice, her trills are perfectly executed, no wobble whatsoever. (Esp. in D'amor sul' ali rosee) Von Karajan let her sing the cabaletta "Tu vedrai" which is sung with ardour and passion. (Milanov always skipped it) Her pianissimi in "Prima che d'altri vivere" soar to heaven and sound so lovely... The fear and agony in "Mira d'acerbe lagrime" is shattering.

Now to di Stefano who sounds very good, much better than I expected. I know not how he sounded live in this role (I would imagine not too great) but here he's surprisingly solid with great phrasing and style. Barbieri still owns the role of Azucena after so many years, she is stunning. Panerei sings a GREAT di Luna even though I was hoping for Leonard Warren. All in all: A great performance, brilliantly conducted and sung. Not to be missed!

I find it hard to fathom that no one else has put forth commentary on this special set, teaming the vibrant, acute Herbert von Karajan with the equally vibrant and acute Maria Callas. Their colloboration alone should be a magnet.

Yes, there are a few wayward top notes but the overall effect of Callas' Leonora is mesmerizing. This opera is SO demanding: I believe it was Caruso who said, tongue in cheek, "All it requires is the four best voices in the world." She is joined by Di Stefano, singing the demanding role of Manrico with brio and conviction. Rolando Panerai's Conte di Luna is rich, resonant and compelling. As for Fedora Barbieri as Azucena, she will put chills right down your spine: hers is a lacerating and powerful star turn. Herbert von Karajan is totally commanding. This is truly an ensemble opera, and here we have one terrific ensemble gathered by EMI.

The dream-team Callas-di Stefano comes together once more to record I'll Trovatore! And how beautifully they did it! Herbert von Karajan's conducting is supreme, Callas sings the definite Leonora, di Stefano sounds passionate and loving as Manrico and Barbieri kicks ass as Azucena. To the guy who said that if Callas had Milanov as a rival she'd fall on her face, Callas and Milanov performed at the same time! So there! The best Trovatore ever!

I have always considered the Trovatore Leonora to be one of Callas's very greatest roles. Here , less obscured by her undoubted dramatic gifts, we can enjoy the pure musicality of her singing. The timbre is perfect for Leonora - dark, plangent & (apart form at the very top of her register)surpassingly beautiful. The role displays her perfect legato, incredible breath control & accurate coloratura. She also has a wonderful understanding of just how to phrase a Verdian cadenza, quite different from anything she would do in Bellini or Donizetti. You only have to hear her first few phrases to know that this Leonora is an aristocrat. Leontyne Price is undoubtedly another great Leonora, and she too has a voice perfectly suited to the role, but occasionally she mars the vocal line with unmusical cadenzas, appearing more interested in laying out her voice for admiring display, where Callas is more intent on letting us hear Verdi. The rest of the cast is just about as perfect as was possible at the time & a good deal better than anything we could manage today. True, Di Stefano lacks the requisite weight, but he sings with such face, it is readily forgiven. His "Di quella pira" may not have the heroic heft of a Corelli, but he sings "Ah, si ben mio" quite beautifully. Panerai, Barbieri & Zaccaria could hardly be bettered & Karajan was at this time the perfect conductor for the project. He conducts with great style & dash, while at no time apologising for the occasional vulgarities in the score. More modern recordings are uncut & here we have the cuts traditional at the time, but at least we get one verse of Leonora's cabaletta "tu vedrai". The sound has also been remarkably well freshened up in it's present transfer. Unless you really have to have modern stereo digital sound, buy it. And, even if you have another recording, acquire this as well. You won't regret it!

Callas's Il Trovatore is spectacular on all fronts. This is not a singer who chirps out notes to delight you in your car and make you sleep at night. She commands the piece she sings and asks you to enter into some of her experience of the music. In Il Trovatore you have a wild plot and the need for blistering singers to make it work. Only Callas can do this with her large, expressive sound, now deep, now soft, now very light and high, now fierce and cruel. Only this voice fills out this role of Leonora with the great expectation of love in Act I, and the inevitability of tragedy in the finale. Zinka Milanov is a singer who had trouble keeping on pitch, and this is the case with her Cavalleria R. and her Aida, and her Il Trovatore..dreadful attempts at dramatic disclosure, no excitement..a squally, irritating sound, that has a sententiousness to it that was refelcted in her own personality.

Callas serves the music, drains herself for it..the notes are not sharp or off..the emotions are off, and so must be the interpretation. Verdi hated his operas chimed out like Christmas choir music, all bland and no grand sound; he would have admired this dramatic fire of Callas, with her delving low notes, piercing high ones, and her brilliant sense of what all of it meant at all times.

Buy this recording and all others..take the time and listen; this is not accessible music, as L. Price makes it in her bland interpretation of the role on both of her recordings..you are not softened by Callas, but driven, and often it is by the unexpected way she phrases, using coloratura or legato with great intensity.

Buy her Il Trovatire, and her definitive Tosca, and La Boheme, and la Forza, and Un ballo...watch for the pirated versions too, especially Il Trovatore from Mexico City...never mind the din of the radio..let the burnished golden voice break through and thrill you, and let it do the same on this recording, with the great Von karjan at the helm and DeStefano supporting Callas elegantly.

The really wonderful thing about this recording is the crisp, clean, and vibrant rhythm permeating the entire performance. Callas had a voice marinated in tragedy, suffering, and pain; but she could use it well to seriously communicate to the listener's ear the state of consciousness of the tragic heroines she so frequently portrayed. Her Leonora is, in this recording, a magnificent study of inward tension and suffering poured out with a breath control that dazzles. I have never heard an operatic soprano capable of beginning a phrase such as: "Prima che d'altri...etc." as Callas does here; it is one long musically controlled and perfect heart-gasp of arching song. One would have to be deaf or hard as stone not to feel the distilled essence of tragedy in such sound. And no other soprano on record has attended to the rhythmic phrasing of: "D'amor sull'ali rosee..." as Callas does, nor have any of them managed to convey the yearning and doomed aspirations implicit in the aria the way she does. But the truly extraordinary thing about this recording is the sense of spirited, collaborative ensemble work among all the participants. Usually, or all too often, Callas was alone in her meticulous, intelligent sense of the varying tempi in a score, but here she has the solid, disciplined baton of Von Karajan to assist her, and the results are amazing. Just listen to the brilliant Fourth Act duet with the Count (Rolando Panerai) beginning: " Vivra! Contende il giubilo..." to hear how Verdi really wrote it; the fire, the intensity, and the impeccable enunciation of each distinct syllable propels the music forward to its continuously accelerating conclusion. Karajan is working here, but it is the passionate intensity of Callas that pulls Panerai into a great performance. How often one experiences this sort of thing, this ability she has to inspire other members of the cast when Callas is singing; it is so clearly a question of totally felt and sincere singing from a heart gifted with a brain ! Over and over again throughout the performance her singing merges impeccably into the lines of the orchestra and the changing tempi of the score so that what emerges is something like what one feels when seeing dolphins frolic in and out of the sea. No self-conscious vocal exhibitionism here, no attempts to float those audience-pleasing, sugar-gum-drops of lush notes. When such notes come from Callas, and they do in this recording, they come naturally, spontaneously, and suffused with nobility of soul. But it is her sense of rhythm and exact diction which falls in perfect sync with Karajan's conducting that carries this recording off the disc and totally out of the 'ball park' in which, unfortunately, most of the operatic world still plays. The duo of Karajan & Callas lifts this Il Trovatore into the realm of musical genius from whence Verdi so clearly brought it down to us. Listen to this performance. Buy it. Find out what musical greatness is !

This Trovatore has been called a landmark by critics and fans alike. Callas in in exquisite form, di Stefano sounds passionate, ardent and luscious and Panerei is a surprisingly fierce di Luna. Von Karajan conducts this PERFECTLY. Buy this and marvel at a vocal wonder!

This is certainly one of the greatest Verdi recordings ever made. If Trovatore needs the 4 greatest singers in the World, here we have them in all their splendour. Maria Callas Leonora is perfection itself> passion, and musicianship in equal measure. Her singing in the Miserere must be counted the greatest ever caught by a microphone. Giuseppe Di Stefano may not have the squillo for Manrico, but he sings a devastatingly beautiful and passionate Trovatore. Singing like this, certainly makes him a god, he is pure delight and as Leonora would say "he is to die for". Rolando Panerai's suave Conte di Luna is in the same class, dashing, youthful and superbly sung. As Azucena, the great Fedora Barbieri is commanding. Herbert von Karajan in perhaps his finest Verdi performance ever, is worthy of his oh-so-heavenly team. If you love opera, you just can't be without this greatest of all Trovatores.

I couldn't agree more with the reviews stating that Callas' Leonora is unsurpassed. Björling called this Leonora "sheer perfection". Unbeatable!