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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most beautifully sung La Traviata, April 19, 2004
I don't believe there is any one "best" version of this ever-popular opera, but this is my favorite of recorded Traviatas, and for those who value beautiful singing and state-of-the-art sound, it remains a top choice. It is complete and uncut; it wears supremely well; it has given me, and continues to give me, more musical pleasure than any other La Traviata. La Traviata is really a three-character opera, and here the three principals, Sutherland, Bergonzi, and Merrill, are three of the great voices of the second half of the twentieth century, all singing highly congenial roles, all captured in their vocal primes. None of them was known as an insightful vocal actor who plumbed the psychological depths of a role, and listeners who put that quality foremost are advised to look elsewhere (preferably to one of the memorable Callas performances). What these three principals, and the polished, idiomatic performance of Pritchard and the Florentine chorus and orchestra, provide here in spades, is a convincing demonstration of just how effective and how beautiful a performance of a middle-period Verdi opera like this one can be if it is simply sung correctly by three great voices who sing all the notes that Verdi wrote, and let Verdi do the rest. Sounds absurdly simple, doesn't it? Yet it's remarkable how rarely it is achieved. Sutherland, the greatest coloratura soprano of modern times, handles with ease the florid requirements of Sempre libera in Act One, turning it into the dazzling coloratura showpiece it was intended to be (and so rarely is), but she also has the vocal horsepower to belt out the great emotional outburst Amami Alfredo in Act Two to stunning effect. Violettas who can do both are few and far between. She does not give you the heartbreaking poignancy of Callas in this role, but Callas does not give you the coloratura brilliance, the extraordinary high notes, the rock-steady vocal security, the beauty and purity of sound that Sutherland offers, and to my ears, these have their own abundant rewards here. Bergonzi is an exemplary, impassioned Alfredo, full of youthful ardor expressed in disciplined vocalism, and Merrill is a peerless, rich-voiced Germont pere. Three great voices, all in peak form, all functioning easily, smoothly, naturally, and securely, all knowing exactly what they are doing. Technically the recording, made in Florence in 1962 by Decca/London's legendary recording engineer Kenneth Wilkinson, has never been surpassed. That's not hyperbole; it may be over 40 years old, but it has quite literally never been surpassed. It is a model of clarity and naturalness: heard on a reference-quality playback system, the opera unfolds before you on an absolutely natural and believable soundstage, as if you had an ideal seat, the voices recorded with complete naturalness, with none of the artificial spotlighting or close-miking (that sense that the soloist has just stepped up to the microphone) that disfigure many opera recordings. Levels, balances, and the aural perspective have been perfectly judged: nothing is too close up or too far away; the recording is wonderfully free, open, warm, and "alive," with full frequency and dynamic range, and a complete absence of overloading, distortion, hardness, brightness, or coloration. From an engineering/audiophile point of view, I have never heard a more natural, flawless, thoroughly satisfying recording of an opera. If you love La Traviata, if you love grand voices and grand singing, if you want to hear a perfectly recorded opera, I urge you to acquire this splendid, timeless recording.
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~ Giuseppe Verdi
~ Gioachino Rossini
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