Verdi- Un Ballo in Maschera

Verdi - Rigoletto / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Milnes, LSO, Bonynge This Rigoletto has been around for so long it might be easy to take it for granted or skip it for a newer set. Don't! It features all three principals in superb voice, as well as pacing from Maestro Bonynge that is much heavier on drama than most of us expect from him. Sutherla...	Donizetti - La Fille du Régiment / Sutherland, Pavarotti, Malas, Sinclair, ROH Covent Garden, Bonynge This opera, about an orphan girl who is adopted by a whole regiment of Napoleon's army (meaning that anyone who wants to marry her must get the regiment's consent) combines sparkling comedy with spectacular vocal writing--not only for the soprano but for the tenor who, in one...	Donizetti - Maria Stuarda / Sutherland, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Bonynge This opera becomes a battle of the divas in its great second act, with Sutherland, as Mary Stuart, pitted against the jealous, paranoid, and vengeful Elizabeth I (Tourangeau). There is an intensely dramatic confrontation in which insults are violently exchanged between the powerf...	Bellini - La Sonnambula / Sutherland · Pavarotti · Ghiaurov · NPO · Bonynge Joan Sutherland, never noted for dramatic intensity, seemed more at home in roles that appealed to sentimentality rather than the tragic emotions of pity and fear. She still had that appeal and a voice in prime condition when this, her second Sonnambula, was recorded. Her appeali...	Donizetti - L'elisir d'amore / Sutherland · Pavarotti · Cossa · Malas · Casula · ECO · Bonynge This appealing opera about Nemorino (Pavarotti), a poor young Italian peasant, hopelessly in love with Adina (Sutherland), daughter of a wealthy landowner, has a wealth of comic incidents, mostly based on the character of Dr. Dulcamara, a traveling huckster of patent medicines wh...
Bellini: I Puritani Sutherland's second recording of I Puritani is a substantial step beyond her first, thanks largely to the excellent cast assembled around her and to Richard Bonynge's growth in power and subtlety as a conductor. Her voice was still at or near its peak when she made this recor...	Verdi - Un Ballo in Maschera / Levine, Pavarotti, Nucci, Metropolitan Opera	The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century Anyone who has ever gamely tried and failed to absorb, enjoy, and--especially--understand the complex works of Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss, or even Philip Glass will allow themselves a wry smile reading New Yorker music critic Alex Ross's outstanding The Rest Is Noise. Not only d...	Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera	Verdi - Requiem / Price, Pavarotti, Cossotto, Ghiaurov, von Karajan, Teatro alla Scala

A dud, even with the young Pavarotti
I bought this set with high expectations, but even though it features Pavarotti in great voice, his interpretation hadn't matured, as one can hear from his much better Un Ballo under Solti form 1985. His Amelia, Renata Tebaldi, was the reason for making this recording; sadly, she sounds hard-voiced, squawky, and dramatically uninvolving. Resnik is old-sounding as Ulrica, and although eveyrone else is good enough, Bruno Bartoletti's conducting is humdrum. Even a masterpiece can't take this many deficits.

Beware the Jabberwock
Ballo is one of Verdi's most lavishly romantic scores. Its wonders include one of the great love duets. This was the first recording of it I owned, at a time when I was learning opera and singing technique. I thought I didn't like the opera. Eventually I realized I didn't like the soprano, and fell in love with the work as a whole. If you do not know this piece, this is NOT the recording to buy. If you do know Ballo, this recording is more than worth it for the youthful and smooth voiced Pavarotti, the bright Helen Donath, and the amazing Sherrill Milnes. They sing the pants off of this score. Just beware of Renata Tebaldi's Amelia and take her performance within the larger context of this opera and her career.

flawed yet exciting
The main glory of this set is the singing of the young Luciano Pavarotti as Riccardo. The sheer beauty of the voice and his youthful exuberance are a real delight. Sherrill Milnes is also caught in his youthful prime portraying a strong Renato. Helen Donath is a fresh-voiced and delightful Oscar. There remains Renata Tebaldi and Regina Resnik - two great singers unfortu- nately caught here a little late in their carreers - the former rather hard-toned and the latter wobbly - however their artistry and commitment are never in doubt and both offer memorable if flawed performances. Very well recorded and conducted - at this bargain price well worth investigating.