MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Buy through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

Sound Samples & Downloads

Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797 – 1848)
Great Singers in Donizetti
NIMBUS PRIMA VOCE NI 7892/3 [74:17 + 67:53]

Experience Classicsonline


CD 1:

Lucia di Lammermoor
1. Cruda funesta smania - Mariano Stabile (baritone) [4:08]
2. Regnava nel silenzio - Luisa Tetrazzini (soprano) [7:29]
3. Dalle stanze ove Lucia - Marcel Journet (bass) [3:11]

Linda di Chamounix
4. O luce di quest' anima - Rosina Storchio (soprano) [3:48]

Lucrezia Borgia
5. Di pescatore ignobile - Carlo Albani (ten) [2:43]
6. Vieni, la mia vendetta... Qualunque sia l'evento - Francesco Navarini (bass) [5:27]
7. Il segreto per esser felice - Clara Butt (contralto) [3:29]

Don Pasquale
8. Sogno soave e casto - Giuseppe Anselmi (tenor) [3:12]
9. So anch' io la virtu magica - Olimpia Boronat (soprano) [4:31]
10. Pronto io son... Vado, corro - Giuseppe de Luca (baritone); Lucrezia Bori (soprano) [7:48]
11. Com'č gentil - Giovanni Martinelli (ten) [3:40]

L’elisir d’amore
12. Chiedi all' aura lusinghiera - Maria Galvany (soprano); Aristodemo Giorgini (tenor)
[3:31]
13. Obbligato, obbligato - Fernando De Lucia (tenor); Ernesto Badini (baritone) [2:59]
Maria di Rudenz
14. Ah! Non avea pił lagrime - Mattia Battistini (baritone) [4:19]

La Favorita / La Favorite
15. Vien, Leonora - Riccardo Stracciari (baritone) [2:59]
16. Redoutez la fureur d'un Dieu (Anathčme de Balthazar) - Marcel Journet (bass)
[3:26]
17. A tanto amor - Renato Zanelli (tenor) [3:13]
18. Spirto gentil - Giacomo Lauri-Volpi (tenor) [4:24]

CD 2:

Don Sebastiano
1. Deserto in terra – Alfred Piccaver (tenor) [4:15]
La figlia del reggimento
2. Convien partir – Toti dal Monte (soprano) [4:37]

L’elisir d’amore
3. Udite, udite, o rustici – Salvatore Baccaloni (baritone) [3:53]
4. Una furtiva lagrima – Tito Schipa (tenor) [4:30]

Don Pasquale
5. Cheti, cheti, immantinente – Mariano Stabile (baritone) ; Martin Lawrence (baritone) [6:24]
6. Tornami a dir che m’ami – Toti dal Monte (soprano) ; Tito Schipa (tenor) [3:32]

La Favorita / La Favorite
7. Una vergine, un angiol di Dio – Aureliano Pertile (tenor) [2:45]
8. O moi Fernando – Sigrid Onegin (mezzo) [4:45]
9. Splendon pił belle – Ezio Pinza (bass) [3:59]

Lucia di Lammermoor
10. Sulla tomba che rinserra…Verrano a te sull’aure – Aureliano Pertile (tenor); Anna
Rosza (soprano) [7:48]
11. Splendon i sacri faci…Ardon gl’incensi…Spargi d’amaro pianto (Mad Scene) -
Toti dal Monte (soprano) [8:02]
12. Tombi degli avi miei…Fra poco a me ricovero…Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali -
Beniamino Gigli (tenor); Ezio Pinza (bass) [13:23]
rec. 1906-1947

 
This is an interesting, if uneven, collection of Donizetti arias and duets comprising nineteen acoustic and eleven electrical recordings spanning forty years. The bias here seems to be towards singers more familiar to, and more according to the taste of, British collectors. This is so much so that certain choices are, to say the least, eccentric. I wonder, for example, who decided that the duet from “Lucia di Lammermoor” by Pertile and Anna Rosza merited inclusion, given that he is so stylistically inept and incongruous and she so dull and droopy. Or who opted for the tame and indifferently sung 1947 account of “Cheti, cheti, immantinente” when we might have had the celebrated 1907 version by Giuseppe de Luca and Ferruccio Corradetti? There is no Sembrich, no Renaud, no Galli-Curci, no Pini-Corsi, and a case might be made for the inclusion of many another singer omitted here – but that is in the nature of compilations and there are still many treasures to enjoy amid some less than stellar performances.
 
After so many lighter tenors with sometimes comically tremulous vibratos such as Albani and Anselmi, it is certainly a pleasure to stumble across the dark, velvety tenor of Alfred Piccaver and the virile, metallic voice of Giovanni Martinelli – but no voice is more stentorian than that of the delightful and redoubtable six-foot-contralto Dame Clara Butt in the showpiece “Il segreto”, unless it is the rounded splendour of great French bass Marcel Journet, who is given two arias in which to display his chestnut tones. Lovely, too, to hear a great bronze-voiced baritone like Riccardo Stracciari rein in his vibrant tone to sing with restraint and elegance in “Vien, Leonora” from “La favorita”, just occasionally allowing a veiled passion to emerge through the intensity of his mezza di voce. It is also good to hear the sixty-five-year-old Matti Battistini, still extraordinarily elegant yet also sounding almost improvisational in his freedom with the notes and text without being wilful. His elder by three years but recorded much earlier is baritone Franceso Navarrini, who has slightly laboured top notes but is a model of Donizettian comedic style. I cannot say the same for the aria which opens the disc; Mario Stabile’s dim rendering of “Cruda funesta smania” is in rather nasal style and indulges in clumsy rallentandi. Matters pick up with the extraordinary pure, piping, disembodied coloratura of Luisa Tetrazzini as Lucia. She balances the brilliance of her top notes by drawing on a salty lower register. However, it is not she but Toti dal Monte who gets the lion’s share of soprano arias on this compilation, including the extended Mad Scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor”. One of the great delights of this double disc is her famous collaboration with the grainy, satinate tenor of Tito Schipa, who also contributes a melting “Una furtiva lagrima”. There is both aesthetic and curiosity value in hearing the thirty-year-old Lauri-Volpi intone “Spirto gentil” rather strenuously – but he is another tenor whose youthful voice was characterised by so marked a vibrato that it sits ill with some modern ears; I much prefer the smoother, burnished tenor of Renato Zanelli in which you may still hear his baritone roots. Sigrid Onegin sings “O mio Fernando” in stately fashion but makes little dramatic impact.
 
The concluding extended duet which brings down the curtain on “Lucia” is evidently meant to represent the climax to this two-disc gala. I am afraid that I am one of those who does not really respond to Gigli in lachrymose vein. That said, I realise that I am in a minority here and others will revel in it. This is especially the case as he is paired with perhaps the greatest Italian bass ever, Ezio Pinza. He is also allocated a majestic aria from “La favorita”, “Splendon pił bello”, which he sings with his customary grave authority and richness of timbre.
 
Transfers are as good as ever from Nimbus.
 
This set represents a pleasing, if slightly obtuse and incomplete survey of Donizetti singing from the first part of the twentieth century.
 

Ralph Moore
 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.