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 Plain text for smartphones & printers


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

 

Support us financially by purchasing this from
Jewels of the Bel Canto
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
Don Pasquale - Recit and Aria “Quel guardo, il Cavaliere ... So anch’io la virtu? magica” [5.45]
La Fille du Régiment - Aria, “Chacun le sait” [3.43]
Lucia di Lammermoor - Recitative, “Ancor non giunse!” Aria, “Regnava nel silenzio” Cabaletta, “Quando rapito in estasi”
with Catherine Carby as Alisa, Sharron Griffiths (harp) [12.22]
L’elisir d’amore Aria, “Prendi, per me sei libero” [3.27]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901) Il Corsaro - Recit and Aria, “Egli non riede ancora! ... Non so le tetre immagini” [5.37]
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
La Cambiale di Matrimonio - Aria “Vorrei spiegarvi il giubilo” [3.59]
Le Comte Ory - Aria and Cabaletta, “En proie a? la Tristesse ... Celeste providence” [9.05]
Matilde di Shabran - Scene and Aria, “Son tua per sempre ... Ami alfine?”; Finale, “Tace la tromba altera” [7.53]
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801-1835)
I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Recit and Aria, “Eccomi in lieta vesta ... Oh! Quante Volte” [8.18]
La Sonnambula - Scene, “Oh!... se una volta sola rivederlo potessi”; Aria, “Ah! Non credea mirati” Cabaletta, “Ah! non giunge uman pensiero” [12.22]
Elena Xanthoudakis (soprano)
Royal Northern Sinfonia/Richard Bonynge
rec. The Sage, Gateshead, England, July 2013
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD374 [70.34]

Australian born, of Greek extraction, Elena Xanthoudakis claims her idols to be Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. She certainly has plenty of wining performances in singing competitions to her credit. Since arriving in Britain she has made debuts with Covent Garden, English National Opera and Scottish Opera as well as at The Glyndebourne Festival, albeit often in small roles. Perhaps influenced by promise of this background, the Borletti-Button Trust provided the financial assistance for this recording. Nothing seems to be spared with a booklet including words and translations in English and an informative essay on bel canto by non-pareil expert in the field, scholar, Philip Gossett. Add the expense of bringing Richard Bonynge, bel canto conductor par excellence, from his home in Switzerland to conduct and it seemed that all was set for a spectacular calling-card CD.
 
Well, despite all the above I found myself underwhelmed. This was to the extent that after the first playing I put the disc aside and came back to it fresh several weeks later, only to confirm my earlier impressions. Elena Xanthoudakis has a high centred flexible light lyric voice that in many ways should be ideal for the repertoire selected. Apart from her first trills I found her performance as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale adequate (tr.1). The choice of Verdi’s Il Corsaro seems rather strange (tr.2). Premiered in the year Donizetti finally died, having been comatose from sometime beforehand from the tertiary effects of syphilis, Verdi had moved far from bel canto by that time. Miss Xanthoudakis chooses the role that the refulgently toned Jessye Norman sings on the Philips recording ((416 398-2). Here the result is monotonous.
 
Moving on to Donizetti again, as Marie in La Fille du Régiment doubts were setting in about characterization (tr.3). Yes, the extended scene from Lucia (tr.3), with maestro Bonynge carefully supporting her in pacing and phrasing, is a showcase, but the singer hardly brings me to share Lucia’s emotional intensity. It is the lack of much variety of tonal colour that seems to inhibit her ability in this direction and make the succession of arias rather boring in their sameness. The choice of repertoire is interesting as with the selection from Matilde di Shabran, Rossini’s thirty-second opera, premiered in Rome a couple of weeks before his last opera seria for Naples (tr.10) and his life in Paris. Otherwise the sameness and lack of characterization are major drawbacks.

Robert J Farr