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

Support us financially by purchasing this from

Crescendo
Stefano Secco (tenor)
Kaunas State Choir, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantine Orbelian
rec. Kaunas Philharmonic, Kaunas, Lithuania, December 2014
Sung texts with English translations enclosed
DELOS DE3482 [63:05]

A little more than a year ago I reviewed a complete recording of Simon Boccanegra on Delos, where Stefano Secco sang Gabriele Adorno. I had good things to say about him but in the last resort I found that he didn’t get ‘anywhere near Carreras or Bergonzi’ as heard on rival recordings. The present recital was recorded a year later and, truth to tell, I now find him considerably closer to his great predecessors. The programme has few surprises. It is more or less what nine out of ten tenor recitals contain. Most of the favourite arias are there, bar, for once, Nessun dorma.
 
Secco has a good lirico-spinto tenor with glow up high and care over nuance, which cannot always be taken for granted. He builds E lucevan le stelle gradually towards the climax. Che gelida manina is even better in that respect, lyric and restrained and the climactic high C is brilliant and secure. This is a memorable reading. Addio fiorito asil is sung with feeling but he avoids the tears. He is more taxed by the Ballo aria but his nuances are still fine. La mia letizia from I Lombardi, one of the not so common arias, is given a full-throated and glorious reading, but here, and sometimes elsewhere too, Sacco compromises his otherwise stylish singing by sliding up to the top notes.

The Flower Song is unfortunately rather prosaic. One misses the poetry but Eléazar’s aria from La Juive, the other relative rarity, is given a good reading, some strain apart. Una furtiva lagrima is well sung with a beautifully executed end of the aria. In the Lucia aria he finds some subtleties. Boito’s Giunto sol passo is also OK, while the Faust cavatina, preceded by the recitative although the track list doesn’t observe that, is one of the best.

La donna è mobile is elegant and rather light. Oh! Fede negar potessi is the recitative, but it is followed by the aria proper, Quando le sere al placido, which unfortunately is very strained, especially in the recitative. In Ah, si ben mio his trill is rather sketchy. The aria has a fine romantic glow and Di quella pira is quite OK but he hits the high C spot-on.

There are some ups and downs here but the orchestra play well – listen to the intro to the Juive aria – under Orbelian’s safe baton. The recording is excellent and Stefano Secco, today in his early forties, is without doubt one of the better Italian tenors in his generation.

Göran Forsling
 
Track listing
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858 – 1924)
Tosca:
1. E lucevan le stelle [2:53]
La Bohème:
2. Che gelida manina [5:08]
Madama Butterfly:
3. Addio, fiorito asil [2:08]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813 – 1901)
Un ballo in maschera:
4. Forse la soglia attinse [5:26]
I Lombardi:
5. La mia letizia in fondere [2:06]
Georges BIZET (1838 – 1875)
Carmen:
6. La fleur que tu m’avais jetée [4:13]
Fromental HALÉVY (1799 – 1862)
7. Rachel, quand du Seigneur [5:56]
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797 – 1848)
L’elisir d’amore:
8. Una furtiva lagrima [4:42]
Lucia di Lammermoor:
9. Fra poco a me ricovero [7:15]
Arrigo BOITO (1842 – 1918)
Mefistofele:
10. Giunto sul passo estremo [3:18]
Charles GOUNOD (1818 – 1893)
Faust:
11. Salut, demeure chaste et pure [6:26]
Giuseppe VERDI
Rigoletto:
12. La donna è mobile [2:22]
Luisa Miller:
13. Oh! Fede negar potessi [5:20]
Il trovatore:
14. Ah, si ben mio, coll’essere [3:18]
15. Di quella pira [2:23]

 

 



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