Search - Verdi, Price, Leinsdorf :: Aida

I love Leontyne Price!!!

06/16/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Leontyne Price recorded a lot of Aidas, and the best one is problably the 1963 Met recording with Bergonzi as Radames and Solti on the podium (Myto). Though, if you don't like bad sound and coughing contests, you must hate that disc-set. Then, if you want to hear the best Aida ever, you have to buy this beautiful RCA recording; Leinsdorf does a great job, although he's not the most talented conductor of the century, and Leontyne Price's singing is just as good as it gets. Listen closely to her "Ritorna vincitor!": that's what "ARTIST" means. Domingo and Bumbry show they're worth their popularity; Raimondi and Milnes complete the triumph with great performances."

Let me list the ways

Mark McCue | Denver, CO USA | 07/27/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"We'll make this a short list. Price is still characterful but the highs are scooped or ducked, the lows are gusty to the point of raspiness. I have no idea what Leinsdorf is doing with the score--he seems to change concept as if this were done in a string of sessions, and none of his decisions seem to stem from dramatic or musical requirements. I have even less of an idea why RCA would want the London Symphony for this project, the trombone and trumpet-playing is so out-of-character for Verdi that I wondered when I first heard this 30 years ago if we actually had Verdi or if Leoncavallo had wandered in from somewhere and why. Maybe the LSO was just easier to deal with than the capricious Rome Opera musicians. (Yes, they can be very noisy and hard to handle).On top of it, no one else in the cast is really very good. If it matters, all the liabilities are nicely enhanced by the beautiful sound and wide stereo spread.Go for Price's rapt Rome version under Solti, Milanov's heartfelt Rome version with Perlea, Tebaldi in her glorious and idomatic, nonstudioish Rome version with Erede. Try to find the inspired Gilda-Cruz Romo at the Orange Festival under Schippers (if you can stand the bad tenor), Mary Curtis-Verna, Callas, Ricciarelli, Giannina Arrangi-Lombardi, or one of those old Stella Roman tapes from the Met. All of these have their own virtues of greatness. But not this. Record some of the better parts (you'll know where they are) and trade this thing in."