Search - Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini :: Diva:Montserrat Caballe

Sings a wide range of works well

Steven A. Peterson | Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL) | 04/28/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"On this CD, Montserrat Caballe sings a wide range of arias. She runs the gamut from the bel canto works of Rossini and Bellini to the verismo works of Puccini and Mascagni, with Verdi in between. Overall, this is a nice introduction to her work. While I would not rate her among the very greatest of sopranos, she certainly ranks high in the pantheon of sopranos from the 20th century.



A brief sampling of her work on this CD. From Puccini's "Madam Butterfly," the CD begins with "Un bel di vedremo." She sings smoothly with a nice sound to her voice. Normally, when she increases the volume of her singing, the sound of her voice is still good. There are some occasional unpleasant sounds, but nothing notable. This is a nice dramatic rendering of an iconic aria. She hits the higher notes well.



Rossini's "William Tell" isn't much performed these days. But Caballe's version of "Sombre foret" suggests that some good operatic music is not played often enough. This is well sung; Caballe shows good vocal agility at the close.



"Son vergin vezzosa," from Bellini's "I Puritani," shows off her agile vocal technique. Early on, she floats a nice piano high note. In terms of technique, it is disappointing that the trills are not evident. In the end, this is a good version of this work, but not at the level of Jo, or Sills, or Sutherland. Outside of trills, ornamentation is good, but that is like saying that outside of its lack of speed, a sports car is a lot of fun to drive. Still, other ornamentation is well done, including appoggiaturas. The Wikipedia says (under ornamentation): "In music, ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to the overall melodic (or harmonic) line, but serve to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note. . . . From the Italian word appoggiare, "to lean upon". . . . The long appoggiatura is important melodically and often suspend the principal note by taking away the time-value of the appoggiatura prefixed to it (generally half the time value of the note, though in triple time, for example, it might receive two thirds of the time). The added note (the unessential note) is one degree higher or lower than the principal note; and, if lower, it may or may not be chromatically raised (see mordent)." I'm not sure, as a musical nonexpert, that I fully understand the technicalities here, but Caballe does seem to exhibit nice ornamentation as per the above.



From "La Boheme," we have "Donde liata usci," very nicely done. This is prettily sung, for the most part, with only a rare unpleasant sound intruding. Finally, from "Turandot," "Signore ascolta." This is a smoothly sung version. From this CD, it is clear that Caballe can sing Puccini very well indeed. There is a nice piano high note at the close.



So, Caballe is clearly an excellent soprano although not, in my judgment, among the "all time greats."

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