Search - Verdi, Lamberti, Papantoniou :: Il Corsaro - Complete Opera

A La Fenice Rip-off

John Cragg | Delta(greater Vancouver), B.C Canada | 06/02/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is a really miserable production. The problem is in the recording which sounds terrible. Sometimes one would think that it was a recording from the 1920's -- at others that the stage had been filled with cotton wool -- and yet at others that the singers were trying to blow soap bubbles while singing. In fact the only thing that is recorded consistently with accuracy is the audience noise. If this were really how the theatre sounded, its burning down would have been a cause for celebration rather than mourning. Insult is added to injury by Mondo Musica boasting about their advanced technology. Despite the price, the discs come in a compact jewel case, allowing only a most minimal booklet. There is no libretto. Instead, there is one of the more half-witted essays concentrating largely on allusive trivia. The synopsis is not keyed to the track index. To increase confusion apparantly they claim that one role is sung by both Renato Bruson and Giuseppe Scandola. Instead of information, the boklet contains some drawings of the stage sets -- indded suggesting cotton wool. The opera incidentally is very shot: the timings give it 92 minutes and that includes the audience noise and clapping. This is all a pity: Right now this seems to be the only version available. The opera does contain some clearly interesting music, and both the soprano (Angeles Gulin) and the tenor (Lamberti) produce some glorious singing when the engineers do not completely destroy their efforts. But destroy is the operative work. Avoid this one, unless you need desparately to complete your collection."