Search - Gioachino Rossini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Teresa Zylis-Gara :: Mose / Ghiaurov, Zylis-Gara, Verrett, Lane, Petri, Garaventa; Sawallisch

I second the motion!

David R. Eastwood | Long Island, NY | 05/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Often these "live performance" recordings sound as if some sneaky idiot had a cheap tape recorder hidden inside his/her coat. There is a definite quality-control problem with most of them. HOWEVER, this recording of Rossini's MOSE is the best such recording I have yet heard! If you love Rossini, BUY IT. If you love Shirley Verrett, BUY IT. The singing of the whole cast is uniformly excellent, and the sound quality is very very good. And of course the score is wonderful. If this were a vinyl LP set, I would have worn it out by now: I have played this CD set over 50 times and still love it. And, if you don't like it for any reason, at least you are not out very much money. I have bought expensive brands to get certain operas and have been sadly disappointed by one or more factors. Ditto when spending four or five times this price to have a ticket at the Met. Finally, if you need more info about the opera or Rossini or the singers, (a) go to the library or (b) go online. THIS IS A REALLY GREAT VALUE!"

Fabulous Performance

William S. Levison | Valdosta, GA United States | 06/17/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My enthusiasm for this recording must be tempered by the fact that I have never heard any of the music before. Further, the accompanying information does not even mention the vocal range of the performers and offers only the most cursory plot summary. Having established these caveats, I thoroughly recommend this performance. The music is prime Rossini in the seria mode, with wonderful florid arias and stirring choruses. The peformers are terrific; Ghiaurov, Verrett, Petri, Garaventa, and especially the woefully underrated Teresa Zylis-Gara are in superb voice, and Wolfgang Sawallisch, who also conducts the other available recording of "Mose," leads the RAI in an exciting live performance (1968). The sound is good vintage, and the audience is amazingly quiet. In fact, there is so little applause within the acts that I suspect the audience was as unfamiliar with the opera as I."

Nice Rossini, nice sound, fine performance

R. Broadhead | Southwestern USA | 05/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This really is a nice recording of a beautiful Rossini opera. The recording is of a live performance in Rome on April 11, 1968. Wolfgang Sawallisch conducts the RAI Orchestra and Chorus. Although the sound is in mono, it is excellent and is "high fidelity" - the soloists, the chorus, and the orchestra all come through very clearly and are faithfully reproduced. Although there is the usual coughing, etc. from the audience at the beginning, they soon settle down and are only heard after the better arias and duets where they applaud enthusiatically but politely.



The opera is really quite nice, with lovely melodies throughout. As usual with Rossini, there is constant interspersal of choruses with arias, duets, and ensembles. There are longer and more frequent parts for just the orchestra than is typical for Rossini - perhaps this is due to the biblical nature of the work (although Rossini and his librettist Andrea Tottola strayed from biblical faithfulness by adding a love affair between Pharoah's son and Moses' niece!). The orchestral parts are quite lovely and show us a side of Rossini we don't often see. It makes me wonder how Rossini would have fared had he decide to write symphonies.



The singing is excellent. Nicolai Ghiarov is his usual fine self as Moses. Mario Petri's smooth and strong tenor is Pharoah. And Shirley Verrett's superb voice does indeed treat us to a fine Sinais - although her coloratura is not as strong as some other Rossini singers, it really doesn't seem to matter because of her gorgeous tone and strength throughout her range. The other soloists are all fine and there are no weak links in the cast.



As typical for Opera d'Oro, there is no libretto, just a brief booklet describing the opera. Although there is a list of the sound tracks with the name of the selection on each track, the booklet does not list the characters that sing on each track, unlike many Opera d'Oro recordings. In spite of this and the general lack of a libretto, this recording still rates 5 stars for the excellent sound quality, the strength of the performance, and above all, the beautiful music."