Search - Del Monaco, Nelli, Merola :: Opera Arias Duets & Music

A Real Review

05/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"(...) Listening to del Monaco's contributions in the "Teco io sto" duet, you will find that he is in flexible, thrilling voice. His "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" is a bit stentorian and lacks idiomatic French diction, but there is a lot of feeling in his singing, as well as a blissed lack of sobbing and gulping.Herva Nelli does NOT sound like she is 60 on this recording. Sure, her voice is a bit mature-sounding, but she definitely does not sound 60 here. Her singing of the Bolero from "I vespri siciliani" does not contain laughably inept coloratura. She sings the grace notes quite well and her runs are respectably sung. She even sings real trills in this aria; instead of rolling them into existence, she widens her vibrato in order to get them started. While her low notes may be lacking, she has a strong middle register and a secure top. She also sings with much feeling. Also, her Italian diction is quite fine. She and del Monaco give a beautiful, if not super-precise reading of the Act 2 Amelia/Riccardo duet from "Un ballo in maschera".The liner notes, while containing useful information, have two serious problems. First, they mistakenly state that Nelli was 27 when this broadcast was aired in 1950; she was actually 41. Second, the liner notes state that both Eleanor Steber and Blanche Thebom were mediocre singers who took away Nelli's recording opportunities. Steber and Thebom were anything but mediocre, and it wasn't their fault that they got recording contracts while Nelli didn't. The liner notes make Nelli sound like a victim of cruel chance or of petty jealousies and they make her sound like a shamefully neglected great singer. While my experience with her voice comes only from this CD, I do know that she has a rather bad reputation in the opera world, and I don't think that her neglect is shameful. While she doesn't prove to be a bad singer on this CD, I think the liner notes went way overboard in praising her."