Search - Giacomo Puccini, Massimo Pradella, RAI Orchestra :: Puccini: Gianni Schicchi

Good Italianate performance in so-so sound

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 01/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is, I assume, an RAI broadcast from the 1960s. It is just the sort of thing that you might have expected from Cetra in the 1950s.



It captures the great Tito Gobbi in one of his signature parts and surrounds him with a cast of good but not incandescently talented singers, although the bright and youthful-sounding lead soprano and tenor are perfectly satisfactory in their roles.



The sound captured for this performance is not up to that of the EMI studio recording that Gobbi did with de los Angeles. On the other hand, it is not lumbered with the beefy groaning of EMI's egregious tenor, Carlo dal Monte.



This set has the virtue of being a stand-alone serving of far-and-away the best part of Puccini's "Trittico" at an attractive price. Being dal Monte-free, it is greatly to be preferred over Gobbi's EMI version.



And of course--anyone who hears it even once will forever know how to pronounce "Gianni Schicchi"!"