Search - Vincenzo Bellini, Anton Guadagno, Anna Moffo :: Puritani-Complete Opera-1967: W. Moffo, Duval, Giaiotti; Guadagno - Phil./1967

Possibly a great performance, but the sound quality prohibit

Opera Obsessed | Baltimore, MD USA | 02/29/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The role of Elvira was written by Bellini with Giulia Grisi's voice in mind. When you familiarize yourself with this role, you can almost imagine what Grisi must have sounded like. She sang during an earlier Golden Age of Opera back in the early to mid 19th Century.



Many lyric coloratura sopranos sing the role because it contains many florid coloratura passages; however, many of the other passages are better sung by a light lyric soprano. One challenge in performing Elvira is the need to sing both the lyric and coloratura parts with great facility.



I am a huge Anna Moffo fan, and I have all of her recordings, and her performance of the mad scene from I Puritani on her CD "La Bellissima" demonstrates mastery of both the lyric and coloratura passages. It is possible that Moffo's voice was very similar to Grisi's, but we shall never know that because no recordings exist of the 19th Century artist. For these reasons, I was quite hopeful in obtaining this recording. Unfortunately, I must say that it is quite difficult to appreciate this recording because it sounds almost as if the orchestra and singers are either underwater or in the next room. I am not someone who readily dismisses historic recordings that naturally have poorer sound quality. For instance, the 1952 recording of Callas singing I Puritani under the EMI label is one of my favorite CD's, although the sound is simply not the best. This recording in question, however, makes it almost impossible to enjoy the actual performance at all.



If you want to hear Anna Moffo, stick to her studio recordings of Lucia di Lammermoor and La Traviata, or try "La Bellissima" or "Anna Moffo - Arias." If you would like a clearer recording of I Puritani, you should be happy with the Sills and Sutherland versions on CD or the Gruberova and Netrebko versions on film.

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