Search - Rosetta Pampanini :: Opera Arias

One of the Better Verismo Sopranos

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 11/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I usually rate recital recordings individually, one song or aria at a time, then make up a general overall number for the review. There are exceptions, and this is one of them. Historically this CD allows us to hear the soprano Toscanini chose as his Madama Butterfly in the famous revival in the twenties. As a singer some singers just are easier for me to listen to than others - and it's not always about technical qualities. Anyway Pampanini falls in the happy bunch I enjoy, and like. While I can think of an number of singers who excel her in individual numbers, I can also say I wish I were stuck listening to her as my house soprano instead of the variegated lot we keep receiving in SF these days. Pampanini belts out her feelings as is expected of an Italian soprano from the height of Verismo. Yet she also sings much better than most of her sisters, giving out with some genuine and moving singing as singing. It's not all blood and guts, though some of Pampanini's high notes are less than elegant!



Pampanini also worked closely with Mascagni on L'Amico Fritz and Preiser has added a duet with the now forgotten lyric tenor Dino Borgioli. I like him and urge you to give him a listen. The famous octopus aria is included from Iris - elsewhere I praised the renditions of both Bori and Olivero of this frightening (and frightful to sing) aria. Pampanini dashes through the aria's opening, probably at the insistence of the composer, and struggles with her registers. However, she redeems herself by the end with some truly impassioned singing and a breathtaking close. In opera you lose some and you win some, sometimes within the same aria!

I like her - Pampanini is never boring!"