Search - Puccini, Ghione, Cigna :: Turandot

Powerful second recording

Alan Montgomery | Oberlin, Oh USA | 06/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to second the other review here. Considering the 1938 origin of this recording, the listener quickly adjusts to the lesser fidelity. Only in the beginning is the sound even remotely murky. Cigna has all the brilliance of Nilsson but she is able to pare her voice down more easily, keeping warmth where she needs it. Merli is fabulous. The voice has colors one associates with Corelli, but he attacks pitches squarely on pitch, and he shapes the lines with incredible beauty (I also love his Manrico in Il Trovatore). Olivero may not be to everyone's taste. Her top notes seem almost tremulous. But whether this is on purpose or a technique defect doesn't matter, because it adds to her vulnerability.



Ghione does not drive this music the way others do. It isn't that he takes slower tempi, but he DOES allow a certain atmosphere of sadness to come into the work that I have not heard on other recordings.



Listeners will want an initial recording with higher fidelity than this, but this is the ideal second recording. Pity the price is so high. (This review is based on an LP.)



One wonderful note: the gong at the end of act one is a Chinese gong, pitched on A, and not a tam-tam (the deep, cymbal sounding instrument most of us call a gong). It makes a wonderful difference."