Search - Giuseppe Verdi, Arturo Toscanini, NBC Symphony Orchestra :: Verdi: Aida

Magical Aida--Bravo Toscanini!--Kudos Urania

Impostazione | New York City Area | 10/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Aida is vivid, shapely, accented, rhythmic, in short, as close to perfect as that term can represent. For once the opera projects a sense dramatic movement. Verdi called it the "theatrical word." Toscanini recogized, as Sig. Verdi did, the hills and valleys which led from Ethipia to Egypt on route to the tomb! Granted, the singers are not distinctive, including Richard Tucker who nevertheless sings beautifully and accurately. He is the best, at least until I hear Martinelli.



The revelation is Herva Nelli, who seems in retrospect perversely ignored. Never was there a more urgent Aida. The devil rides her back throughout. Here she has a large, airy almost non-descript voice that she uses effectively to express the drama through Verdi accents. She brings Verdi to the forefront A true Verdi singer! Her interpretation is as effective as any other and more tight musically under Toscanini's guidance: Verdian poise in the extreme. Valdegno is also an invisible voice that exposes the music rather than the singer. Ms. Gustafson needed work; she lacks authority and determation as a singer, so her characterization suffers but that does not affect the greatness of this set. Who knows, Amneris may be weaker than we think, after all she lost a powerful man to a black girl--a slave. Aida had something to reckon with.



This performance takes you somewhere, never static like other renditions, one will sense the force of destiny, as relevant in Aida as in the opera that bears that name!



Superb!

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