Search - Franco Bonisolli, Leontyne Price, Piero Cappuccilli :: Verdi: Il Trovatore

Manrico at top power

Q. Dino | Italy | 11/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's not easy to find a recording with Bonisolli. As a great fan of both him (and Verdi, of coure) I couldn't possibly leave this trovatore behind.

The cast is good, Cappuccilli is powerful whenever it needs, singing every top note and showing great presence; Price is singing one of her favorite roles (although someone could say that she is no more 30 years old and her voice is not as marvellous as it used to be) and she never disappoints her audience.

Karajan is conducting with great personality, even though someone doesn't appreciate at full his peculiar manner of directing operas. Actually his choiches on tempos feels strange sometime, but he doesn't exceed in this opera like he does somewhere else (think of Tosca!).

Sound quality is very good, and the Berliner are always top-notch. There aren't many opera recordings with this ensamble around!!

Anyway, the top star in this recording, which outshines the others is certaintly Franco Bonisolli. When I first heard "Di quella pira" singed by him I was amazed: a powerful voice, a lot of breath to hold the high c's forever (like Alagna, later will do, but with more power) and the ability to sing graciously when needed.

Try it out and you'll not repent.



By the way, it's a pity it's so hard to find a recording with this wonderful singer. All other recording are with second-class singers, like Pagliacci and Rigoletto (this one is actually very good, listen to it!). And they are issued by second-class labels."

Great talent can still disappoint

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/05/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Leontyne Price made her debut at the Met in a signature role, Leonora in Il Trovatore. She earned herself an ovatoin that lasted more than half an hour (it's said that she still privately plays the tape of that ovation!) She has been recorded, officially and unofficially, in this role at least four times: in 1959 on RCA with Richard Tucker as Manrico and the regrettable Arturo Basile conducting, at the Vienna State Opera under Karajan in 1962 opposite Corelli, in 1970, on RCA again, opposite Domingo with Mehta on the podium, and here under Karajan on EMI from 1977.



In this case three times to the well was once too often. Price sounds tired and her voice frayed--she had been singing this role, after all, for close to twenty years and the chest voice that it requires was by now a husky rasp. Nobody else in the cast is up to the best international standards, and Karajan's reading is a glib shadow of his original EMI recording of Trovatore from La Scala with Maria Callas and Di Stefano. If you want Price in the best produciton, buy the RCA set under Mehta, one of her best recordings. If you want to hear her at her absolute vocal prime, get a cheap version of the 1962 Vienna radio broadcast in good, if boxy mono"

A grand yet sensitive "Trovatore"

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 01/14/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Interestingly, in November 2005 BBC CD Review pundit Hilary Finch tacitly revoked her earlier pronouncements in "Gramophone" and chose this as her favourite version. I bought and I enjoyed it as a result, while still acknowledging that there is some audible evidence of the ravages time had wrought on Price's voice; it is a little husky but there is still a majestic and stately grandeur in her smoky tone. I do not agree with a previous reviewer that a cast like Bonisolli, Cappuccilli, Obratsova and Raimondi is not up to international standard or that Karajan is "glib", even if I do accept that the 1970 Mehta account is superior and that Karajan's conducting is more visceral in the 50's version - but I like to hear an interpretation which provides a subtler alternative to the usual "gung-ho" approach. It's such a pleasure to hear an orchestra caress this music instead of banging the hell out of it and there is a depth and richness in the strings so often missing in more provincial bands - and let's face it, most orchestras can sound provincial next to the Berlin Philharmonic. Bonisolli's baritonal heft is very welcome, as is his willngness to sing tenderly. There is a temptation to characterise him as a grand-standing clown on account of his ability and willingness to prolong barn-storming top C's but he's much more than that. Obratsova's vast, even crude, voice with its booming lower register and secure top notes provides real thrills in a role to which she is perfectly suited and in which she rivals Cossotto for sheer visceral attack. Both Raimondi and Cappuccilli are a little too soft-grained but again, it's a change to hear these roles so carefully sung, with attention to the subtlety of dynamics and phrasing which Karajan's more relaxed tempi evidently encourage. Yet there's no lack of brio in the opening to Act 3; Karajan brings much more energy to the score than the aging Serafin in his estimable set with Bergonzi and Stella. In short, I really like this later version by Karajan even if I would not part with his famous 1962 live Salzburg set, the studio version with Callas or the Mehta."