It's rare for sampler albums to demonstrate originality, but Decca's Giuseppe Verdi compilation honoring the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in 1901 goes beyond putting a smorgasbord of Verdiana on your plate. I... more »ts lavishly illustrated 100-page book includes a potted bio of the composer and sections on each of his operas, along with Universal's complete Verdi catalog (but no texts or translations). The discs contain samples from each opera, arranged in chronological order, featuring most of the top singers of the past 40 years. They're all here, from the Three Tenors to their betters, like Jon Vickers, whose powerfully sung "Celeste Aida" is a demonstration of individuality at the service of character portrayal, and Carlo Bergonzi, whose two selections (arias from Giovanna del Arco and Les Vêspres siciliennes) are magnificent demonstrations of the true Verdi style. And this is not just another Great Hits compilation, for many of the operas are represented by rarely heard arias and ensemble pieces. The result: a neat introduction to Verdi's glorious music for neophytes and a nice supplement for Verdians, who will discover new aspects to the Bard of romantic opera. --Dan Davis« less
It's rare for sampler albums to demonstrate originality, but Decca's Giuseppe Verdi compilation honoring the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in 1901 goes beyond putting a smorgasbord of Verdiana on your plate. Its lavishly illustrated 100-page book includes a potted bio of the composer and sections on each of his operas, along with Universal's complete Verdi catalog (but no texts or translations). The discs contain samples from each opera, arranged in chronological order, featuring most of the top singers of the past 40 years. They're all here, from the Three Tenors to their betters, like Jon Vickers, whose powerfully sung "Celeste Aida" is a demonstration of individuality at the service of character portrayal, and Carlo Bergonzi, whose two selections (arias from Giovanna del Arco and Les Vêspres siciliennes) are magnificent demonstrations of the true Verdi style. And this is not just another Great Hits compilation, for many of the operas are represented by rarely heard arias and ensemble pieces. The result: a neat introduction to Verdi's glorious music for neophytes and a nice supplement for Verdians, who will discover new aspects to the Bard of romantic opera. --Dan Davis
CD Reviews
A fine CD for a great celebration
Erick Zermegno Morales | Mexico City | 11/28/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As part of celebrations for the Verdi's centennial, Universal seal has edited this excelent antology.This 2CD album is presented chronologicaly with representative hightlights of all Verdi's operas since Oberto to Falstaff including the Messa di Requiem, all with superb performers.Some opera super stars that appears in this collection are: Cossotto, Caballé, Domingo, Pavarotti, Carreras, Bergonzi, Fischer-Dieskau, et al. This collection is presented with an illustratedlibretto in couché paper. Includes a brief Verdi's bio, with a good text about each opera that the Roncole genius composed that appear here in hightlights. This collection brings a new panorama of the all Verdi's work and is an excelent choice for this big celebration."
An incredible celebration! Viva Verdi!
Carlos Fuentes y Espinosa | Mexico´s city, Mexico | 12/05/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album which is celebrating Verdi's works, is wonderful. I could say these cds present the best singers of our times singing Verdi's operas. I also noticed that here we can hear many less known works. In fact, almost all the Verdi's operas are contained in this magnificent album. As the title says: " a great celebration""
An excellent little compilation
Peter Hilliard | Roslyn, PA United States | 05/29/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a great little set, better in its breadth than its depth. I came to appreciate this collection when I was putting together a score for a show entitled: "Eat your greens; The complete operas of Verdi performed in 20 minutes by a cast of vegetables" Let me assure you, when you're trying to get every Verdi opera down to 20 or so seconds and score it with a pithy arrangement of a passage, you're going to need someone to narrow it down to about one number per opera for the bulk of the shows. If I wasn't able to reference this, I would have had to look much harder and spent a lot more money to get things like the complete Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio and Alzira. This collection provided me with stellar recordings of the cream of each Verdi opera, all well recorded by major artists. In addition to this admittedly obscure usage, the collection provides a splendid overview of Verdi's truly massive career, from his early beginnings, where he nearly out-Rossinis Rossini (if that were possible) to his colossal Requiem, Falstaff, and Otello, which are arguably Wagnerian in scope and ambition. Short of a college course, and the Budden book, I can't think of any better way to internalize his acheivement than to listen to this superbly compiled and elegantly packaged delight. I recommend it highly."
Una compra obligada para todos los verdianos
Annio mozartiano ;) | España | 02/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Este doble cd acompañado de un libro de mas de 100 paginas con comentarios sobre Verdi, sus óperas una a una, y un catalogo de discografia verdiana recomendable incluye 33 fragmentos musicales de TODAS las operas de Verdi, ademas de uno de su Requiem.
Mas alla de los fragmentos de las obras realmente conocidas (todos aqui presentes en versiones de primera clase, con solistas como Domingo, Carreras, Tebaldi, Verrett, Millnes...) el principal punto de interes de este disco radica en encontrar autenticas rarezas, como una amplia escena (12') de "Alzira" a cargo de la prometedora Marina Mescheriakova, o el poder comparar el 'La mia letizia infondere' (de I Lombardi) con el 'Je veux encore entendere' (de Jerusalem, la revision francesa de I Lombardi). En la primera encontramos a un Placido Domingo pletorico y en la segunda (mas aguda) a un Marcello Giordani sin miedo al agudo. Dos operas (Alzira y Jerusalem) nunca antes grabadas en estudio.
Una fiesta verdiana obligada, tanto para los aficcionados que quieran iniciarse como para aquellos que ya son iniciados y quieren disfrutar una vez mas con Verdi en estado puro. ¡VIVA VERDI!
"
Not bad at all ... for what it is
L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 05/03/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This two-CD set purports to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi's death by highlighting the whole arc of his operatic career (including his Requiem) in thirty-three tracks. This is, of course, plainly an impossible task. In general, each opera gets a single selection taken from complete performances that happened to be issued by Decca, Phillips or Deutsche Grammaphon. Since none of the three organizations had recorded either "I vespri Siciliani" or "Giovanna D'Arco," appropriate tenor arias were taken from a concert selection by Carlo Bergonzi. As the previous reviewer, Mr. Listener, pointed out, exceptions were made for "La Traviata" with four selections (all from the same recording) and "Aida" with two (ditto). In addition to those, the much more obscure "Stefellio" sneaked in the back door with a second selection from the re-written and re-named "Aroldo." The same can be said for "I Lombardi alla prima Crociata," subsequently Frenchfied as "Jerusalem."
Ten operas, "Oberto," "I Lombardi," "Ernani," "Alzira," "Macbeth," "Jerusalem," "Simon Bocanegra," "Aroldo," "Un ballo in maschera," and "Falstaff," were recorded digitally, the most recent being "Alzira" from 1999. The remaining selections were taken from digitally re-mastered analogue recordings. The oldest of them, by far, is the fabulous 1955 Tebaldi recording of "La forza del destino." Each of these recordings was made with the leading-edge technology of its day. None has lost anything in this re-issue. Their sound should be more than satisfactory to anyone except the most narrow-minded audio purist.
Among the singers, Bergonzi, Caballe, Carreras, Cortrubas, Cosotto, Domingo, Horne, Ricciarelli, Sutherland, Tebaldi and Vickers are certainly on the A-list. The others, for the most part, are also good. The conductors are uniformly strong, although none of the others was as perfectly suited to this music as the venerable Tullio Serafin, heard here only in "Il trovatore."
The set comes with the two CDs tucked away in pockets on the front and back boards of a small, bound book. The book consista of 103 pages of historical commentary, illustrations of Verdi, his wife, his collaborators, premiere productions of the operas and, just by chance, advertisements touting opera recordings from Decca, Phillips and Deutsche Grammophon.
All the original recordings were good, but only the "Otello," "Aida" and "Forza" would have any great number of fans regarding them as the best of the best, although the curiously underrated and largely forgotten "Trovatore" under Serafin is very, very good, too. As a matter of purely personal taste, I would rank only the "Forza" as without peer.
No collection that ignores the catalogues of EMI and RCA--or even the old, rough and ready CETRA, can possibly be regarded as definitive. Nevertheless, on the whole, this is a respectable attempt at its self-imposed impossible task. As I write, "Viva Verdi!" is available from various Amazon sellers at prices ranging from $8.70 to $18.68. If you are interested in a Verdi sampler, this one is a bargain.
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1