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96.37.31.28
I found it in '77 and the following year used it to choose my first "high end" speakers. Play it maybe once a year and for the past ten with my 2 watt single-ended DHT amp. Today it joined the other large orchestral works I've been re-visiting with my newish 60 watters.
If you haven't heard an Opera this well recorded or other orchestra/choral/soloists (Hogwood Messiah perhaps) work on your system, you don't know what your system sounds like.
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nt
"Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal." Igor Stravinsky
. . . signed (and dated!) by both Sutherland and Pavarotti. I made a special trip to Discount Records in San Francisco (not Tower Records) to get the autographs, which they did using a felt-tip pen. The amazing thing to me was that this was the era before smoking bans were in place, so that people were smoking inside and the whole store was chock-full of cigarette smoke, with Sutherland and Pavarotti right there! Scandalous!
Of course, I jettisoned this album, along with the rest of my LP's, soon after I got a critical mass of CD's in the mid-80's. I remember one of the LP sides had a big 10-12 groove scratch on it, although it was still playable of course. Strangely, I never did replace this album with a CD or higher-rez equivalent. (It's now available as a CD-blu-ray-audio combo.) And you might think it even stranger that the only CD I ever purchased of this opera was the horribly recorded Karajan version with Riciarelli. (I always thought Riciarelli was underestimated however.) I also have the blu-ray videos of the Met Zefirelli production with Nelsons conducting and the Valencia Chen Kaige production with Mehta conducting - both featuring Maria Guleghina in the title role. My current opinion is that the Valencia blu-ray is recorded even better than the Decca/London is, not least because of the multi-channel aspect to the sound.
Watch Scorsese's "The Last Waltz". He borrowed sets from a San Francisco Opera production of it for backdrops.
Hi Chris - what is even more shocking to me is to watch those videos they made of the making of the Solti Ring cycle, and seeing Fischer-Dieskau and the first horn player of the Vienna Phil sitting there smoking together! Hilarious!
The Sutherland/Pavarotti/Mehta is a great all around choice. I also have both Nilsson versions - Corelli is terrific in the EMI, although he cuts the note on Nessun Dorma a bit short, and I love Bjoerling's voice, and Leinsdorf is better in the RCA than you might expect. But everyone should hear the Callas recording. Fernandi isn't the greatest tenor, certainly the weakest on the 4 recordings I own, but Callas is amazing as Turandot. NOBODY digs into In Questa Reggia like she does, suggesting the passionate woman behind the icy princess, and Serafin whips up a storm in the La Scala orchestra. You have to hear it.
The two others in the shelves.
Not that big a fan of Nilsson but Corelli does have that big voice in the Rome Opera Angel which is also an excellent recording. Scotto has the perfect lighter voice for Liu, in my mind the most important arias in the opera, but Montserrat Caballe is the greatest Liu of all. Ethereal doesn't even begin to describe and her Act I and III arias are among the very best tests of system high-frequency response known to man. If you don't get misty, upgrade!
My Red Seal versions of the Leinsdorf, LSC-6149, is a poor re-issue, as many Red Seals, but not all, are. Someday I may pursue a Shaded Dog because I really like Bjoerling but there are too many great operas (I'm doing French lately) and so little time.
Pavarotti, for me, is Mickey Mantle before the injury. There's power enough there but that golden, burnished, rich character of his voice adds more to any role than any other tenor I've heard.
Seriously
The few times I've heard excerpts, it indeed did sound excellent.
Problem is, I'm just not that big a Pavarotti fan. Great for bel canto, tho'. I've never liked tenors in this role who are overmatched and that includes Bjoerlng. Yeah, turn the mics up but it's not the same. I want a big, bright Italian sound but these folks are very rare. I'm thinking Corelli, Del Monaco. Kaufmann, I don't think so, dark and non-Italianate.
Thanks for the reminder. Maybe I'll check it out all the way through.
"If people don't want to come, nothing will stop them" - Sol Hurok
It certainly has the right singers and conductor. I would buy it for that alone. Excellent that it has great sound too. I will keep an eye out.
Dave
nt
Thanks for the tip.
Still spinnin'...
;^)
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