The sole, completed opera by one of the nineteenth-century’s most shrewd librettists, ‘Mefistofele’ has always held a tenuous place on the fringes of the repertoire but its merits were established in the minds and ears of countless record-buyers in the 1960s and 70s by this 1958 Decca recording, the first to be made in stereo […]
The Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded as recently as 1954 but within two years it had secured the services of many operatic stars of the day who were doubtless reassured of the quality and warmth of reception at the company by the trailblazing US debut of Maria Callas as Norma in its first season. […]
One of the great troubadors of his time, Mario del Monaco has power, masculinity and virility to burn in his portrayal of Manrico on this recording of Trovatore. Tebaldi is a sweet and moving Leonora, excelling in such moments as ‘Tacea la notte placida’ and ‘D’amor sull’ali rosee’. Giulietta Simionato as Azucena leaves the most […]
Two murders, an attempted rape and a suicide, all packed into about a hundred minutes, makes for spellbinding drama. And this performance of highlights from ‘Tosca’ is just that, in one of Tebaldi’s early recordings for Decca.
This is Renata Tebaldi’s first (and more silvery) recording of ‘Madama Butterfly’ with some very strong singing from the supporting cast.
This compilation, drawn from the archive of ‘the Opera Company’ – Decca – boasts many of the greatest Verdi recordings ever made and features the greatest highlights of his operatic works. Here you’ll find the stars of the opera performing Overtures, Arias and Choruses from La Traviata, Aida, Luisa Miller, Otello, Nabucco, Rigoletto and Il […]
Besides Verdi, Puccini was the other great nineteenth-century Italian opera composer. This anthology brings together favourite arias and ensemble pieces from his operas. All the most famous are represented – ‘Bohème, Butterfly, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi…’ And of course the performers are the greatest operatic stars you can think of having all on a single CD!
Since the beginning of opera, the convention of the duet, in which two characters simultaneously express their feelings, has been one of the staple ploys of musical dramatists. Characters may join their voices in a unity of feeling, or in extreme disagreement, or in any one of the thousand shades in between; though in the […]
Although overshadowed by the more celebrated second recording of Otello that Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi made with Karajan (1960), many feel this earlier (1954) recording features both protagonists in fresher voice, and Alberto Erede and his Santa Cecilia forces really pack a punch.
In May 1946, when Milan’s venerable La Scala theatre reopened after World War II, conductor Arturo Toscanini selected Renata Tebaldi then 24, to sing music by Rossini and Verdi for that watershed concert. ‘Ah, la voce d’angelo’ – the voice of an angel – was Toscanini’s reported verdict. In her heyday, she was known as […]
It is difficult to dissociate the pure, warm tones of Renata Tebaldi’s voice from her usual operatic repertoire – the heroines of the Italian lyric stage of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which, thanks to her exceptional vocal and dramatic endowment, she interpreted so superbly. That these unforgettable portrayals were not just the product […]
