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Music : Verdi: La Traviata
Rating: 
- A memorable recording of a Verdi masterpiece.
Being one of the most frequently performed and recorded operas, La Traviata could well feature several times in the collections of opera enthusiasts. This version of it came into my collection recently, at an absurdly cheap price, and I have happily listed to it many times.
In charge is veteran conductor Tullio Serafin, who leads off with a First Act Prelude that is the best I have ever heard. Victoria de los Angeles is soon heard amid the partying in Act One. She is not at her best here, somehow unable to be convincing as the accepted leader of what might be called the Paris “drop out set”. She is better a little later when teasing Alfredo. The frantic coloratura at the end of Act One requires her to produce high notes that are beyond her range, but this is effective nevertheless in suggesting Violetta’s wild resolve to live beyond her capabilities.
Act Two, always so moving in actual performance, presents the long confrontation between Violetta and Georgio Germont. The singing here is so glorious as to rob the scene of its dramatic tension. How could a father object to his son’s choice of companion when she sings like an angel? The singing of Mario Sereni, as Germont Senior, it must be said, is even better.
Act Three in this performance is not the most successful. The wonderful finale doesn’t quite deliver the knock out punch that Verdi packed into it. In Act Four everything goes well, after another beautifully phrased Prelude.
The tenor Carlo del Monte seems more concerned with vocalizing than conveying the conflicting emotions of poor Alfredo Germont. Some of his music is excised in this slightly cut version. The 1959 stereo recording was made in the Rome Opera House, one of my favorite venues for opera recordings. One hears plenty of space around the soloists’ voices, although they are closely miked.
- A memorable recording of a Verdi masterpiece.Being one of the most frequently performed and recorded operas, La Traviata could well feature several times in the collections of opera enthusiasts. This version of it came into my collection recently, at an absurdly cheap price, and I have happily listed to it many times.
In charge is veteran conductor Tullio Serafin, who leads off with a First Act Prelude that is the best I have ever heard. Victoria de los Angeles is soon heard amid the partying in Act One. She is not at her best here, somehow unable to be convincing as the accepted leader of what might be called the Paris “drop out set”. She is better a little later when teasing Alfredo. The frantic coloratura at the end of Act One requires her to produce high notes that are beyond her range, but this is effective nevertheless in suggesting Violetta’s wild resolve to live beyond her capabilities.
Act Two, always so moving in actual performance, presents the long confrontation between Violetta and Georgio Germont. The singing here is so glorious as to rob the scene of its dramatic tension. How could a father object to his son’s choice of companion when she sings like an angel? The singing of Mario Sereni, as Germont Senior, it must be said, is even better.
Act Three in this performance is not the most successful. The wonderful finale doesn’t quite deliver the knock out punch that Verdi packed into it. In Act Four everything goes well, after another beautifully phrased Prelude.
The tenor Carlo del Monte seems more concerned with vocalizing than conveying the conflicting emotions of poor Alfredo Germont. Some of his music is excised in this slightly cut version. The 1959 stereo recording was made in the Rome Opera House, one of my favorite venues for opera recordings. One hears plenty of space around the soloists’ voices, although they are closely miked.