Domingo

This Zeffirelli production of Verdi’s ever-popular, melodic opera was filmed in February 2002, in Busseto, near Parma, Italy, close to the composer’s home and birthplace. Zeffirelli had filmed La Traviata before, in 1982. The Italian film director whose credits include: The Taming of the Shrew (1966); Romeo and Juliet (1968); Jesus of Nazareth (TV) (1977); Othello (1986); and, more recently, Tea with Mussolini (1999), began his professional career as a stage director…

– Ian Lace, MusicWeb International

Giuseppe Verdi: Otello – Placido Domingo; Cheryl Studer; Sergei Leiferkus; Orchestre et Chœurs de l’Opera Bastille; Myung-Whun Chung
Classical | 2 CDs | EAC Rip | 510 MB (3% recovery) | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Partial scans
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon | Recorded: 1993 | Published: 1994

Domingo is in superb voice; the sound seems golden as never before. Yet at the same time, it’s a voice that’s being more astutely deployed. To take that cruellest of all challenges to a studio-bound Otello, the great Act 3 soliloquy ‘Dio! mi potevi’, Domingo’s performance is now simpler, more inward, more intense. This is undoubtedly the best Otello on record since the early 1960s. - The Gramophone Choice

Amilcare Ponchielli's sole operatic work La Gioconda made him a major figure in Italy. It was not just the title that made it such a success - 'La Gioconda' is the Italian term for the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting that is better known to the English-speaking world as 'Mona Lisa' - but rather its music and the poetic quality of Arrigo Boito's score. The production featured here was taken from a 1986 performance of the Vienna State Opera. Filippo Sanjust was responsible for production and set, Gerlinde Dill was in charge of choeography, whilst Adam Fischer conducted both choir and orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Internationally renowned stars Eva Marton and Placido Domingo, who play the leading roles in the performance, ensure an unforgettable operatic experience.

Sir George Solti's renditions of Wagner's operas often defined the standard interpretation practice in the post-World War II musical world, and he is at his best in this late 1980s digitally mastered recording partnered with his long-time collaborators, the Vienna Philharmonic–perhaps the most emotionally satisfying orchestra in the world for these challenging scores. Domingo, in the title role, shows himself as a true Heldentenor (i.e. a baritone with high notes), and his earlier weakness in German diction is not apparent. Norman's Elsa is musically perfect though at times a bit chilly and distant. The mature compassion of the role of Henry the Fowler is admirably captured by Sotin.

Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" is a story of forbidden love, seduction, jealousy, honor and revenge. The opera was composed in 1862 and had its premiere in St. Petersburg. In this recording from 1976 with star cast (Leontyne Price in the role of Donna Leonora, Plácido Domingo as Don Alvaro and Sherrill Milnes as Don Carlo) under the direction of James Levine the beauty and attention to detail Verdi comes out particularly well. The London Symphony Orchestra and the John Alldis Choir provide the perfect musical accompaniment for the ensemble, which includes Fiorenza Cossotto, Bonaldo Giaiotti and Gabriel Bacquier. This recording is considered one of the best of Verdi's La Forza del Destino.

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'Christus am Ölberge', text by Franz Xaver Huber, is Beethoven's only oratorio and an isolated piece in his overall output. He composed it early in 1803, shortly before his great Third Symphony and a few months before he began work on his only opera, 'Fidelio'. Huber chose the biblical accounts of Jesus and his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane and of Christ's capture there as the basis of his work.

A brief reminder, to begin with, of the chequered history of Un ballo in maschera. Antonio Somma wrote the libretto, based on a play by Eugène Scribe, entitled Gustave III (1833). This, in its turn, was based on some historical facts concerning the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792. The background was a political conspiracy but Scribe embroidered proceedings with a love story between the king and Amelia. Censorship in Italy in the late 1850s would not accept the portrayal of a king being murdered on the opera stage and the story had to be reworked. This happened, not once but twice and it all ended up in the transportation of the action from Stockholm to Boston during colonial times. The king became the British governor. In that shape it was premiered in Rome on 17 February 1859 and was an immediate success. It rapidly spread to New York and London and has ever since been regarded as one of Verdi’s best operas. – Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International.