CD Decca Verdi - Aida ( Solti - Price, Vickers ) CD + BluRay Audio

inregistrare din 1961


Interpreteaza:

Leontyne Price - Aida
Jon Vickers - Radames
Rita Gorr - Amneris
Robert Merrill - Amonasro
Plinio Clabassi - Il Re Di Egitto
Giorgio Tozzi - Ramfis

Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma ( dirijor Sir Georg Solti )

Decca, The Opera Company, has always invested infinite energy and enormous care in its productions, pairing unrivalled casts with its unequalled technical skill and legendary sound. Decca Classics is proud to continue its Hardback Opera Series of go-to performances including Leontyne Price’s legendary 1961 recording of Verdi’s Aida as conducted by Sir Georg Solti, four of the leading Verdi singers of the 1960s and plenty of Soltian fire in the belly.

The deluxe hard-back edition (remastered in ultra-high quality 24-bit audio) with original cover includes repertoire notes by William Weaver and an essay on the recording and Decca’s use of spatial effects by Richard Mohr, and libretto and synopsis in English, German and French translations.

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[Leontyne Price]: The American soprano had a gift for fusing voice, words and meaning, and was even able to adapt her vocal colours to her conductor . . . In her prime, the soprano seemed to be capable of anything. The lirico-spinto weight of her voice -- perfect for the Verdi Leonoras -- also managed coloratura orientated Gilda and Violetta arias . . . No wonder John Steane named her the greatest Verdi soprano of her time in his bible of 20th-century singers, "The Grand Tradition" . . . her classic 1961 "Aida" recording with Jon Vickers, Rita Gorr and Sir Georg Solti . . . changed the world, not just musically, but by making the opera stage a possibility for anyone with the talent.
Miscellaneous / David Patrick Stearns, Gramophone

. . . extremely well produced . . . a stunning recording of "Aida" from 1962, with a first-class supporting cast led by Jon Vickers as Radames, and conductor Georg Solti at his most energetic . . . There are a few sets as good, but none that will give you more thrills than this one . . . remastered to top modern standards.
Record Review / David Mellor, Classic FM

The sound has all the swashbuckling balance and immediacy one associates with the best Decca recordings of the early 1960s. And, in this of all operas, that counts for a lot. The voices leap from the speakers, sounding impressively holographic, while the brass has amazing bite. You almost feel teeth marks in your ears! . . . The recording fully communicates the fervour and commitment of the singers and orchestra -- and that's saying something . . . the Rome orchestra rise to every challenge, and produce playing of swaggering power. And then there's the stellar line up of singers: Price, Vickers, Gorr, Tozzi, Merrill . . . The 1950s and 1960s really were a Golden Age. Oh for voices like that today! . . . [2 CDs + 1 Blu-ray Audio version]: this new Blu-ray Audio reissue is in a different league, adding extra space and air around the voices and instruments, while improving dynamics and ambience . . . superior in just about every respect -- cleaner, more detailed, and more real-sounding.
Record Review / James M. Hughes, Hi-Fi Plus

“Solti's Italianate thrust often simulates the excitement of a live performance and, after rather tentative beginnings from all members of his cast, his singers catch the nervous, Toscanini-like intensity of his reading. Leontyne Price had a gift for fusing voice, words and meaning, and was even able to adapt her vocal colours to her conductor... She had the voice of velvet, used it with wisdom and artistry for 50 years, and set vocal and theatrical standards in Verdi. Price rids herself of an initial huskiness to give of her superb best in the Nile Scene and the final duet.

Gorr, after seeming a little unwieldy and strained in the Boudoir Scene, brings the house down—metaphorically speaking—in her great fourth-act encounter, with Radames and is even more thrilling in her denunciation of the accusing high priests. She has the sheer weight of voice that mezzos of the 1970s, for all their subtlety, lack. The Jon Vickers of around 1961, was a more flexible, fresher-voiced singer than he is today, as you can hear by setting his performance here alongside his much more effortful Aeneas. His phrasing is just occasionally clumsy—that ugly break before "sei" in "tu sei regina" from "Celeste Aida"—but the blemishes are few, the artistry and often delicacy notable in a role often bawled out uncomfortably by present-day tenors. He is at his most eloquent at "Morir, si pura e bella" in the finale. Robert Merrill is a routine Amonasro. and neither bass is particularly distinguished. It is good to hear a true opera house chorus rather than the ad hoc bodies often used these days, and the Rome Opera Orchestra, especially the brass, are galvanised into playing above themselves by Solti."